Dunkirk (film)

[JennyMorgan]

I watched the D.V.D. of the film this morning. Gripping from start to finish. Perhaps uncomfortably true to life but what a superb film. Maybe it's just me but I absorb detail, bloopers is my thing! Like the very new looking, modern floating jetty in the early scene where a boat owner hijacks his own boat and sets off to Dunkirk, his boat carrying modern looking, plastic fenders stowed on the foredeck! Any other bloopers of note that I missed? 

[deebee29]

Watched it yesterday and thought it was excellent.

Must admit I didn’t think anything of the jetty at the time but now you mention it I do recall it 

If you haven’t watched the extras they are well worth a look. There’s some great insights into the filming process. Very little cgi & green screen used.

first class movie 

[WherryNice]

I would agree with the comment about the extras disc, very interesting and well worth a watch. Oddly enough I am yet to see the actual film but I'm quite looking forward to it, particularly because my Grandfather was one of the soldiers rescued from the beach.

[Cockatoo]

I got a bit confused when they kept cutting from the small boat (daylight) mentioned in the OP to scenes of ships being torpedoed in the dark as if they were in different time zones not 15 miles away.

[JennyMorgan]

I haven't watched the extras yet, perhaps tomorrow. There is a scene looking down on a Spitfire as it flies along the shoreline, I thought that rather false looking and probably cgi. By and large what I assumed to be special effects were generally very good. 

[JennyMorgan]

16 minutes ago, WherryNice said:

I would agree with the comment about the extras disc, very interesting and well worth a watch. Oddly enough I am yet to see the actual film but I'm quite looking forward to it, particularly because my Grandfather was one of the soldiers rescued from the beach.

Watch out for those plastic fenders and floating jetty!  

Several Broads boats went to Dunkirk, one being Happy Wander, a boat that became a hire boat at Little Ships, Oulton Broad. She survived Dunkirk only to be destroyed by fire years later. My father was a volunteer who went over on a boat but he never spoke of his exploits, I only know that he did because other folk have told me.

[JennyMorgan]

By the way, MTB 102 that we sometimes see on the Broads went to Dunkirk, scroll down through her history:

http://www.mtb102.com/

[WherryNice]

Haha, I'll keep them peeled for the fenders n jetty, strange to think that I could owe my very existence to the people and boats of Broadland though...

[FairTmiddlin]

Have also watched the film three times plus the original and any TV programme  read most books about Dunkirk.

My father was plucked off the beach on the first of June 1940 by an indeterminate trawler and dumped at Ramsgate.

He never spoke about the horrors, until one night on a Dunkirk vets trip funnily on the first of June 1970.

We were sat around a bar table in Ostend, me a mere strapling of a lad with about fourteen vets. All of them telling their stories and my father recounted his. All the vets who told their story were in tears, at the horror they witnessed on that beach 30 years earlier, anywhere between the Mole and La Panne.

 I only got a little more from my father of his war time service. Five years later he took his memories to his grave.

[grendel]

its funny, some things are just not talked about, and I feel that if they had passed them on there would be a whole generation that would be more adverse to war and such.

My dad is only now (in his 80's) starting to tell the story of his time in the navy (post war) - he has it all written down - getting the detail from the daily letters he wrote to my mother while he was at sea.

I thought the film good, but really it wasnt as good as the old version in my opinion - the whole thing was handled differently in the old version- with the boat owners ganging together, rather than just taking it into their heads to take their boats as portrayed in this film.

[JennyMorgan]

I rather like the Dunkirk Little Ships as portrayed in the film Mrs Miniver, but was it historically accurate? The 2017 Dunkirk is clearly short on numbers but I can't help but feel that the atmosphere, tension and desperation is much nearer the mark than that shown by any of its predecessors. Historically accurate re-enactment is probably now impossible because the facts are now so blurred.

[TheQ]

My grandfather, returned from Dunkirk on the 29th of May 1940 along with the remains of the Royal Tank Regiment, from what I can find it would have been on the isle of man ferry Mona's  Isle.

Sadly he died the year before I was born, but I know from my Dad,  he spoke little about any part of the war.

[JennyMorgan]

Spot the modern, plastic fend-offs!  Are those warps modern black polyester? Stick on letters for the name perhaps?

[JennyMorgan]

Watch here for the non historic floating jetty:

 

[TheQ]

It's not just the floating moorings that are incorrect, the east mole where two thirds of the men were rescued from, was made of stone and wood, those modern white painted metal railings are particularly jarring.

Here is a real picture. Of the east mole at the time.

 

[Vaughan]

Was there really a hospital ship sunk in the harbour at Dunkirk? I didn't know there was even one there?

[JennyMorgan]

1 hour ago, Vaughan said:

Was there really a hospital ship sunk in the harbour at Dunkirk? I didn't know there was even one there?

Maybe, maybe not, I don't know. She sank incredibly fast too but I wonder if her inclusion in the film was symbolic rather than factual. I suspect that there is evidence that the Germans ignored the Red Cross during their sweep across Europe. However, a spot of Googling might not go amiss!

https://history.stackexchange.com/questions/38033/was-a-medical-ship-sunk-during-the-evacuation-from-dunkirk

[Vaughan]

So the s.s. Paris, a Newhaven to Dieppe passenger ferry, was "used as" a hospital ship in the evacuation. Would they really have had time to paint her all white first? It says she was attacked and damaged "off" Dunkirk and sank 3 days later with virtually no loss of life.

After seeing this trailer I think I will stick to the original film version.

[JennyMorgan]

Despite the bloopers and historical distortions it is a masterful film that deserves recognition as such,  in my very humble opinion. I am quite certain that the modern railings could have been replaced with CGI but the film appears to me to portray emotion more than fact and does that very well. The music lifts that emotion incredibly effectively. 

[JennyMorgan]

In fact the SS Paris was painted white. http://dunkirk1940.org/index.php?&p=1_359

[Vaughan]

White or not, it is still a gross mis-representation of history, which also alleges a deliberate war crime.

[marshman]

Like young Mr Waller, I thought it a fantastic film, not a documentary!!

Not only did I enjoy it, but the whole cinema did - at times you could hear a pin drop and at the end, the cinema was just totally silent - no shuffling to get up or searching for coats!

Who says a film such as this which is a dramatisation of an event, cannot have detail in it which is not historically accurate? And if it does so what? It was produced to be enjoyed for what it is, not to reflect accurately what occurred.

As far as I am concerned if you don't see it, its your loss and my gain 'cos I did!!

( See Pete we must be getting old - agreeing again!!! ) Or are you just mellowing??

[marshman]

And P.S. Vaughan - I bet you would so go on, treat yourself! Don't look for historical accuracy but enjoy it for what it is!!

Please report back!!

[Maxwellian]

It is a lovely film, really like the different viewpoints and how they blend together. The spitfire gliding bit. At the end looks like it has post WW2 buildings in it.

[Vaughan]

38 minutes ago, marshman said:

Please report back!!

I am naturally interested in wartime naval history since my father was a naval officer, of Light Coastal Forces, who nearly lost his life on several occasions and suffered from his wounds for the rest of his life. I also had an uncle, who finished the war as an infantry major and won the MC (Military Cross) at Dunkirk for carrying his wounded commanding officer through the streets, under enemy fire, and got him on to a ship.

You may not think of it as a documentary but the real thing was actually the most successful tactical withdrawal in world history of modern warfare.

We owe it to younger generations to get this sort of thing right. If not it becomes an insult to the memory of all those who served. Especially all those who never made it back.