NF Dunkirk

[Carronade]

Zack- I think you are a bit low on your number of evacuated. The total for the 9 days between May 26th & June 4th 1940 was 338,226 troops. For every 7 Soldiers who escaped, 1 was left behind as a POW. Churchill had ordered that the French & British should leave 50-50,arm in arm, but all was not harmonious on the beach! The British were annoyed with the French for not following the order to abandon their haversacks & equipment as they queued up to embark.
Had Britain lost her army at Dunkirk, Hitler would have been tempted to invade immediately,even without air superiority.

IIRC the 50/50 direction was given after the evacuation had been underway for several days. Also there might not have been the appropriate number of Frenchmen handy when each ship was loaded. The British had made the decision to fall back to the coast and evacuate before the French were reconciled to it. Most of the French came off in the last few days. When the evacuation was considered essentially complete, the Navy insisted on one more day, during which they took almost entirely French troops.

 

[Jimklag]

Go, run, walk, wobble to your theater and see Dunkirk! It was amazing, scary, wonderful, enough action for everyone, and totally inspiring...timely, too, considering the past few weeks. Since the actors were English, I didn't really know the names of anyone except Tom Hardy , Harry Styles, and of course, Kenneth Branagh. Naturally, I kept expecting Branagh to break into the speech from Henry V...but he was great. Everyone was great.

We have a quite small theater that was restored by a non-profit group with donations and grants...many of us gave time and whatever help we could. Generally, the theater shows more kid-friendly films, but this time it was a big audience of older people, couples without kids, and teens (who I was glad to see there!). Because it's small, you're right on top of the action. I admit I jumped a few times. You'll see. Neal said he was glad we didn't go to the IMAX because I might have fallen out of my seat.

The plot is pretty simple...the English army stranded on the beach at Dunkirk, and the way the British got them home, for the most part. Tom Hardy is a Spitfire pilot, Harry Styles is a soldier who sort of joins up with another guy for the most spectacularly bad luck (outside of being killed) trying to get off the beach and back to England, and Kenneth Branagh is a Naval Commander (who has one of the funniest lines in the film while he's discussing tides with an Army officer).

It's a war movie, straight and simple. If you want convoluted plots and all that jazz, don't go. If you like good old fashioned war films with heroism, cowardice, and a triumph of the human spirit and good over evil, you'll love it. I was always fascinated with this part of history, since I read about the flotilla in a Reader's Digest as a child. And, well, there is the speech Winston Churchill gave...always one of my favorite parts of Senior English.

Love to hear what those of you who went think. You may not be obsessed with Tom Hardy (Neal didn't even know who he is, lol), but I think you might like it.

To whom it may concern, Dunkirk will be available on DVD and Blu-ray on December 19, on Amazon for about $21.00. I already have my pre-order in. I definitely want to see it again.

 

[chucksr]

I don't do indoor theaters, so I am waiting for it to be released on DVD.! Looking forward to it.

I'm with Lnwlf--I don't/won't/ and shouldn't do theaters. Get me that close to inconsiderate people with their I-phones, discussions, and tortilla snapping in a closed environment and there might be an evacuation of a theater while watching an evacuation of a beach!

 

[Nathanb1]

To whom it may concern, Dunkirk will be available on DVD and Blu-ray on December 19, on Amazon for about $21.00. I already have my pre-order in. I definitely want to see it again.

Awesome! Did I mention Tom Hardy is in it?

 

[Nathanb1]

I'm with Lnwlf--I don't/won't/ and shouldn't do theaters. Get me that close to inconsiderate people with their I-phones, discussions, and tortilla snapping in a closed environment and there might be an evacuation of a theater while watching an evacuation of a beach!

White Christmas was on last week (free due to sponsorship) and I didn't hear a peep while the film was on. As far as I'm concerned they can show it every single year! I wasn't around for the big screen when it came out!

 

[Aussie Billy Sherman]

I've been waiting impatiently for the blu Ray release. Not far away now

 

[Irishtom29]

White Christmas was on last week (free due to sponsorship) and I didn't hear a peep while the film was on. As far as I'm concerned they can show it every single year! I wasn't around for the big screen when it came out!

And very good it looked on the big screen, it was shot in VistaVision, a large negative filming process developed by Paramount and noted for its low grain and extreme clarity. Other famous movies shot in the process were The Ten Commandments, The Searchers and Vertigo. The IMAX process is a further development of VistaVision.