Dunkirk | Canadian First Time Watching | Movie Reaction | Movie Review | Movie Commentary

[@Darthkiller3118]

There's a film called "Darkest Hour" starring Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill, and it's, in my opinion, a good film pairing with Dunkirk. You have boots on the ground with Dunkirk, and the political and military hassle back home in Darkest Hour.

[@alechall7871]

+1 for the recommendation 👌

[@potterj09]

Gary Oldman embodied it well, and can turn almost anything into gold. True Romance was the first time i saw him haha didn't know he was British for years.

[@VonBlade]

Agreed. It's _much_ better than it has any right to be, and utterly free of the bs jingoism that plagues US takes on the formula.

[@simonoleary9264]

I was going to suggest the same thing.

[@AMERICANNERD76]

It's hands down, Gary Oldman's best role to date! I hope Geand Simone will watch it soon!

[@fromdarknesscomeslight6894]

Another thing to understand about WW2 at this point is that Germany seemed completely unstoppable. Mobilization in World War 1 took weeks to months just to get troops into position. But this time, after about 9 months of fighting, Poland was conquered in a month, Denmark in less than a day, Norway in 2 months. And then, after 4 weeks of fighting in France, Germany had successfully encircled the entire armies of France, Belgium and Britain; and the fall of France and the Low Countries was inevitable. This was the terror of blitzkrieg. Dunkirk was literally the scramble to save ALL of Britain's infantry from being captured. It really was a hugely hopeless situation, and the movie did a great job capturing that. Also, I definitely recommend the Darkest Hour as well. It's also set during the Battle of France campaign, but instead focuses on Churchill and the British government during the crisis. Another 10/10 movie.

[@SurvivorBri]

Darkest Hour was incredible, highlighted by Oldman's flawless acting.

[@CptApplestrudl]

In a documentary it was also pointed out how lucky the allies were that, for some reason, the Germans decided NOT to annihilate the encircled allied forces right there. It gave them the option to use the same troops for D-Day later.

[@dernwine]

That's not really true, maybe try inculding the actual dates: In WW1 the War broke out on the 28th of July 1914. By August 7th the Germans had invaded Belgium, on the same day the French invade Alsace, August 9th the British land in France, having declared war 2 days earlier, August 12th the Austro Hungarians invade Serbia, August 17th the Russian invasion of East Prussia begins, August 23rd the Germans push past the British at Mons and destroy the Russian invasion at Tannenberg. By September 5th the Germans are at the gates of Paris, and the French redeploy 61 divisions and launch into a furious counterattack at the 1st Battle of the Marne, which will force the Germans to withrdraw to defensive positions. In just over a month three massive invasions have been launched, the British Army has been deployed to the continent in it's entirety, and the French have already lost nearly 700,000 men dead or seriously wounded. By comparison WW2: War breaks out September 1st 1939. The Germans and Soviets invade Poland. 35 days later Poland is occupied. We've already covered the same amount of time that in WW1 saw all those offensives and gigantic clashes, and all that's happened is the occupation of Poland. And then NOTHING happens until *APRIL* 1940. That's six months. In the six months that followed the Battle of the Marne we saw; 1st Aisne, the Race to the Sea, 1st Ypres, 1st Champaigne, 1st Artois, and Neuve Chapelle, AND THAT'S JUST THE WESTERN FRONT. Btw the Germans don't invade Belgium and France until May 1940, 9 months after the war breaks out, when the Imperial Army which took "weeks and months to organize an offensive" had Paris in their sights in just over 1.

[@evilpenguinmas]

I do not agree that it is 10/10. Winston Churchill could not care less what the general public thought or felt. He never would have "gone among the people" to find out what they think. He was old school aristocratic imperialist. He was certainly a great and important leader, but warm he was not.

[@christoperwallace6197]

​@@CptApplestrudlGermans also got lucky when they went through the Ardennes. Apparently God was like "ok Germany, got to cancel out that good luck."

[@Cadinho93]

Fun Fact: The little boat portrayed with the 2 boys and old man is based on Charles Lightoller's boat. He was the 2nd officer on board the Titanic and he was one of the ones who helped at Dunkirk. Also, the Spitfire didn't have an ejector seat, they only came into general use after WWII.

[@llamallama1509]

There were a small number of primitive ejection seats in WWII, though most aircraft didn't have them.

[@dalow]

titanic- > ww1 -> ww2. crazy.

[@tSp289]

Slightly less fun fact, one of the earliest ejector seat prototypes was on the Dornier 335, one of the fastest fighters of the war. In flight testing, two of them lost control and crashed from altitude without ejecting. Turns out to activate the ejector seat you first had to clear the canopy, which involved gripping two handles really hard and pullin, so the canopy would come loose and... get caught by the wind so hard it ripped your arms off. Whoops.

[@beardedgeek973]

Fun fact: after the war, Spitfire pilots and Messerschmidt pilots tested each other's planes, and both hated the other's canapes for safety reasons. The English thought the side mounted hinge on the German planes appeared dangerous to climb out of, and the Germans hated the "push backwards" design of the Spitfire. Turns out the Germans actually had the better design there, if you unlocked the canape of the 'schmidts the air rushing by literally ripped the top clean off, making it very easy to get out, much quicker than the Spitfire's design.

[@smootsprint4722]

.nmmmmmm.m.j NM lm.nj. p but because k BBL .l BBK n NM n l NM k mm k ?m.??m.mmMN n NM NM n NM nnnv mm nm.r. NM mmmmm​@@dalow

[@dlweiss]

Damn, George might be the FASTEST I've ever seen someone catch on that the other soldier was a Frenchman swapping uniforms to make an early escape. Very perceptive! :)

[@CarolinaCharles777]

Yeah. Almost hard to believe.

[@jamesog2858]

I feel like if you know about Dunkirk before watching the movie which most reactors don't it's not a hard thing to pick up on, this dude just knows his stuff.

[@petersvillage7447]

@@jamesog2858 Yeah, there are really very few explanations and him being French is the most likely - it's just that most viewers (myself included) are too distracted by other things to directly look at the question. Basically, it works the way a magic trick is described in Nolan's The Prestige - all about distracting you from the obvious explanation.

[@peterdemkiw3280]

1/3rd of the men that escaped from the beach were French, no one were dressing up as British to escape. Yet more fictional nonsense in this terrible film.

[@SteveT-v6n]

You clearly have or been around a lot of dumb friends. Including yourself.

[@ronbock8291]

My FIL, who we lost at age 100 a year and a half ago, was gunnery sgt in the Cameron Highlanders who was seconded to First Special Services, better known as the Devil’s Brigade. He joined two weeks before war was declared and served all 6 years of the war. He saw a lot of action in Italy and throughout Northern Europe. When this was released, he asked me to take him, which I did very gladly. I had heard about Cillian Murphy’s character beforehand and was concerned he might be offended by a portrayal of shell shock. At the end of the film I asked him what he thought. He was very stoic at all times. He said, ‘that’s very much how it was.’ And then he mentioned the Murphy character, who he described by his rank and regiment, which of course he knew by his uniform. He said ‘I particularly liked that portrayal, that was very accurate, and very common.’

[@jp3813]

29:29 is where the three timelines converge into a single moment, then start to diverge afterwards.

[@petercastaneda5338]

To answer George’s question, yes that was Michael Caine talking over the radio to the pilots. An often collaborator of Christopher Nolan’s this part was actually an homage to another WW2 classic film you guys need to check out from the 1960’s called The Battle of Britain, that had a huge cast of young British actors, including Michael Caine who starred as a Spitfire pilot.

[@long-timesci-fienthusiast9626]

If possible anytime between the !3th August & 15th September, would be the most appropriate for the actual 84th Anniversary. Again, if they can fit it in.

[@CarolinaCharles777]

Reminiscent of his pilot role in Battle of Britain.

[@drafezard7315]

@@long-timesci-fienthusiast9626 3rd*

[@A-small-amount-of-peas]

As a Brit seeing that spitfire glide onto the beach and land with the setting sun is possibly the most British thing I've ever seen. One of those films where I made sure I saw at the cinema

[@Wittynametag]

The way the drone sound turns slowly into Elgars Nimrod, works so well, especially important as it's used frequently during Remembrance day

[@slartibartlast968]

@@Wittynametag Elgar's Nimrod is playing in the background in the first minute of the film.

[@Dlovellpf]

If only it would have glided for so long 😂

[@f0rth3l0v30fchr15t]

@@Dlovellpf The early marks had about a 13:1 glide ratio, so if he's at about 1,000 feet up, he's got about 2.5 miles of glide. Manoevring would cut into that quite a bit, though.

[@gavinburnett5641]

I could not agree more.

[@babalonkie]

Over 123,000 French were rescued at Dunkirk. The original goal was to get 50,000 Brits to defend Britain from the upcoming invasion. With the civilian boats they were able to rescue a combined amount of 340,000. The rest, a combination of French and a couple of British Divisions remained to fight. At this point, France had already surrendered. Immediately after this event, the Battle of Britain had started and Hitler started his plans to invade the UK... but he would come across something he had not come across yet in this war... Failure... But the UK would have to endure 4 more years of being attacked.

[@fusionaddict]

Yep. Because the RAF were operating from bases on the British Isles, they could easily return and resupply with fuel & ammunition & fresh pilots. The German Luftwaffe were flying almost exclusively in short-range bombers and fighters and couldn't easily resupply since they were flying out of forward bases, and they suffered severe air casualties as a result and were never able to take the UK. It's one of the reasons Roosevelt decided to heavily invest in both long-range bombing tech and carrier combat once the US entered World War II, because being able to easily resupply aircraft, or have them operate for long periods without resupply, was critical.

[@gillisthom]

While heroic, the amount of troops rescued by civilian ships has historically been overstated and was closer too around 100,000.

[@babalonkie]

@@gillisthom nearly 100,000 were directly shipped to the UK by small boats... the rest were ferried to the large boats... you know... the key point made in the movie... the large boats cant get close. Sorry, without the civilian boats it would of been a slaughter... you are not downplaying the significance.

[@Johnny_Socko]

As much as I admire this film, my only minor point of contention is that it did not quite convey the sheer *scale* of how many men were on that beach, and how many small boats came to rescue them. Most of this is down to Nolan's desire to accomplish as much in-camera as possible, which is admirable. But that policy can also run into certain realities -- such as an inability to hire 400,000 extras, and 850 small boats -- which could have been addressed using modern compositing techniques or CGI.

[@babalonkie]

@@Johnny_Socko That i agree with. The scale was so much bigger in real life.

[@MichaelEdwards_Edits]

My Grandad was one of the men stranded on Dunkirk; he was unfortunately captured and spent the majority of the war in a prisoner-of-war camp until he and a handful of others escaped. I would not be here today had he not returned home to my nan who believed him to be dead. He was my Hero.

[@athanor8667]

Mine too was stranded at dunkerk. Spent the whole war in captivity. He was an officer so he only lost an eye during his time and not his life. I was only a child but till the end of his life I can remember him being able to concentrate for hours on simple things. Probably something he had to do for 6 years everyday to survive. The saddest thing in all this is that my father to this day votes for the far right.... Nothing was learnt....

[@mikect500]

​@@athanor8667you realize that "the left" in the UK, Franc and even America allowed the Austrian painter's team (also far left) to get European craziness to get to this point?

[@dirkdiggler0372]

@@athanor8667 You apparently haven't learnt? The NAZI Party or in English The National Socialist German Workers Party! Most definitely Far-Left.

[@jerseyfky]

One of the great things about this film that kinda goes unnoticed most of the time is that Christopher Nolan set it up in such a way so that you NEVER see a German Soldier or really an enemy combatant (besides the planes obviously). He believed by keeping them hidden, it heightens the tension and the suspense not knowing where they are, then they are revealed at the end capturing Tom Hardys character. Brilliant.

[@PaulJohnson-zv3hl]

@@jerseyfky yea it does fit into the story of Dunkirk though. Dunkirk was never about the Germans or any individual, it’s about a moment where the country came together and pulled off a modern miracle that changed the war and the world. It’s not used anymore but for decades after us brits would say “Dunkirk spirit” in reference to togetherness.

[@dfbovey]

The score to this movie may be the most underrated element. It's as relentless and ominous as the story itself, and provides such a release and feeling of peace at just the right moment.

[@Johnny_Socko]

I honestly thought it was brilliant, the score was almost like another character in the film. I also loved how the timekeeping was different depending on which story is being followed -- slower for the "one week" storyline, then ever faster for the "one day" and "one hour" storylines -- as evidenced by the ticking clock motif.

[@TheRealFizzbin]

That was exactly what Hans Zimmer and Nolan wanted to achieve. An mostly emotionless score

[@fakecubed]

Christopher Nolan wouldn't be anywhere near as acclaimed without Hans Zimmer.

[@StephenRae-u1t]

I'm sure it's been mentioned but the Captain of the little boat - called Mr Dawson in the movie is closely based on Charles Lightoller, second officer of RMS Titanic, who took his yacht "Sundowner" to Dunkirk at the age of 66. Like Lightoller, Dawson refuses to let the Navy crew his boat, "If anyone takes her, it will be me", and takes one of his sons with him. Like Lightoller, Dawson had lost a son in the Royal Air Force (Brian, shot down in a Wellington bomber on the second day of the war) who taught him how to evade air attack. Also like Lightoller, he packs the boat so full (four stood in the bathtub) that the disembarkation officer couldn't believe over 55 men were aboard it (Lightholler managed to pack over 130 men aboard the "Sundowner").

[@victorbrianmcreynolds2200]

My Grandad served in the British Army and was at Dunkirk. He had nightmares about his experience of being bombed by Ju-87 'Stukas' for the next 51 years. He told me tales of his time in India, after he'd been posted there, but he never once discussed his time at Dunkirk. George's comment about "broken men", was spot on.

[@kalakritistudios]

Ouh❤😔... BTW, What did he tell about India? The Gandhian movements, the geographical features, or fights?

[@victorbrianmcreynolds2200]

​@@kalakritistudios He told me stories about going for a shower in his Indian base with his service revolver, just in case there was a Cobra or King Cobra cooling off from the heat. I learned this after he told me that snake tastes like chicken. He told me about one of his fellow officers who woke up with a snake in bed beside him. He used to talk to the Indian shopkeepers in Glasgow in Urdu, which he'd picked up during his time there.

[@victorbrianmcreynolds2200]

​@@kalakritistudios He also used to read me Rudyard Kipling's 'All the Mowgli Stories' when I was a wee boy. He was always elaborating on the stories, with details about the Indian wildlife and people.

[@kalakritistudios]

@@victorbrianmcreynolds2200 Whoah! Nice to know, Thank you!

[@Thevillagebythecross]

Grandad in India. South Staffs or Warwicks. Met some when I worked in Birmingham ages ago. Dunkirk and Indian Army vets

[@SurvivorBri]

The events of Dunkirk took place between the end of May and the beginning of June, 1940. This was about 18 months before the US entered the war after Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. Nolan captured the mood and tone of this one perfectly. The way the story was told was so compelling and emotionally satisfying. Significant and critically important history to learn.

[@skylar7740]

Most of the RAF were fighting beyond the beaches in an attempt to keep away bombers. The soldiers didn't know or see that so initially thought the RAF hadn't been there to help.

[@thomasstone5572]

The Germans let the British leave. They weren't trying to bomb them. Adolf Hitler still believed that peace could be negotiated with the British and that the English/ Anglo Saxons were their bretherin and didn't want them slaughtered. This movie is pure propaganda from a man within the gentry class of Britain who, just like Churchill, would have had their wealth and power diminished if there was an alliance made with the National Socialist Germans.

[@MacThornbody]

I believe the time shenanigans are: the events at the mole take place over one week, the events at sea take place over a day, and the events in the air take place over an hour. They all converge at the end.

[@Malum09]

Yup, that's how it is

[@javix2013]

Tom Hardy's plane takes a long time to land at the end because it entered the beach timeline which was the longest in the narrative, that's why the plane takes so long to land, I think few people noticed that, I haven't heard anyone comment on why the soldiers are at home, on other days, it's been days and nights and Tom Hardy's plane keeps landing in the meantime.

[@Malum09]

@@javix2013 technically speaking he lands at the end of the day, by the time we see the end of the Mole story is the next morning when Kenneth Branagh decided to stay and wait for the French to see how many can he rescue.

[@jp3813]

No belief needed since the film itself displayed those in text. They converge at the climax, then diverge again afterwards. Hence, the other characters have already slept while Tom Hardy's still in the process of landing.

[@jp3813]

@@javix2013 You've got it backwards. The longest timeline (the mole) goes by much faster than the shortest one (the air). Hardy's plane took forever to land b/c very little time passes in every moment that the film cuts back to him. He always stayed in his own timeline, which is a stretched hour as opposed to a compressed week.

[@Liofa73]

That Spitfire burning at the end was based on the one found buried on Dunkirk beach fairly recently.

[@MzQTMcHotness]

Hey! I worked on this film! It was an absolutely amazing experience and I can’t describe how lucky I felt on set!

[@G1NZOU]

I did some RAF officer aircrew aptitude tests a few years ago, while I wasn't going for pilot they test every NCO and above position for the same thing and then collate the results of the various tests for how suitable you are, including pilot related tests, and a bunch of the tests were about keeping your cool and working out either fuel usage equations or navigation directions. NASA astronauts were originally Air Force test pilots so they had that same calm demeanour in stressful situations, if you ever watch Apollo 13 and then listen to the real radio messages it's shocking how calm the crew are when relaying vital information.

[@thegunslinger1363]

A WW2 film you should check out is Downfall. Set during the final days of Hitlers life in the bunker. It's incredible.

[@TheDemonicPenguin]

Maybe the two best WW2 movies are German: Downfall and Das Boot. Come and See (Soviet) also in the conversation.

[@kingleech16]

Downfall is great, but wouldn’t KZbin demonetize it?

[@vasilip]

Yes. Also it's weird that there is like only one reaction of Downfall on KZbin.

[@BryanWhite77]

One of my favorite movies about WWII. Bruno Ganz is amazing.

[@user-blob]

Second this. Fantastic film.

[@benschultz1784]

I love the opening of the movie. The eerie silence occasionally interrupted by yelling and gunfire, then finally permanently broken by the terrifying shriek of a Stuka dive bomber.

[@simonoleary9264]

Good ear Simone, yes that was Michael Caine as the voice of Fortis Leader. This was done as a nod to his character in the 1969 movie The Battle of Britain. Note: The events of the real Battle of Britain began only about month after Dunkirk, and if it had been successful, the Nazi's would have invaded Britain.

[@tee_es_bee]

Seeing this in a movie theater with great sound was an absolute treat. While music does overpower in a traditional Nolan audio mix, the sounds of the planes, bullets and general mayhem pulled me in like no other film to date. When the clock stops ticking at the end you realize how much tension suddenly released and that you can breathe again. Absolutely love it. 🧡💛🧡

[@jeffsherk7056]

From what I have read, the UK government asked for privately owned boats 30 feet long or longer to help with the evacuation from Dunkirk. They had mechanics make sure motor boats had functional motors, but I believe the owners of the boats were the ones that sailed them to France to pick up what troops they could.

[@euthanised]

When I was growing up in the '70's in New Zealand, my grandparents and parents always spoke with awe about the "miracle at Dunkirk". Whenever a WWII movie came on TV they'd relate the story of the "little boats". Love this movie's portrayal of the events!

[@chrisnielsen9885]

Dunkirk and Gallipoli were the first war events I learned about as a kid

[@RmsTitanicagaming1912]

The old man with his son and yacht is actually based on Charles lightoller, in the credits it tells you who he is/was. Charles lightoller died in the early 1950’s. He did loads of interviews about his time on titanic.

[@MrYin90210]

"I can't stand it when people in movies take their mask off and go I CAN'T BREATHE" - Georges obligatory Independence Day reference 😉

[@Curraghmore]

The scene when 'home' appears in the form of all the civilian boats gets me every time. I'm Irish and it makes me want to cheer for the English.

[@Finnbobjimbob]

@@Curraghmore We’re all brothers in these isles mate

[@choomah]

Small boats must ferry to big boats, because big boats run around close to shore. Edit: Just explaining why they needed a bunch of small boats. And why they are essential. Incase anyone was wondering.

[@SevenEllen]

The soundtrack, which is a character in itself in this movie, is written by Han Zimmer. So yeah, it IS the whole Dark Knight crew. :D

[@G1NZOU]

I'm from Buckinghamshire which is pretty inland, but we go boating in Norfolk quite a bit, some of the boatyards there have boats that sailed to Dunkirk, and later on had pleasure yachts that were sacrificed my mooring them in the middle of the broads to prevent seaplanes from landing, and one boatyard that had already put their yachts in their shed were forced to block off their dyke to prevent potential German paratroopers from using the boats as transport, it was a seriously precarious time for us Brits and to get a large portion of our troops back was a significant morale boost, even though we and the French had lost the continental battle for the time being. Eventually the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force gained the advantage, even more so once we had increased American support, but there was a stage in the war where things looked very grim.

[@crwydryny]

For the time line. Dunkirk was in the last week of May, first week of June 1940. A full 18 months before the US entered the war with the first US troops landing in Belfast at the end of January 1942. During that time britan held out during the battle of britan (10th July - 31st October 1940) and the blitz (7th September 1940- 11 may 1941)

[@yadarehey1130]

Soldier: All we did was survive! Paraphrase Old Man: Sometimes that’s enough.

[@Dafmeister1978]

The bitterness from the Army toward the RAF was very, very real, and it was understandable but misinformed. There were almost no British planes over the beach, and that was a deliberate choice. The Stukas are what everyone think of, but most of the bombing was done by larger twin-engine bombers like the Heinkel He111s you see in the movie. Those aircraft didn't dive on their target, they dropped their bombs in level flight from much higher altitude. Once released, the bombs wouldn't just drop vertically, they'd keep moving forwards due to the inertia from travelling at maybe 300kph inside the bomber, and arc down to the ground, so the release point could be kilometres inland. If the fighters were over the beach they wouldn't be able to attack the bombers until after they dropped their bombs, so the RAF were flying patrols further inland to attack and break up the raids before they could release their bombs, operating at the far edge of their range. The troops on the ground didn't even see fighters flying over the beach on their way inland, because the pilots were ordered to stay clear of the airspace over Dunkirk - that meant any aircraft over the town or the beach could be presumed hostile, and the anti-aircraft guns on the ground and on the ships could fire on anything they saw, without having to worry about friendly fire. Kenneth Branagh's character, Commander Bolton, is based largely on Captain William Tennant, who who was sent across to Dunkirk as Senior Naval Officer, to organise the embarkation of the troops onto the evacuation ships. He was there until the last day, when he was patrolling the beach with a megaphone trying to find any remaining troops. A few weeks later, he was given command of the battlecruiser HMS Repulse. On December 10th 1941, Repulse and the battleship HMS Prince of Wales came under attack from Japanese aircraft off Malaya. Tennant managed to dodge nineteen torpedoes and several bombs before Repulse was caught in a pincer attack and hit by four or five torpedoes, sinking in twenty minutes with over five hundred men. Tennant survived again, was promoted to Rear-Admiral and continued to serve with distinction. In 1944, he was in charge of the naval side of transporting and setting up the two Mulberry harbours on the invasion beaches in Normandy, and then supervised the laying of the PLUTO pipelines that carried fuel across the bottom of the Channel from England to the beaches. He retired in 1949 as a full Admiral.

[@ericj166]

It's 1940, 2 years before America entered the war. Another great film also on the theme of " when Britain stood alone " is the 1960's movie which tells the story of what happened next after Dunkirk - " The Battle of Britain "

[@Patriiiiick]

Merlin engines sound so cool. Edit* As a Brit, we do love to queue.

[@richardkoch5941]

As a veteran, seeing the civilians coming to save them? Man, I lost it. No way that happens today. And Churchill's inspiring words at the end? Woof. With a not-so-subtle call for America to join the fight... Mmmmm mmmm mmm... Great stuff.

[@LogicalNiko]

7:44 - One of Micheal Kane's stories (who knows if its actually true) but early on in his career in 1969-70 when he was shooting "Too late the hero" with Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson, he was invited to a very fancy party at a large house. The more prominent guests would introduce him around the room to the important people and such and it would usually be something like "Oh I'd like you to meet this gentleman, Micheal Kane" or "Ahh here is Micheal Kane". And eventually mid-way through the evening the hostess who was off at the other side of the room most of the night eventually beckoned him over and asked him "Are you some sort of Drug Dealer?" To which Micheal responded "No". Then the hostess asks "Then why do you keep shaking hands with people when they say 'And here is my cocaine'

[@twofaceddisk799]

It IS Michael Caine! He had a small voice role in this as a reference to a 1969 film he starred in called the Battle of Britain where he played a Squadron Commander of Spitfires! One of the greatest war films of all time! Highly recommend! It also has an impressive cast involving actors like Robert Shaw, Ian McShane, Trevor Howard, Laurence Olivier, and Christopher Plummer. It also does a great job of filming impressive air sequences and providing a historically accurate portrayal of the battle from both the British and German perspectives in a respectful and unbiased manner. Also a minor thing about the slow landing gear. Because he ran out of fuel and his engine quit, he had to use a manual crank to get them down.

[@sonofmoss]

The moment they realize ‘home’ came to help and you see all the civilian led boats coming for the men always gets me in tears.

[@beedubree2550]

A great-great-uncle on my dad's side was on that beach for this. He made it out alive, and at some point he was sent to India where he was killed in 1944 in the Battle of Kohima which halted the Japanese offensive into India. It's also what inspired my great-grandfather on my mum's side to join up, he was also sent to Asia to fight the Japanese and he was involved in a bunch of stuff in Burma. Unlike my gguncle, he made it out of the war alive. My grandad still owns a bunch of war souvenirs that he brought back (including a god damn kukri knife)

[@AkumaWolf13]

The enemy planes that keep attacking the soldiers on beach is the Junkers Ju-87 'Stuka' dive bombers that had a reputation of being some of the most deadly dive bombers in the war. The terrifying noise they make is a fixed siren attached to their landing gear which is usually turned on before a dive bomb. While its effectivness as a terror weapon in combat has been debated over the years, its effectivness as a tool for PTSD for surviving veterans after the war is more well known. I've heard more than a fair share of stories of veterans getting panic attacks when some war movie or video game in the background plays audio of a Stuka dive bomb run.

[@MrHws5mp]

It's also led to the Hollywood trope that _all_ diving aircraft make the same sound, whether dive-bombers, jet fighters or airliners.

[@agingginger3428]

Keep Calm and Carry On was the 3rd in a set of three posters from 1939, the first two were "Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution Will Bring Us Victory" and "Freedom Is in Peril / Defend It With All Your Might", however the first two were unpopular because the repetition of 'Your' made it look like it was the British people who were expected to do all the work rather than the ruling class being involved together. As a result, the Keep Calm and Carry On poster was withdrawn. The RAF was unfairly regarded as not being involved at Dunkirk because they were mostly engaged to try to shoot down the bombers before they reached the troops on the beach, and as a result they were not seen overhead by the soldiers. As a result, they had a very negative image among many of the British population until the Battle of Britain. You might also want to watch the 1958 black and white version of the story, also called Dunkirk

[@jculver1674]

This isn't a war movie, it's a 2 hour-long anxiety attack in cinematic form, and I love it.

[@neilbiggs1353]

Technically, it feels like a disaster movie with the Germans presented more as an environment than a conventional army, which is a truly brilliant choice. It makes me wish that had been done with Lord Of The Rings

[@stuartarmstrong5190]

This was May/June 1940. If not for the evacuation, the British Army was basically finished and Europe would have fallen. Britain (and her allies such as Canada!) then had to hold out for over a year until the US joined the war in December 1941. Dunkirk didn't win the war, but stopped it being lost. In Britain the phrase Dunkirk Spirit refers to the sort of "never say die" and digging deep attitude that helped rescue so many men.

[@andrewreisinger6860]

The score at the end is heavily influenced by Sir Edward Elgar's "Enigma Variations". Specifically the variation entitled "Nimrod" (the hunter). Beautiful music.

[@TheDemonicPenguin]

"Heavily influenced" is kind. It's really just Nimrod slowed down with some electronics added.

[@nbartlett6538]

I would say it's not just influenced by Nimrod! It IS Nimrod, slowed down significantly. Incidentally Elgar wrote Nimrod as a tribute to his German friend August Jaeger ("Jaeger" is German for hunter).

[@jadestacey3823]

I saw this in the cinema. The pride I feel when the camera shows the amount of everyday people that rallied to sail to collect the soldiers always brings a tear to my eye

[@MysticalJessica]

It was Churchill's idea to ask for the people's help. He asked on the radio: If you have a private boat please go save our lads! And everyone answered the call. That's how they saved most of them. The mystery though is why did Hitler give his troops the order to stand down?!

[@jamesog2858]

It's not really a mystery it's hindsight revisionism from armchair generals.

[@stoatmuldoonfanclub7885]

Dunkirk was quite early on in the war, the British expedition force went to help defend France during the initial invasion and got stuck on that beach. France had pretty much fell by the time the movie took place.

[@fakecubed]

The amount of incompetence of the French leadership cannot be overstated. Absolutely collapsed and lost a very winnable fight. Everyone was stunned, including the Germans who were expecting a very long and bloody invasion. The British, fulfilling treaty obligations, were stuck mainly at Dunkirk, just trying to get out before the French let the Germans wipe them out.

[@neilbiggs1353]

Couple of minor notes: That beautiful swell of music as the boats arrive is Nimrod by Elgar, somewhat re-arranged by Zimmer. It's well worth hearing a full orchestral performance of the original. There are a few anachronisms in the film - the train carriages used are from the 60s and 70s rather than the 40s, and they were still in use in to the early 90s, and the architecture of Dunkirk in that silent glide by also shows a lot of 60s and later architecture

[@kieronball8962]

For those that appreciated this movie, might I also recommend the original movie version of Dunkirk, starring John Mills, Richard Attenborough and Jack Hawkins.

[@alundavies1016]

Agreed. John Mills is very good.

[@ahdvd]

One thing you guys didn’t seem to show or mention, at the end when they arrived back home and the man was handing them covers to wrap up and telling them ‘well done lads’ and then ran his hand over one of their faces - the other boy on the train says the man couldn’t even look them in the face - the way he ran his hand on the boy’s face was how a blind person feels a persons face to ‘see’ what they look like - he didn’t look them in the face/eyes because he was blind.

[@ursulmusic]

That guy is also the director's father :)

[@ahdvd]

@@ursulmusic ah, interesting, explains why he pops up in Christopher Nolan’s movies and Jonathan Nolan’s shows…

[@ABC-sc2ip]

Most likely because he was gassed in WWI. The man was a vet, scarred from his experience as a young man in the trenches and now he was handing out blankets to another generation of young boys being left scarred due to war. It's the most powerful and underrated scene in the movie.

[@jimglenn6972]

It reminds me of an event in WWI where a train of wounded and demoralized French soldiers were being evacuated from Verdun. They were on a train that pulled into a station away from the front lines. The train stopped on a platform across from a civilian train and the civilians were stunned looking at the soldiers. Suddenly, the people broke out of their stupor and started giving the soldiers all the food and drink that they had and thanking them for saving France. Remarkable.

[@fakecubed]

He was definitely a WW1 vet.

[@simonjerryncf1987]

Dunkirk almost signalled the fall of France. Then it was the Battle of Britain. We had our army back in 1940 but no means to take the fight to Hitler. It was all about survival and holding out until 1942 onwards when the Allies could slowly take the fight to Nazi Germany. In the event of Dunkirk, the RAF were often given the disservice of being accused of not 'being there.' But they were often involved in dogfights out of sight of the soldiers on the beach. This part of the Dunkirk story has only been given the light of day in recent years.

[@daveheesen9174]

the man shooting at the German plane?...George asks "what good will that do?...Baron von Richtoven (spelling?) the Red Baron was killed by an Australian infantry man

[@chrismillington2729]

Thank you Both as always, My Grandfather was rescued from Dunkirk, and was a medic during D-Day, according to my Mother he was not the same after the war. and yes Dunkirk was 1940 the war ended 1945

[@Bar-Lord]

This film was once described as a 90 minute panic attack, and I haven’t seen a clearer description that doesn’t spoil anything.

[@thunderstruck5484]

Stanley Kramer made memorable films such as “Judgment at Nuremberg” “On the beach” “The Defiant ones” and many more classics as director and producer, he decided to make a comedy to get away from all the serious subjects he tackled so he directed “It’s a mad mad mad mad world” one of the greatest comedies ever filmed, so yes it would be interesting to see what Nolan would do with a comedy, talent is talent with no limits for some, thanks

[@TJMiton]

this movie is still so severely underrated. it's a slow quiet movie with very little action or story, but it's a masterclass of keeping tention and engagement, never once lets up. it's also stunningly well shot and acted, there have never been better aerial plane shots put to film, every frame of the spitfires is completely perfect. imo it's one of the top tier nolan movies.

[@devingalloway2708]

The number of people involved at Dunkirk is HUGE! and there's like 50 extras for the whole movie. Quick Google search of number of deaths not counting evacuatees: The exact number of people who died during the evacuation of Dunkirk in World War II is difficult to determine because the fighting and withdrawal separated thousands of men from their units: Allied troops: Estimates range from 11,014 to 22,000 killed or wounded, plus around 2,000 civilians German military: Around 20,000 casualties, including wounded, killed, or missing Civilian sailors: 126 killed during the evacuation

[@TheDemonicPenguin]

Not to mention all the equipment (bikes, trucks, tanks, ammo, artillery etc) left behind, which this movie has zero of.

[@Murdo2112]

@@TheDemonicPenguin My dad was there. I remember him telling me about how they went round draining the oil out of all the trucks and leaving a brick on the accelerator peddle, so they'd be useless when the German's got hold of them.

[@tSp289]

@@Murdo2112 Good thinking. That or make a merry bonfire.

[@DynamicSystem]

I always imagine that the “I can’t breath” thing in movies is less about actually breathing and more about the sensation that something is covering your mouth and in panic removing it even though it provides air.

[@andrewouellette4998]

Kenneth Branagh's character is based on James Campbell Clouston. Born in Montreal and learned to sail on Lake Saint Louis. There is a plaque that commemorates him. Sadly he didn't make it home. While returning to Dunkirk, France, his motor launch was sunk by enemy aircraft and he perished awaiting rescue.

[@k-ron7403]

So to answer your point at the end regarding timelines. Dunkirk happened in June of 1940, 338,000 men were saved, of that 123,000 were French. While militarily it was a failure having to retreat to superior German forces, Dunkirk was seen as an important point of the war not only because it saved so many men but it was a large morale victory for the British. People need to remember Britain was effectively the only main power to stand against the might of the German war machine between June 1940 to June 1941, 1 year. Had these men not been saved, had the RAF not reserved their numbers, Britain would have almost certainly fallen to the Germans. From then on you have no US intervention, no staging grounds in England for the eventual invasion of allied forces to France. In essence you likely have a German WW2 victory in Europe. So yeah it was a pretty large inflection point of the war. Great reaction

[@alexbaker4056]

Operation Dynamo really was a miracle, over 400 civilian boats answered the call to assist, snatching the majority of the BEF from the brink. Spitfires at this point would have been rare, the RAF had more Hurricanes, a slightly older design that struggled to fight the German ME109s on even terms, but the spitfire is iconic and there's only about 16 airworthy examples of the Hurricane left

[@fakecubed]

Hurricanes were still a good plane for the time.

[@long-timesci-fienthusiast9626]

Hi George & Simone, there is a British Dunkirk film from 1958 that depicts the struggle of a group of soldiers. It starts with them arriving in France as part of the B.E.F. (British Expeditionary Force), their advance into Belgium as part of the strategic plan & finally their struggle in retreat. Also, the Homefront were gradually the general public begin to realise what`s happening & organise to help out. It`s well worth seeing, it stars Sir John Mills, Sir Richard Attenborough & Bernard Lee. The latter being best known for portraying "M" in the Classic Bond films.

[@martynhill3479]

Personally I prefer the 1958 film as I like the more linear story telling, but then I am old

[@GeoStreber]

You should check out "Downfall" and "The Lives of Others". Definitely the best german movies recently.

[@arthursmith3837]

Not "recently" at all. 2004 and 2006 respectively. TLOO not relevant to to this thread as it deals with the DDR's goverenment's oppression and surveillance of its own citizens.

[@joejaroslaw527]

The need to do the show Dark

[@jculver1674]

The Lives of Others is incredible. That ending really gets me.

[@kevinsieg2076]

The evacuation of Dunkirk was a magnificent achievement, as was the British resolve in the early years of WW2. In the film Atonement, there is a gorgeous tracking shot of the beaches of Dunkirk before the evacuation. You guys make great reactions. Thank you.

[@XeonAlpha]

The way George _nails_ the prediction is just amazing.

[@kipperlings123]

is it still a prediction if the story is just a historical event thats already happened? isnt that just called "knowing history"? lol

[@XeonAlpha]

@@kipperlings123 no the prediction that Nolan was going to mess around with the time frames.

[@kipperlings123]

@@XeonAlpha oooh, i mean yeah i guess? nolan does that with every movie. literally every film he does has a time theme

[@Pink.andahalf]

​@XeonAlpha Dude has a point, every movie he's made that doesn't feature Batman messes around with time.

[@KronnangDunn]

Darkest Hour (2017) and Battle of Britain (1969) are companion pieces to this film... Also The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (2024).

[@thejamppa]

Dunkirk is amazing film. Dunkirk is literally miracle that happened. Another great evacuation that is my second favorite evacuations in WW2 was Walther Wenck's disobedience and rescuing as many civilians as possible from Berlin area with his counter attack evacuating his men of 12th army, remnants of 9th army into West. Estimations vary from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands lives saved by him. We're never going to see movie about that... The Downfall is probably closest thing, but its dang good WW2 film. It made so many meems...

[@TabaquiJackal906]

The first time I watched this movie, I was struck most by how *beautiful* it is; so many of the scenes are like paintings; the light, the color, the vistas. Lovely review; it's just such a harrowing, amazing story.

[@dmayres]

It's a special film. I know it's divided crowds, and I understand the desire to see a true epic, cast of thousands retelling of the story. But Nolan put his own stamp on it, using only practical effects and by putting you through an extremely stressful couple of hours! The Hans Zimmer score dictates the pace from start to finish, and the nod to Elgar's Nimrod is beautiful. So many individual moments stick with you long after the end credits have run. To think that the war was still in it's infancy, and that Tom Hardy's character likely spent the next four years in a POW camp. Many of the men evacuated in May 1940, returned for the invasion of Normandy in June 1944.

[@TheWebcrafter]

1918 - STORYTELLING - the story is told from three perspectives-land (one week of action), sea (one day of action), and air (one hour of action).

[@brysn6112]

That beach looks amazingly clean, calm, and organized. Some CGI adding clutter and more extras was really needed

[@TheDunnDusted]

I like to think that Michael Caine as the RAF HQ radio is a nod to his role in the 1969 film Battle of Britain about the role of the RAF in defending Britain from the Luftwaffe attacks that would normally precede the rest of the Blitzkrieg.

[@bbbf09]

Here he's playng Fortis leader - the other plane that goes missing (presumed shot down) and is not at HQ.

[@jerrykessler2478]

I love the way this story was told.

[@uma.n2680]

George keeps fearing that the soldier they saved might be German, which reminds me of an Alfred Hitchcock movie called Lifeboat, it's amazing and worth the watch.

[@lsaria5998]

The wait on the beaches was a week, the time to cross the Channel by sea was a day, the time the planes could stay over the Channel was an hour. Also the ship Cillian was sat on wasn't still buoyant, the Channel just isn't that deep. The ship sank bow-first and hit the bottom with the stern still above water and the air inside kept it there.

[@maisiesummers42]

Fun Fact: In order to add authenticity for this film, Christopher Nolan recreated World War II in its entirety in Europe.

[@dcaynes5]

This is unrelated to Dunkirk (ish) but could you please react to Death of Stalin its one of the funniest and best historical films ever

[@daz_n]

That rendition of Churchill's speech at the end. 😭

[@VKayed]

"Weekend at Dunkirk" (1964) provides a French POV on this historical event.

[@f0rth3l0v30fchr15t]

26:20 There were about 850 "Little Ships" (those which survive fly a St George's Cross with the arms of Dunkirk superimposed at the center at the jack staff), mostly crewed by RN officers and ratings, plus experienced volunteers. Everything from paddle steamers like the PS Medway Queen - 100 years old this year; pressed into service as a minesweeper, she made 7 trips and lifted more than 7,000 troops from beaches and harbours during the evacuation - to the Tamzine, a 15-foot single masted fishing boat. Most were crewed by RN officers and ratings, some by experienced volunteers and a minority by their owners.

[@vermithax]

This may have already been mentioned, but there was indeed a spitfire that was forced to land on the beach at Dunkirk during the evacuation. It was rediscovered decades later and actually flew again after being fully restored. Thank you for doing this one! I haven't seen any other reactors try Dunkirk yet.

[@MrHws5mp]

The "Keep Calm And Carry On" poster _was_ designed in 1939, but although millions were printed it was only rarely issued and put up, and it was forgotten about after the war. It wasn't until the 21st century that someone rediscovered it and turned it into a "brand".

[@somthingbrutal]

one historical figure fighting here i would love to have seen was "mad" Jack Churchill, he took part in the Defense of Dunkirk using his longbow and basket-hilted Scottish broadsword.

[@richarddavies4322]

We celebrate this as a victory, which in a way it was, and if wasn't for the brave French and some British holding of the Germans then it would have been very different. The French get so much undeserved crap for WW2 ...

[@chrisnielsen9885]

If Simone doesn't know what a U Boat is, definitely watch Das Boot. One of the best war / submarine movies ever made

[@stephenrichards2063]

I would recommend ‘Where Eagles Dare’. It has a completely different vibe to this. Clint Eastwood and Richard Burton. Great action and will make your head spin with its twists. It’s pure escapism.

[@Xemptuous]

To George when asking "what would that do?" at the guy shooting at the plane; bullets pierce WW2 plane bodies and windshields, so alot. An MG42 could take out a plane. Common misconception that planes were super heavily armored back then.

[@ashleywetherall]

Although this is a good film. Nolan should have used CGI as even with a 1000 extras the scale of this operation is never really realised in this film. over 300000 men were evacuated in 3 or 4 days .

[@The_Bermuda_Nonagon]

This was the battle that saved the British Expeditionary Force and some of the allied troops to fight again in WW2 but if you want to see what saved the U.K. itself you need to react to THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN (1969) the most amazing WW2 flying movie ever (IMHO) also don't miss the chance to react to DAS BOOT (1981), A BRIDGE TOO FAR (1977) and the director's cut of TORA, TORA, TORA (1970) those films are the ones generally considered to be the most historically accurate ones made about WW2. I hope you will consider adding them to your Patreon polls. : )

[@rashadkhalaf3312]

I have been in situations where all of sudden, the street you live in turns into a battleground. I don't wish it upon anyone. These scenes from Dunkirk were one of the most realistic I've watched in movies.

[@squaddie67]

The events on the beach take place over the course of one week, on the boat, one day and in the air, one hour. Simples.

[@andreww1225]

My uncle fell off a step ladder and hit his head. He went into a coma and never came back. Doesn’t take much to cause brain damage.

[@notjustforhackers4252]

Not really a "war movie" as such.... a ticking clock movie set to the background of a 'war'... and what an absolute banger it is. As someone who's not the biggest Nolan fan I can only sit back and say... yup, this is his masterpiece. Fantastic film.

[@sudamahebert6978]

Always felt that it is more structured like a disaster movie that a war movie. Germans feels more like a force of nature than an enemy to me in this movie. Just fantastic all around I agree

[@cavinchon1]

Three timeline of land, sea and air intertwining and converged at the end is a very Nolan way to tell the story. had this film been cut and edit into chronological order, it would be a "generic" war movie. love it or hate it, it's a very Nolan movie. YES i am a big fan of Christopher Nolan.

[@mattseaton3521]

I do truly think this will go down as one of the best war films of all time.

[@Sreynolds88]

Mark Rylance is the guy from Ready Player One. He's a fantastic actor. I would suggest Bridge of Spies. He's great in it and the movie is amazing

[@craigmerryfull7704]

when the fathers come for their boys in civillain ships at the end chokes me up every time.