I really enjoyed Dunkirk, and as I walked out of the theater, I reflected on a number of things that were done right in the movie. Yes, there were some inaccuracies and some things that could have been handled better, but there was a lot to impress. The main thing that impressed me was that the movie was told entirely from the characters' points of view. Things that happen elsewhere, aren't shown. But also things that the characters can't see, also aren't shown.
One of the first scenes has one of the leads walking through a deserted Dunkirk with some fellow soldiers. Shots are fired, and it's suddenly a mad dash to try to get to safety. He never looks back, and the camera thus doesn't show the German's shooting at him, just the obstacles he has to climb over to get to safety.
{Minor Spoiler ahead} Relatively early in the movie there is a dog fight between three British Spitfires and a number of German planes. After the action, they are doing a radio check, and only then do they realize that the group leader is missing. The crash isn't show since they were to busy with their own dog-fight to see what happened.
Where the Germans start bombing the beach, the soldiers all watch the planes approach, but at some point they take cover. Thus they never see the bombs drop from the planes, just the resulting explosions.
{possible spoiler} I also appreciated that the movie didn't end with 5 minutes of crawling text to tell me what happened. Fortunately I knew how many people got off the beach, because they made a point to work it into the dialog. I also knew about the reaction in England (and Churchill's speech), not because they worked a radio broadcast in, but because a solider read it out loud from a newspaper.
The movie also was able to emphasize how desperate the soldiers were to get off the beach, but at the same time there was a sense of discipline. The sense of doom was so palpable that when the civilian craft showed up at the beach, I nearly teared up.
A few other things portrayed/related well: shell-shocked soldier, civilians dealing with losses of friends/family, {spoiler} that some were captured by the Germans, that the soldiers were apprehensive about how their country would respond to the defeat. My wife was very happy to see that there were women on board the civilian boats that came to the rescue, since that was true to the history. She was also happy that it was not a gore fest. Yes, there were plenty of deaths, but unlike most recent war movies, it doesn't show blood and body parts exploding everywhere.
Dunkirk is a very well done movie, and if you are even moderately inclined to see it, I would recommend you do.
One of the first scenes has one of the leads walking through a deserted Dunkirk with some fellow soldiers. Shots are fired, and it's suddenly a mad dash to try to get to safety. He never looks back, and the camera thus doesn't show the German's shooting at him, just the obstacles he has to climb over to get to safety.
{Minor Spoiler ahead} Relatively early in the movie there is a dog fight between three British Spitfires and a number of German planes. After the action, they are doing a radio check, and only then do they realize that the group leader is missing. The crash isn't show since they were to busy with their own dog-fight to see what happened.
Where the Germans start bombing the beach, the soldiers all watch the planes approach, but at some point they take cover. Thus they never see the bombs drop from the planes, just the resulting explosions.
{possible spoiler} I also appreciated that the movie didn't end with 5 minutes of crawling text to tell me what happened. Fortunately I knew how many people got off the beach, because they made a point to work it into the dialog. I also knew about the reaction in England (and Churchill's speech), not because they worked a radio broadcast in, but because a solider read it out loud from a newspaper.
The movie also was able to emphasize how desperate the soldiers were to get off the beach, but at the same time there was a sense of discipline. The sense of doom was so palpable that when the civilian craft showed up at the beach, I nearly teared up.
A few other things portrayed/related well: shell-shocked soldier, civilians dealing with losses of friends/family, {spoiler} that some were captured by the Germans, that the soldiers were apprehensive about how their country would respond to the defeat. My wife was very happy to see that there were women on board the civilian boats that came to the rescue, since that was true to the history. She was also happy that it was not a gore fest. Yes, there were plenty of deaths, but unlike most recent war movies, it doesn't show blood and body parts exploding everywhere.
Dunkirk is a very well done movie, and if you are even moderately inclined to see it, I would recommend you do.