Review of Dunkirk (2017) by Ronnie M — 30 Jul 2017

I was not overly impressed with this film. I was expecting to have far grander sweep than appeared apparent in the movie, such as what it was like for those fighting in the rearguard so that others on the beach for a whole week had a chance to escape? What was happening up the chain of command that was causing this chaos and who was masterminding the massive evacuation using all the smallcraft etc.

I had a grandfather who won an MC on the beaches. As a Colonel it was his decision that responsible for all the high sided vehicles being driven into the water, to act as temporary jetties once the Mole came under constant Luftwaffe bombardment and over a quarter of the men were evacuated using small-craft on these "vehicle" jetties put together by people like my grandfather making jetties out of anything they could lay their hands on in the town. There has already been a lot of just criticism about the French having a very minor role in the movie but again there was no mention of the action of the 51st Highland Division who fought in the rearguard, so that others could escape! Once everybody had been evacuated at Dunkirk, (including 100,000 French soldiers). the 51st Highland Division were left to fend for themselves as best they could. Again I had an uncle who won an MC fighting in the Black Watch as part of Division holding off the Germans, so that others might escape. Again no mention of these sacrifices were made and in the end along along with almost all of the remainder of the Division, they were forced "to Surrender" spending the rest of the War in Prisoner of war camps because the Royal navy refused to sacrifice any more ships in trying to help them get away..

Some of the action scenes were good in the film, especially the rather jumpy air combat shots but that was about all that I thought that was good.

Overall I thought the 4 part Television Documentary/Drama on the subject of Dunkirk was of far higher quality, with better accurate/true storylines and giving a better sense of chaos & despair on the beaches. I recommend that all those who thought this Christopher Nolan film to be of high quality to see the higher quality TV series and then judge for yourselves which you think was the better of the two!