Just got back from seeing Dunkirk and I must say that I was totally... underwhelmed....
The 'three stories' from different angles cinematography was just kind of annoying.... creative in a 'Pulp Fiction' kind of way. But failed to tell the story.
They missed the opportunity to really show the scale of the achievement by the British civilian boat crews who pulled of a true miracle.
And after about the third drowning, I was really ready to have the main character guy killed off as soon as possible. Damn I hope he distinguished himself on D-Day or in Africa or something... because he was simply annoying every time he managed to swim out of another disaster.
Last, the director failed to even follow up with a scroll at the end... give some history. Did you know that the plane the guy landed on the beach was exhumed a decade or so ago and restored and is now flying? And that the pilot was alive up until just a few years ago? They tried to sneak in snippets of information here and there that really explained the magnitude of what happened, but really it was all lost in trying to make the movie all actiony... and like the first minutes of Saving Private Ryan.
Such a lost opportunity.... one of the greatest stories of WW2 and it had to get thrown away because someone wanted to be all artsy.
Oh well, Busenhalter-6 actually loved it. She doesn't usually like war movies. But she was into it. Had all kinds of questions afterwards and now wants to see a documentary or two about the evacuation. So I suppose the story wasn't aimed at military historians.
Cheers,
Sirhr
P.S. I actually thought the most redeeming part of the story was about the kid who finally made it into the paper. Not sure if true or a dramatic device. But I think it did credit to a lot of amazing Brits who pulled off the Miracle at Dunkirk.
