Review of the Film Dunkirk

The film Dunkirk, directed by Christopher Nolan was released in 2017 and tells the story of the evacuation of allied troops from the beaches of Dunkirk, France, during the second world war.

It is told from the perspective of three events related to the battle: One from the air, the sea and on land. Without giving a lot of the backstory it shows the brutality, cowardice and bravery of men during war. It does not romanticize war, nor does it try to break it down into good versus evil but rather about survival.

There are three scenes in the film that impacted me and describe events from a close up and human perspective.

The first one shows the skipper and crew (possibly his sons) of a small pleasure craft that was pressed into service and sent, with their civilian owners, to rescue and carry as many men as possible from the French beaches back to England. It was an extremely dangerous mission with a great likelihood of being sunk or killed. As the scene unfolds we see the craft stopping to rescue a soldier barely hanging onto a capsized ship. He is withdrawn, sullen and traumatized by what he has gone through. One of the boys asks his father if the man will be alright. He replies that he will do better in time but may never come back fully. They press on for the French coast and save as many men as they can fit on board. They did what they could without complaint to make a contribution to their country in what the prime minister Winston Churchill would call later “their darkest hour.”

It has been said that a person is judged not be their words but by their actions. These men were not afraid to take action to help.

The second is when the British officer who is commanding the evacuation of the troops from the French beaches gets word that they have succeeded in taking off more that one hundred thousand British troops. Their initial goal was to save thirty or forty thousand.  He is asked if he will be heading back to England. He replies that he will stay to assist the French soldiers to be evacuated.

He shows courage to stay on the bloody beach out of a sense of duty to his country. It suggests that he was not just following the letter of what his assignment was but rather was willing to do whatever he could to save the men of their allies.

The third scene that stands out is watching soldiers have been returned to England walking up onto land and being greeted by an elderly man passing out blankets. He extends the blankets to each soldier and repeats the phrase, “Well done, well done”.

One of the men, a boy really, stops after being given the blanket and with some irritation asks him, “so why are you telling me ‘Well done’? All I did was survive.” The old man who has his head down replies by repeating his refrain as his answer: “well done.” He is looking down because his eyes are sightless. He could not meet the soldiers gaze but in his own way he is seeing more that this young man returned from a humiliating retreat. To have survived what he and others had been through was indeed, “good enough” and the most that could be expected.

It is true that one’s character is shown under duress and these characters showed a degree of self-sacrifice and ways to make themselves useful in the most difficult of times for their nation and the world.   

I don’t know if much is taught about World War 2 in history classes these days. Hopefully seeing this film will prompt some younger people to dig into what happened in this war that changed the world.