I hope you'll consider a reaction to THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN (1969) - in my opinion the best WW2 flying movie made to date and along with Midway and Stalingrad one of the first turning points of WW2. : )
My maternal grandfather was one of those soldiers trapped on the beach at Dunkirk, waiting for rescue. He wouldn't speak much about his experiences but one of the few things he did tell us that when he finally got on a ship (one of the larger navy ones) he was crammed together with so many other men that there was no room to move at all and he immediately fell asleep from exhaustion standing up. He was so grateful to the Navy that once he was home again he requested that his service be transferred from the Army to the Royal Navy and he spent most of the next 4 years of war serving aboard a Destroyer escorting the merchant convoys across the Atlantic and to Russia and protecting them from u-boats.
Navi is correct about the U-Boats. The Germans had limited resources and there were much higher priority targets than escaping civilian ships. German U-Boats came equipped with guns on deck which were used to damage and take out smaller ships. Torpedoes were mainly used against larger targets.
Yeah, just too many targets to try destroy. Going to spend thousands using a torpedo that could destroy a warship to destroy a little wooden ship? Not worth trying to counter that rescue attempt.
Also Göring talked Hitler into believing he could destroy the British Troops only with his Air Force. So Hitler believed this shit and ordered the Forces a long needed Break close ot Dunkirk... Of Course Air Force alone was not able to stop the British/French FOrces from retreating... Germany had the Defeat of Great britain on its hands....and lost it because typical Fucking Fat Nazi Ego took over...
@@josueroberto7356I was going to basically say this. Torpedo couldn't hit those smaller boats because of their draft, they just don't sit low enough in the water for a torpedo to ever be a real threat. The second a U-boat surfaces in that kind of circumstance to fire it's deck cannon, it makes itself a huge target of opportunity.
So Mr. Dawson, is actually based on a real life figure of Charles Lightholler (who lived down the road from me in Ramsgate) who was 2nd Officer of the Titanic and the senior officer to survive the disaster. He sailed out to Dunkirk and rescued 130 soldiers in a boat designed for 20 people. Apparently, he felt that this 'redeemed' him after being unable to rescue so many from the Titanic.
Context of this is that if Britain didn't get those troops back they would basically be out of the war as they were short of troops, weapons and even ammunition. If they were out of the war then the US never gets involved and the Nazi's basically win in Europe. That's why this event is considered such a huge deal.
Absolutely correct. Hitler would have had 300,000 hostages and we'd have had to make terms with him. Dunkirk kept the war alive the West and meant Hitler was unable to commit all of his forces against Russia, who even so came within a hairs breadth of defeat at Stalingrad. It also allowed for the massing of American might in British bases, a few miles off the French coast.
Dunkirk was on May 26th - 4th June 4 1940 America wouldn't enter the war until Dec 6th 1941 D-day was on June 6th 1944 The war ended in Europe in May 8th 1945 Germany lost the war in east in 1943 Italy switched sides in 1943 Japan didn't surrendered until September 2th, 1945
It was the first victory of the British Army during WW2, thanks to countless civilian boatowners, who rescued their soldiers within a few days. As a German🇩🇪 I pay the highest respect to this kind of common sense and effort of the English! BRITANNIA RULE THE WAVES!🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧
Just to explain the 'little ships', after the Navy requisitioned the boats (850 of them), a lot of the boat owners decided that they knew how to handle their ships better than some random Navy guy and volunteered to take them over the Channel themselves. The small boats were needed because they could go into much shallower water than the larger Navy ships. The Mark Rylance character is broadly based on Charles Lightoller, the former second officer on the TITANIC. (Dunkirk was June 1940 - Pearl Harbor, Dec 1941 - D-Day, June 1944)
More about Charles Lightoller. He was twice decorated for bravery in World War 1. It was his youngest son that had joined the RAF, and was killed early in the war. His middle son was a second lieutenant with the Third Infantry, who were among those stranded at Dunkirk. He was evacuated roughly 48 hours before Lightoller and the other "little ships" made their journey.
Right, without the smaller civilian boats getting through the shallow waters to the soldiers trapped on the beach at Dunkirk, the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force in France would not have succeeded. The larger ships made for large targets for both German bombers and U-Boats and required docks and piers out in the deep water for the British soldiers to board, taking valuable time. Bear in mind that while the British were making their desperate escape, the remaining French forces were fighting a desperate rear-guard action so that the British could escape to continue the fight against Nazi Germany.
The pilot Tom Hardy plays actually landed within range of British troops and they were able to pick him up and transport him back safely. The ending is dramatized with him landing behind enemy lines
Fun Fact: Michael Caine played a hidden cameo as Fortis Leader (guy on the radio in Spitfire at the beginning). This was a homage to his role as a squadron leader in 1968’s Battle of Britain movie.
I know right!!! I was hanging on pretty well there until the end but when those horns got going my eyes began sweating hard and never stopped. Amazing score. Masterpiece of a film. I know Oppenheimer is getting a lot of attention right now but i think this and The Prestige nudge ahead for me, as the top Nolan films. To be fair, there's like a hairs bredth distance between all of his and any one of them could be argued as his 'best' but this is a 'perfect' film to me. There is absolutely nothing i would change.
My Irish born grandfather went through Dunkirk. Later in the war he volunteered as a paratrooper and fought on D Day and jumped into Arnhem during Operation Market Garden. He was one of only a few thousand of 1st Airborne Division to escape and later joined 6th Airborne Division. He was among those troops who liberated Bergan-Belsen concentration camp (where Anne Frank died). As the war ended he was in the Far East, practising for the expected invasion of Japan. My Dad later served as a British Army Para but was not involved in any famous actions. This movie makes me proud.
There were so many people from that generation who were brave beyond belief. Imagine volunteering after knowing the horrors you're about to face, but still going through with it. I cannot even imagine doing something like that. Better men than me.
@@danielholt1984 Around 80,000 Irish men and women served in the British military during WW2. Many of them from the Nuetral Irish Free State. Even though they were labeled 'deserters' by the State government and were ostracized from government work by DeValera's fascistic government if they returned post-war. Between 5000 to 10,000 died. Added to this were Free State war and agricultural workers who were also at risk from bombing raids and later missile attacks. So there was far more than just 'one'.
Regarding the planned invasion of Japan: the US military put in a massive order for half a million Purple Heart medals in anticipation of the outcome. Because the invasion never happened, the glut of medals kept the military stocked for decades, through Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq. There was never an accurate inventory kept, but as of 2000, there were still more than 100,000. The old medals are mixed randomly with later fabrications, but there haven't been 100,000 injuries in the past quarter-century, so the chances remain good for receiving a medal fabricated 80 years ago.
FYI, the English Channel/North Sea is murky rather than blue because it used to be above sea level (the lost land is known as Doggerland) but was flooded and submerged after the end of the last ice age. Because it is shallow (average depth is about 63 metres/207 feet) the soil frequently gets churned up by storms and turns the water a muddy colour.
My paternal Grandfather was one of those brave men holding their position to evacuate in Dunkirk, and was able to get back on a large navy destroyer. He didn't talk about it much apart from the smell of grease, munitions, corpses, and sea water. God bless every man and woman that fought for our freedom in our darkest hour.
When it was announced, the short-ish running time worried me as it was a HUGE moment in WWII. But Nolan did an amazing job of taking a week-long military engagement and turning it into a lean, super-efficient film, with non-stop tension while still getting across the main points.
nah the movie is for based on a real thing dogshit it has good music and style but its not accurate nor is it close to history the older Movies about Dunkirk are better Nolans Dunkirk is his worst work for me
A movie called 'The Battle of Britain' should be your next one as it follows this timeline and is well worth the watch. Packed with famous actors most who are long gone and much missed.
The evacuation of Dunkirk is celebrated and remembered here in the UK despite it resulting from a huge failure for our forces. The 500,000 men of the British Expeditionary Force went to France to assist in defending against the Nazi invasion, but they were overwhelmed by the German Blitzkrieg tactics. They were forced to retreat all the way back to Dunkirk until they were trapped against the channel. Hitler knew he had the opportunity to annihilate the British forces in one effort and knock Britain out of the war forever so he threw everything he could at us. What is often overlooked is the valiant, gritty defence put up by the french forces to defend the retreating British and prevent the Germans getting close enough to the beach to shell them into oblivion. They knew that their own military had failed, and that saving the British forces to keep Britain in the fight was their last hope and eventually defeating the invaders.
Getting to watch this in IMAX was one of the most unforgettable movie theater going experiences I've ever had. The sound engineering was so incredibly well executed that it was tricking my brain into thinking that real bullets are flying at me! I was literally crouching as low as possible in the theater seat because my body was in fight-or-flight mode while watching a movie. I knew that I was perfectly safe, but my body was SCREAMING. Remarkable film to experience in IMAX 👏👏👏
I unfortunately didn’t get to see this in IMAX. However at the time I had just bought some bass boost Sony headphones, and watched this at home with those headphones and instantly was astounded at the sound design. Making me wish to hear that IMAX sound.
A good unintentional companion to this movie is Darkest Hour with Gary Oldman showing the events leading to Dunkirk and Churchills fight for his first few weeks as Prime Minister. Great look into the awful politics he had to fight against to even keep fighting Hitler, highly recommend that for a reaction
The original Dunkirk movie is also a good companion as it literally had a cast of thousands and really captured the desperate plight of those under fire on the beach. The scale of the human cost isn't really reflected by Nolan's film.
That ending part on the train always makes me tear up. Those men thought they were going to be bombarded on the streets with hate and being coward....only to come home with applause and love.
The old boat captain with his sons was retired Seaman Hightoller. Survived the Titanic, WW1, and took part in Operation Dynamo in Dunkirk. His son, an off duty RAF pilot, taught him how to evade oncoming aerial bombs on the open sea. Xx
the 300,000 men and materials brought off the beaches of Dunkirk allowed the British to keep the war going. without those men, who knows if the island nation could have held out long enough for America to get into the fight.
The movie dosent talk much about the French but their desperate rearguard sacrifice by the last relatively organised French units allowed the evacuation to take place
Well it is shown at the start the French are fighting in the city, and at the end Commander Bolton says he's staying for the French. You can only fit so much in.
@@Kkttrr31643 yeah maybe a few lines from some of the re-occuring characters. or maybe one of the sons ask his dad why the germans have not captured the soldiers on the beach
Jack Lowden, who plays the pilot Collins, is in a show on Apple TV+ called Slow Horses. It's a British spy thriller/comedy and it's really freaking good. Gary Oldman is also in the show and he's fantastic.
Between 1940 and 1944 is four years. The Allies (without the US) were in Norway, Greece, Crete, North Africa, Egypt, Tunisia, Sicily (with the US) Italy, Malaya, Singapore, Burma during those four years, and the USSR fought and took the heart out of the German army between 1941 and 1944 (and then to 1945) and THEN in June 1944 it was D Day. But the USSR had already destroyed Germany and basically won the war for everyone by then. D Day was the second front Russia had been begging for for the previous two years. The war in Europe ended in May1945 and the Allies landed at Normandy in June 1944. By then - again - the Russians had basically crushed German forces. If the Allies had not landed in Europe on D Day, Russia would have won the war on its own anyway. D-Day was just some help to Russia to end the war a bit more quickly.
Darkest Hour by Joe Wright is the perfect accompaniment to Dunkirk. It documents the first few weeks of Winston Churchill’s time in office as Prime Minister and the challenging politics that was being navigated in London while the evacuation was taking place
My great grandfather was evacuated at Dunkirk, then was one of the soldiers to land on Sword beach four years later on D-day. Never spoke to my grandad about the war but we knew he’d been a part of these events.
At this point, Britain didn’t know for sure that America would join the war. And the German Uboats were absolute menaces to any ship in the Atlantic or channel.
@@thatguy1599 Are... are you daft? The US lost almost 3 times as many men in the European theater than in the Pacific. And material loses suffered were almost triple in the European theater. The war in Europe was a bigger more involved, costlier endeavour than it's Pacific counterpart. "Barely joined the war in Europe"... might be the dumbest thing I've read in a comment section in years. I'm actually stunned by how ignorant that comment was. Do a little research my guy. I really shouldn't read comments... it's a minefield of stupidity and ignorance.
@@thatguy1599watching movies you’d think it was the other way around between the British and the Americans someone needs to make a movie about an proper war movie about the British
i nursed veterans of WW2 in a nursing home for veterans only in Belfast UK from all services including soldiers that survived Dunkirk they never spoke of it LWF
This is Nolan's best movie and arguably one of the best movies of all time. The concept , style , magnitude , music , direction , emotion are fresh and new unlike other Nolan films. This one stands out to be fresh and most unique among Nolan's great catalogue.
its depicting the Battle of Dunkirk totaly unacurate and wrong its not good (well maybe it is if youre a unaducated murican guy who cant even tell when his own country entered the war) im sorry its god musik good looking thats it
Don't forget that Britain was being hammered by the Blitz, which was not just in London, it was countrywide on specific industrial targets. Where I live today, my local shops are less than half a mile away and six bombs were dropped between us. The amazing thing about Dunkirk was that there were hundreds of thousands of British troops retreating to the beach at Dunkirk so a call went out to the "little boats" so people who knew how to sail boats, from Thames tourist boats, to individual sailors who had a small boat on the river (don't forget that as an island no-one is over 100 miles from the sea). And there was a massive flotilla of the little boats to take the forces from the beach to the bigger boats. Check out the film Mrs Miniver, which shows how the locals put their lives at risk to save the British forces so they could fight another day.
Seen this commented already, but you guys should watch darkest hour with Gary Oldman as Churchill. It’s a great companion to this film in that it shows what was happening back in Britain while the Germans closed in on Dunkirk.
"Eject" There is no ejection seat in combat planes yet... you have to jump out or crash land the plane. Jumping out is reliant on being high up as you only have a old slow opening none controllable parachute.
This film really needs to be watched alongside Darkest Hour to tell a more complete story. But this one shows the horror of war where the other explains everything the ordinary soldier doesn't see.
The captain of the little boat featured in this film was an officer on the Titanic when it sank. He then served in the Royal Navy in World War 1. A true hero who saved many lives in WW2
You should watch some classic black and white 50s and 60s british war movies. The storylines are a lot better. The cruel sea , ice cold in Alex, Dunkirk, the dambusters, sink the bismark, sea of sand , tobruk.
Star Wars reference: "stay on target, stay on target....." during the dogfight with the Spitfires, George Lucas actually used clips from the Battle of Britain film to get his special effects team to copy for the attack on the Death Star at the end of the movie.
Aw, poor Kenneth Branagh. They recognized all these actors, but nobody yelled "It's Kenneth Branagh!" God, I feel old now. (Edit: Oh! Chris knew who it was. Nevermind!)
Dunkirk had pretty much the entire british army so getting them off the beach was essential. There was ample of reasons for the germans to finish off these troops. I think Britian then lost a ton of men during operation garden. I mean it makes sense why they no longer were able to keep their position in the world after WWII.
Do you mean Operation Market Garden 4 years later? Yes the British had lost whole lot of people all over the world by then. Even the USA had time join in after the war had been going on for 3 years. (Britain stepped up and declared war on Nazi Germany because it was the right thing to do. USA only did when they were directly attacked by Japan.) A lot of history behind Britain's postcolonial shrinkage, and a lot of it was due to changing attitudes to the rights and sovereignty of colonial people. For most of the past 200 years Britain was mostly the Good Guys. Among other things, it's why we ended the international slave trade at a huge cost in blood and treasure in opposition to almost every country in the world.
@@michaelnolan6951good guys according to who lol? Britain was also the biggest part of the slave trade in the first place, and allowed it to continue in certain parts of the empire for the best part of a generation. And when they ended the slave trade they just pivoted to opium instead. We were NEVER the good guys mate
Don't get too full of yourself. A lot of bad went with the good. The British textile industry extended the existence of American slavery by at least 60 years. They were the chief supplier of weapons to the Confederacy and even assisted Confederate guerrillas in the St. Albans, Vermont raid. They didn't do a damn thing for the Polish in 1939 despite their promises. During the massive Indian famine of 1942-43, Churchill denied the Canadians prmission to send their excess grain supplies because he was pissed at Ghandi. Thousands died!💀
even when they stopped slavery (but kept it in certain parts of the empire, paid off the slavers not the enslaved, and substituted it with indentured servitude which often looked remarkably like slavery) they pivoted to a new income source: opium. And they fought two wars for the right to do so. The economic engine of the British Empire transitioned very smoothly from slavery to drug cartel. During this same period they engaged in ethnic cleansing of their own (including AFTER WWII). They were the good guys in their own eyes only.
This is one of the greatest IMAX experiences to date. The camera work was intense, the score was anxiety inducing, and I loved the use of time in this. It took a little while until you really grasp the concept they use, but once you recognize it you can see where paths intersect. This movie is very re-watchable and easily one of my favorite war movies. It wasn't very gory/bloody, but I still feel this movie did an amazing job capturing the absolute fear and hysteria that so many faced. Imagine being trapped on a beach, out in the open, without anywhere to go while planes randomly come by and drop bombs/spray bullets. I adore this movie for the fact that it does a solid job depicting real events and really shows the horror of war where people literally just lose hope even though they were so close to home. Phenomenal movie.
THIS MOVIE SIMPLY MUST BE WATCHED in pairing with Gary Oldmans "Darkest Hour" it's a genius telling of the politics behind all this and the speech that rallied a nation
Dunkirk pt 2 is Saving Private Ryan ? Give me strength!!! It’s another 18 months before America even comes into the war. What do you think the Brits did until you joined in?
It wasn't until the Geneva Convention that it was made a rule of war that you could not purposefully target medical personnel. I'm not sure if like, that is also the case for targeting civilians or if that has always been a war crime. Of course, militaries get around that today by simply claiming they didn't target them specifically. The thing I think is most horrifying about the ship sinking while they were all in it is the fact that the power on the ship goes out as the water starts flooding in. So it's so dark, that when you get submerged, you don't even know which direction is towards the surface of the water.
My grandad was taken off the beach at Dunkirk, went back at D-Day+1 and fought through to end up in Aachen in Germany when the war ended. I remember as an eleven year old in 83 asking him if he was scared at Dunkirk. He just smiled and said there was no point in being scared, if your number was up it was up....
A few unrealistic things in this, firstly the beach would have been way more crowded, Nolan wanted to shoot on the actual Dunkirk beach with no cgi, so that’s why there’s not many people. The British navy allowed french soldiers onboard just the same as British forces, And the spitfires would have had enough fuel for a round trip.
Yes, Spitfires could round trip over the Channel. However, unlike US fighters which prioritised range, Spitfires were optimised for home defence so they typically had more armour and firepower than range. What they could not do is have extended loiter time over the Channel (particularly when engaging in multiple firefights and having damage to their fuel guage.)
He had to sacrifice certain things to film practically. It's hard to argue with the results. And we are told how many people there are on the beach and how many were rescued, even if it doesn't quite look like it.
One of the most beautifly shot films--that shot with Farrier (Tom Hardy) gliding over the beach with the sun in the background + the fabulous music just gets me--I watch it a lot!
These civilian boats were sailing across a 26 mile shooting gallery. This was the majority of the British army, pushed to the English Channel by advancing Germany forces. Over 338,000 troops were evacuated by civilian boats.
My uncle was in WWII for six years as a front line infantry and he never said one word about it until he was 92 years old, and only because I specifically asked him, and it took him two years to agree to talk to me. It's NOT entertainment!!! Watching children watching war movies and going whoop whoop wow how exciting and then what shall we do now it's over? Pizza. It's YOU people who make war continue and people like Nolan who think somehow making a movie about war will what? Somehow stop war?
The mixed up sequences and stories of the film are due to three different but converging timelines. The troops on the beach and the mole scenes are set over one week. The small boats are set over one day and the aerial scenes are set over one hour. Thats why we see multiple perspectives of the same event, often in reverse order depending on who's perspective the shot us from.
Try to help dunkirk is extremely important that was mostly all of Britain's army not sll but so mamy the nazis had incirceled them and french soldiers. They had to if not how could they fight back. Luckily they made it home and hitler never invaded cause he didnt see them as a threat then surprise attacked Russia and that was an even bloodier and more brutal battle. Aftwr the battle of Kursk and Stalingrad russia was able to fight back and push them back but lost millions. And when uma entered the wra Stalin told the allies to open a second front, he had lost millions russia was hitlers main goal. The conference of all 3 I'm pretty sure u can find on youtube btw stalin and Churchill and FDR
The use of Nimrod (the music playing when Hardy's plane lands) is probably the most moving and patriotic part of the whole film. For me Nimrod is the greatest piece of British music ever composed.
At the outbreak of WW2, my father joined the RAF and became a mechanic working on spitfires, especially in North Africa. Another brother also joined the RAF and served in northern Australia facing the Japanese. His second brother joined the Royal Horse Artillery and was one of those taken off the beach at Dunkirk, and subsequently was at El Alamein with Montgomery. At El Alamein he was the only survivor of his eight-man gun crew when a German shell landed among them.
850 small boats sailed. European PoWs were treated better than Russians, who died horribly in captivity, sometimes 90%, as the Nazis considered them subhuman. Always beware those who “other” or delegitimise people, or consider groups not fully human, for that is the seed bed of such outrages.
One of the extras on the dvd shows how they did the aerial sequences. Those Spitfires flying over the boat were real. The actor playing Mark Rylance's characters son says he wasn't acting at that point. His reaction was genuine
I've never seen anyone talk about this, but part of the reason the British couldn't accept French troops onto their ships is that the French would have needed authorisation from their own command to retreat. Without that authorisation, the troops in question would be considered deserters. Also, the civilian boats' job was to bring troops from the beach to deeper water where they could be transferred to larger Navy vessels. That way, the Navy could avoid its ships being sitting ducks at the very limited number of available moles.
Although, my mother, a Red Cross nurse at the time, was rushed to the English coast specifically to nurse French soldiers who’d been rescued from Dunkirk because she could speak fluent French.
I loved the decision to not show the German soldiers until the end, and even then it was just silhouettes. Made them feel like more of a force of terror.
I think you guys misunderstood what Operation Dynamo was the Navy etc didn't abandon the British Expeditionary Force, they were picking up constantly, but the civilian response was in response to the government's request for all civilian craft to assist, so they would form up often alongside Naval vessels to make the journey. Additionally the larger naval ships needed to use the pier, which wasn't going to be enough, whereas civilian ships could get up to the beach.
21 miles from British shores to France, thousands of stranded allied soldiers stranded on a length of beach. Churchill called for anyone with any type of boat to volunteer to save our soldiers, who were injured and depleted of any energy. One thing about us Brits is that we stand together and die together.
My grandad was evacuated from Dunkirk and came home when my mum was two months old. He was then posted to North Africa where he fought the Italians and the Germans again. He came home in 1943 when my mum was three and that is all she can remember of him because he was posted to India and then Burma where he was killed in action on 02/02/45. Another six months and he would've made it all the way through.
Britain was desperately defending its beaches, the Soviets were locked in endless combat losing mass swathes of its land and then after ages finally taking it back inch after inch, Australia and the other Oceanic countries facing the brutal and cruel overwhelming force of the Japanese. All while America was sitting pretty, waiting for the rest of the world to be so weak that taking control of the world was a piece of cake. All just so they could take the same violent and dehumanising governing methods Germany and Italy and Japan used and refined it, exported it off to far-off hidden corners of the world instead of their direct neighbours. It's ironic how quickly and easily the USA incorporated all those ideals and policies from them, considering Hitler himself stated he was greatly inspired by the historic actions and methods of the American Governments up until that point
@@gg_sam7847 I hate to jump in the way of your 'I hate America' train, but until mid 1941 (6 months before pearl harbour), the Soviets and Germans were allies, including a joint invasion of Poland in 1939. Meanwhile the US was supplying GB with an awful lot of supplies and material, and things such as the 'Destroyers for bases' initiative. While I grant that the US hasn't always been on the right side of history, comparing the US and Nazi Germany is just a gross misunderstanding of the last 80 years. Especially when held against the actions of other powers of the time like the Soviets, I'm sure the Holodomor, Katyn massacre, the NKVD operations in 'liberated' nations after WW2 are all completely forgivable for you. Let's also remember the huge amount of material, vehicles, aircraft and other supplies from the US and UK that allowed the Soviets to sustain this endless combat while the US was sitting pretty, without which they would simply have collapsed.
@@gg_sam7847America wasn’t waiting for the world to be weak so they could take over. They just didn’t want to jump straight into fighting. They were still feeling the effects of WWI and didn’t want to repeat it. But it’s not like they just sat idly by either. They were constantly trying to play negotiator between the Allies and Axis and they were delivering supplies to the British, Soviets and Chinese. You make it sound like they just sat there watching but they were involved even before joining the war.
@@joshcorbett9674 Most of the lend lease shipments arrived after the Battle of Stalingrad. That's easily verifiable. If they didn't need Lend Lease to win that battle, and subsequent battles, then it follows that the lend lease program only hastened an otherwise inevitable victory. Your claim about the USSR "collapsing" without it is fatuous.
So the "mole" is actually the wall around the harbour which keeps big waves from getting in. Usually ships wouldn't tie up to this and people wouldn't get on/off from it but by this point all of the piers were destroyed and larger ships couldn't get into the harbour anyway - the sea around the mole was deep enough to tie these larger ships up to the mole alongside, meaning you could move more people off faster.
one thing about the "where is the air force" line the raf was actually present at the Dunkirk evacuation and fought tooth and nail to try secure the sky, how ever due to the extremely over cast day many of the solders on the ground had no idea that the raf where actually there, so the raf didn't actually get any recognition of their role in the evacuation until some time after. also the british expeditionary force or the BEF where sent to counter Germanys invasion of france but they ultimately failed however britian did have a large involvement in Asia, pacific, Africa and Italy before the Dday landings.
This was really made for the big screen to get the full intensity of visuals and sound. It doesn't really work on a tv, especially without a proper sound system.
The timeline of this movie is very confusing, but it works like this: For the troops, the story plays out over 1 week. In fact, the rescue took 9 days, but this story covers 7 of those days. For the civilian rescue boats, the story plays out over 24 hours, because that's how long it took for one boat to cross the Channel both ways. For the aviators, the story plays out over 1 hour, because that's how long they could stay in the air on their fuel. During the rescue in real life, the boats made numerous trips back and forth, and the aerial combat was going on over the Channel the whole time, trying to protect the troops and boats, but the troops might not have been aware of anything that was going on over the water. Also, fyi, Dunkirk was at the start of the war. D-Day signaled the beginning of the end of the war.
In the mid 1960s I was in hospital in a men's ward, as an 11 year old, and there was a guy in one of the beds who was in his fifties, and had been at Dunkirk. He'd been in the water when he got shot and his friend had drowned next to him and he was still traumatised by it all.
Your father must've been born in 1921 or 1922 if he was 23 years old during WW2 1945. If he's still alive, he would be more than a 100 years old. That would make you atleast in your 80s or 70s dude. Stop the bullshit with made up stories.
My great uncle was at Dunkirk in the army, he was one of those who got back, fought through the second world war and returned for D Day. He was shot in the leg on VE day when someone messing around with a gun accidentally hit him. He died in the 1990's.
The British Expeditionary Force and the best units of the French army moved forwards into Belgium to stop the German advance but the Main German thrust cut through supposedly impassable terrain to get behind them, cutting the allied forces in two and a significant portion of the BEF and other allied troops fell back on Dunkirk to escape the trap they found themselves in. A number of naval vessels were evacuating the troops but it needed all those little ships to help get those guys off the beaches before it was too late.
The Royal Navy had massive naval superiority over the Kriegsmarine in general, but they did suffer heavy losses from Luftwaffe bombers in the course of the operation. A big feature of it would have been the fight to keep German Torpedo Boats (E-Boats) out of the Channel and away from the evacuation area. E-Boats could have smashed up the small boats, but there again the Royal Navy had superiority with it's own MTBs as well as Destroyers whose original design purpose as a ship-type was precisely to destroy torpedo boats. There were similar naval battles and evacuations in the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea with Soviet amphibious operations and evacuations, but I've yet to see any movies about them.
I was born 20 Year's after the war so I knew all the stories. But Even in Britain We helped each other. With even women all helping out to do their duty. It was very sad. But I'm Proud To Call Myself An English Women. And I Want to Thank Everyone who gave me my freedom. And Right Now Our Freedom Is Being Compromised By A Weak Government That Britain Has Never Seen Before 😢 FREEDOM ✊✊✊🇬🇧🏴🇬🇧🏴
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rules? in war? yea, thats like saying thers a speed limit when theres a multi car crash on the freeway. i see flames, im out that bitch asap
I hope you'll consider a reaction to THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN (1969) - in my opinion the best WW2 flying movie made to date and along with Midway and Stalingrad one of the first turning points of WW2. : )
There's a perfect movie that works as precuel to this movie. the Drkest Hour with Gary Oldman
Watch the original Dunkirk film with John Mills.
You should watch Churchill if you haven't already it's about leading to d day but about the leadership
What the soldiers didn't know was the air force was there fighting but they were keeping the majority of the German air force from reaching Dunkirk
My maternal grandfather was one of those soldiers trapped on the beach at Dunkirk, waiting for rescue. He wouldn't speak much about his experiences but one of the few things he did tell us that when he finally got on a ship (one of the larger navy ones) he was crammed together with so many other men that there was no room to move at all and he immediately fell asleep from exhaustion standing up.
He was so grateful to the Navy that once he was home again he requested that his service be transferred from the Army to the Royal Navy and he spent most of the next 4 years of war serving aboard a Destroyer escorting the merchant convoys across the Atlantic and to Russia and protecting them from u-boats.
20 of the small boats seen in this film were the actual boats that took part in the Dunkirk evacuation.
I didn't know that1
Navi is correct about the U-Boats. The Germans had limited resources and there were much higher priority targets than escaping civilian ships. German U-Boats came equipped with guns on deck which were used to damage and take out smaller ships. Torpedoes were mainly used against larger targets.
Yeah, just too many targets to try destroy. Going to spend thousands using a torpedo that could destroy a warship to destroy a little wooden ship? Not worth trying to counter that rescue attempt.
Also Göring talked Hitler into believing he could destroy the British Troops only with his Air Force.
So Hitler believed this shit and ordered the Forces a long needed Break close ot Dunkirk...
Of Course Air Force alone was not able to stop the British/French FOrces from retreating...
Germany had the Defeat of Great britain on its hands....and lost it because typical Fucking Fat Nazi Ego took over...
I think it was just to risky, the channel is REALLY shallow, it will be suicidal to operate a submarine at day on that region
Torpedo probably would just pass beneath the boat and go on its merry way anyway
@@josueroberto7356I was going to basically say this.
Torpedo couldn't hit those smaller boats because of their draft, they just don't sit low enough in the water for a torpedo to ever be a real threat.
The second a U-boat surfaces in that kind of circumstance to fire it's deck cannon, it makes itself a huge target of opportunity.
So Mr. Dawson, is actually based on a real life figure of Charles Lightholler (who lived down the road from me in Ramsgate) who was 2nd Officer of the Titanic and the senior officer to survive the disaster. He sailed out to Dunkirk and rescued 130 soldiers in a boat designed for 20 people. Apparently, he felt that this 'redeemed' him after being unable to rescue so many from the Titanic.
damn fucking right it did, my god. what a champ
Context of this is that if Britain didn't get those troops back they would basically be out of the war as they were short of troops, weapons and even ammunition. If they were out of the war then the US never gets involved and the Nazi's basically win in Europe. That's why this event is considered such a huge deal.
Absolutely correct. Hitler would have had 300,000 hostages and we'd have had to make terms with him. Dunkirk kept the war alive the West and meant Hitler was unable to commit all of his forces against Russia, who even so came within a hairs breadth of defeat at Stalingrad. It also allowed for the massing of American might in British bases, a few miles off the French coast.
Dunkirk was on May 26th - 4th June 4 1940
America wouldn't enter the war until Dec 6th 1941
D-day was on June 6th 1944
The war ended in Europe in May 8th 1945
Germany lost the war in east in 1943
Italy switched sides in 1943
Japan didn't surrendered until September 2th, 1945
Germany did not take France. France surrendered on 22 June 1940.
@@dcoughla681 I never said Germany took france. Did you not read my comment?
I didn’t mean you. One of the Homies said it at 05:44. Sorry for the lack of clarity.
@@dcoughla681 that's fine. best to edit your last post so everyone know the truth.
2th?
Michael Caine playing Fortis Leader as a nod to him being the Squadron Leader in Battle of Britain(1969) is one of my favorite things about the movie!
It was the first victory of the British Army during WW2, thanks to countless civilian boatowners, who rescued their soldiers within a few days. As a German🇩🇪 I pay the highest respect to this kind of common sense and effort of the English! BRITANNIA RULE THE WAVES!🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧
What a lovely comment. This Brit thanks you kindly.
Just to explain the 'little ships', after the Navy requisitioned the boats (850 of them), a lot of the boat owners decided that they knew how to handle their ships better than some random Navy guy and volunteered to take them over the Channel themselves. The small boats were needed because they could go into much shallower water than the larger Navy ships. The Mark Rylance character is broadly based on Charles Lightoller, the former second officer on the TITANIC. (Dunkirk was June 1940 - Pearl Harbor, Dec 1941 - D-Day, June 1944)
More about Charles Lightoller. He was twice decorated for bravery in World War 1. It was his youngest son that had joined the RAF, and was killed early in the war. His middle son was a second lieutenant with the Third Infantry, who were among those stranded at Dunkirk. He was evacuated roughly 48 hours before Lightoller and the other "little ships" made their journey.
Right, without the smaller civilian boats getting through the shallow waters to the soldiers trapped on the beach at Dunkirk, the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force in France would not have succeeded. The larger ships made for large targets for both German bombers and U-Boats and required docks and piers out in the deep water for the British soldiers to board, taking valuable time. Bear in mind that while the British were making their desperate escape, the remaining French forces were fighting a desperate rear-guard action so that the British could escape to continue the fight against Nazi Germany.
The pilot Tom Hardy plays actually landed within range of British troops and they were able to pick him up and transport him back safely. The ending is dramatized with him landing behind enemy lines
I was wondering about that. Some people who saw the movie complained that he looked like he was deserting.
@@MrReded69 Well those people are morons. Seriously, how dumb would you have to be to think he was deserting lol.
Fun Fact: Michael Caine played a hidden cameo as Fortis Leader (guy on the radio in Spitfire at the beginning). This was a homage to his role as a squadron leader in 1968’s Battle of Britain movie.
Hans Zimmer incorporating Nimrod into the score as the plane lands on the beach is just spectacular
Elgars Nimrod is by far my favourite piece of music…. I shall have at my funeral!
I know right!!! I was hanging on pretty well there until the end but when those horns got going my eyes began sweating hard and never stopped. Amazing score. Masterpiece of a film. I know Oppenheimer is getting a lot of attention right now but i think this and The Prestige nudge ahead for me, as the top Nolan films. To be fair, there's like a hairs bredth distance between all of his and any one of them could be argued as his 'best' but this is a 'perfect' film to me. There is absolutely nothing i would change.
My Irish born grandfather went through Dunkirk. Later in the war he volunteered as a paratrooper and fought on D Day and jumped into Arnhem during Operation Market Garden. He was one of only a few thousand of 1st Airborne Division to escape and later joined 6th Airborne Division. He was among those troops who liberated Bergan-Belsen concentration camp (where Anne Frank died). As the war ended he was in the Far East, practising for the expected invasion of Japan. My Dad later served as a British Army Para but was not involved in any famous actions. This movie makes me proud.
What a fucking legend
Well at least one Irish man who can be proud of his actions during WW2
There were so many people from that generation who were brave beyond belief. Imagine volunteering after knowing the horrors you're about to face, but still going through with it. I cannot even imagine doing something like that. Better men than me.
@@danielholt1984 Around 80,000 Irish men and women served in the British military during WW2. Many of them from the Nuetral Irish Free State. Even though they were labeled 'deserters' by the State government and were ostracized from government work by DeValera's fascistic government if they returned post-war. Between 5000 to 10,000 died.
Added to this were Free State war and agricultural workers who were also at risk from bombing raids and later missile attacks.
So there was far more than just 'one'.
Regarding the planned invasion of Japan: the US military put in a massive order for half a million Purple Heart medals in anticipation of the outcome. Because the invasion never happened, the glut of medals kept the military stocked for decades, through Korea, Vietnam, and Iraq. There was never an accurate inventory kept, but as of 2000, there were still more than 100,000. The old medals are mixed randomly with later fabrications, but there haven't been 100,000 injuries in the past quarter-century, so the chances remain good for receiving a medal fabricated 80 years ago.
FYI, the English Channel/North Sea is murky rather than blue because it used to be above sea level (the lost land is known as Doggerland) but was flooded and submerged after the end of the last ice age. Because it is shallow (average depth is about 63 metres/207 feet) the soil frequently gets churned up by storms and turns the water a muddy colour.
I live in Brighton which is on the English Channel. If it’s a clear, sunny day I can see France
That is crazy..
@@satwikk9896how is that crazy we are closer to France than Ireland
I live in Brighton, no you can't see France.
@@johncox5411Specsavers can help.
My paternal Grandfather was one of those brave men holding their position to evacuate in Dunkirk, and was able to get back on a large navy destroyer. He didn't talk about it much apart from the smell of grease, munitions, corpses, and sea water. God bless every man and woman that fought for our freedom in our darkest hour.
Dude yelling "EJECT!" didn't know there were no ejection seats in WW2, apparently.
Yes but there were other ways to eject
Maybe he meant bail out, but either way, i they don't understand an intentional ditch.
There were some, by the end. The Shinden (Godzilla Minus One prototype plane) had one, curiously enough.
Not everyone is a WW2/plane buff, you dunce.
@@dragerdet Literally opening the canopy and climbing out was one way. Intentionally crashing into the ground was another.
When it was announced, the short-ish running time worried me as it was a HUGE moment in WWII.
But Nolan did an amazing job of taking a week-long military engagement and turning it into a lean, super-efficient film, with non-stop tension while still getting across the main points.
nah the movie is for based on a real thing dogshit
it has good music and style but its not accurate nor is it close to history
the older Movies about Dunkirk are better
Nolans Dunkirk is his worst work for me
A movie called 'The Battle of Britain' should be your next one as it follows this timeline and is well worth the watch. Packed with famous actors most who are long gone and much missed.
The evacuation of Dunkirk is celebrated and remembered here in the UK despite it resulting from a huge failure for our forces.
The 500,000 men of the British Expeditionary Force went to France to assist in defending against the Nazi invasion, but they were overwhelmed by the German Blitzkrieg tactics. They were forced to retreat all the way back to Dunkirk until they were trapped against the channel.
Hitler knew he had the opportunity to annihilate the British forces in one effort and knock Britain out of the war forever so he threw everything he could at us.
What is often overlooked is the valiant, gritty defence put up by the french forces to defend the retreating British and prevent the Germans getting close enough to the beach to shell them into oblivion.
They knew that their own military had failed, and that saving the British forces to keep Britain in the fight was their last hope and eventually defeating the invaders.
Getting to watch this in IMAX was one of the most unforgettable movie theater going experiences I've ever had. The sound engineering was so incredibly well executed that it was tricking my brain into thinking that real bullets are flying at me! I was literally crouching as low as possible in the theater seat because my body was in fight-or-flight mode while watching a movie. I knew that I was perfectly safe, but my body was SCREAMING.
Remarkable film to experience in IMAX 👏👏👏
Yep, saw it in IMAX as well, and the sound design and mixing was absolutely incredible.
I unfortunately didn’t get to see this in IMAX. However at the time I had just bought some bass boost Sony headphones, and watched this at home with those headphones and instantly was astounded at the sound design. Making me wish to hear that IMAX sound.
A good unintentional companion to this movie is Darkest Hour with Gary Oldman showing the events leading to Dunkirk and Churchills fight for his first few weeks as Prime Minister. Great look into the awful politics he had to fight against to even keep fighting Hitler, highly recommend that for a reaction
Seconded. It's in Netflix. And very few people react to it, so you'd prob get some more viewers based on that
The original Dunkirk movie is also a good companion as it literally had a cast of thousands and really captured the desperate plight of those under fire on the beach. The scale of the human cost isn't really reflected by Nolan's film.
Yep well worth watching that too!
The u boats were most likely targeting cargo ships, food ammunition ship to reduce Englands ability to fight
That ending part on the train always makes me tear up. Those men thought they were going to be bombarded on the streets with hate and being coward....only to come home with applause and love.
Was lucky enough to win tickets from a radio morning show to the NYC premiere of this movie. Was sitting right in front Harry Styles. Shit was crazy.
damn that must've been awesome wow!
The old boat captain with his sons was retired Seaman Hightoller. Survived the Titanic, WW1, and took part in Operation Dynamo in Dunkirk. His son, an off duty RAF pilot, taught him how to evade oncoming aerial bombs on the open sea. Xx
The blond guy with his dad is Aegon from House of the Dragon lol
dang it you're right! 😅
the 300,000 men and materials brought off the beaches of Dunkirk allowed the British to keep the war going. without those men, who knows if the island nation could have held out long enough for America to get into the fight.
The movie dosent talk much about the French but their desperate rearguard sacrifice by the last relatively organised French units allowed the evacuation to take place
Well it is shown at the start the French are fighting in the city, and at the end Commander Bolton says he's staying for the French. You can only fit so much in.
@@TahiriVeila13ABY I mean they could have definitely fit in a bit more if they wanted to.
@@Kkttrr31643 yeah maybe a few lines from some of the re-occuring characters. or maybe one of the sons ask his dad why the germans have not captured the soldiers on the beach
A whole British Division plus added on smaller units stayed behind to cover the evacuation, facing capture at best.
Jack Lowden, who plays the pilot Collins, is in a show on Apple TV+ called Slow Horses. It's a British spy thriller/comedy and it's really freaking good. Gary Oldman is also in the show and he's fantastic.
They should really do a reaction to Slow Horses. I think they'd love Jackson Lamb.
It's an alright show. Other than Oldman it's nothing special.
Talked over the best lines:
“Officially Churchill says we’re standing with the French fighting to the end.”
“Unofficially?”
“We need our army back.”
Between 1940 and 1944 is four years. The Allies (without the US) were in Norway, Greece, Crete, North Africa, Egypt, Tunisia, Sicily (with the US) Italy, Malaya, Singapore, Burma during those four years, and the USSR fought and took the heart out of the German army between 1941 and 1944 (and then to 1945) and THEN in June 1944 it was D Day. But the USSR had already destroyed Germany and basically won the war for everyone by then. D Day was the second front Russia had been begging for for the previous two years. The war in Europe ended in May1945 and the Allies landed at Normandy in June 1944. By then - again - the Russians had basically crushed German forces. If the Allies had not landed in Europe on D Day, Russia would have won the war on its own anyway. D-Day was just some help to Russia to end the war a bit more quickly.
Darkest Hour by Joe Wright is the perfect accompaniment to Dunkirk. It documents the first few weeks of Winston Churchill’s time in office as Prime Minister and the challenging politics that was being navigated in London while the evacuation was taking place
My great grandfather was evacuated at Dunkirk, then was one of the soldiers to land on Sword beach four years later on D-day. Never spoke to my grandad about the war but we knew he’d been a part of these events.
At this point, Britain didn’t know for sure that America would join the war. And the German Uboats were absolute menaces to any ship in the Atlantic or channel.
America barely joined the war in Europe their main war was japan
@@thatguy1599 Are... are you daft? The US lost almost 3 times as many men in the European theater than in the Pacific. And material loses suffered were almost triple in the European theater. The war in Europe was a bigger more involved, costlier endeavour than it's Pacific counterpart.
"Barely joined the war in Europe"... might be the dumbest thing I've read in a comment section in years. I'm actually stunned by how ignorant that comment was. Do a little research my guy.
I really shouldn't read comments... it's a minefield of stupidity and ignorance.
@@thatguy1599watching movies you’d think it was the other way around between the British and the Americans someone needs to make a movie about an proper war movie about the British
i nursed veterans of WW2 in a nursing home for veterans only in Belfast UK from all services including soldiers that survived Dunkirk they never spoke of it LWF
This is Nolan's best movie and arguably one of the best movies of all time. The concept , style , magnitude , music , direction , emotion are fresh and new unlike other Nolan films. This one stands out to be fresh and most unique among Nolan's great catalogue.
Agreed couldn't have said it better myself!✨🔥🫶🏾
its depicting the Battle of Dunkirk totaly unacurate and wrong
its not good
(well maybe it is if youre a unaducated murican guy who cant even tell when his own country entered the war)
im sorry its god musik good looking thats it
Interesting fact: Most of the 'small boats' in the movie were really there in 1940 and were preserved.
Don't forget that Britain was being hammered by the Blitz, which was not just in London, it was countrywide on specific industrial targets. Where I live today, my local shops are less than half a mile away and six bombs were dropped between us. The amazing thing about Dunkirk was that there were hundreds of thousands of British troops retreating to the beach at Dunkirk so a call went out to the "little boats" so people who knew how to sail boats, from Thames tourist boats, to individual sailors who had a small boat on the river (don't forget that as an island no-one is over 100 miles from the sea). And there was a massive flotilla of the little boats to take the forces from the beach to the bigger boats. Check out the film Mrs Miniver, which shows how the locals put their lives at risk to save the British forces so they could fight another day.
Seen this commented already, but you guys should watch darkest hour with Gary Oldman as Churchill. It’s a great companion to this film in that it shows what was happening back in Britain while the Germans closed in on Dunkirk.
"Eject"
There is no ejection seat in combat planes yet... you have to jump out or crash land the plane. Jumping out is reliant on being high up as you only have a old slow opening none controllable parachute.
Eject? I think you mean bail out since these planes don't have ejection seats.
This film really needs to be watched alongside Darkest Hour to tell a more complete story. But this one shows the horror of war where the other explains everything the ordinary soldier doesn't see.
The captain of the little boat featured in this film was an officer on the Titanic when it sank. He then served in the Royal Navy in World War 1. A true hero who saved many lives in WW2
You should watch some classic black and white 50s and 60s british war movies. The storylines are a lot better. The cruel sea , ice cold in Alex, Dunkirk, the dambusters, sink the bismark, sea of sand , tobruk.
Star Wars reference: "stay on target, stay on target....." during the dogfight with the Spitfires, George Lucas actually used clips from the Battle of Britain film to get his special effects team to copy for the attack on the Death Star at the end of the movie.
Aw, poor Kenneth Branagh. They recognized all these actors, but nobody yelled "It's Kenneth Branagh!" God, I feel old now. (Edit: Oh! Chris knew who it was. Nevermind!)
LOL "That's such a dick move! Let them retreat!" My dude, you do know they're Nazis, right? 🤣
I just realized one of the brothers is Aegon Targaryen from HOTD
Great job, guys. Other war movies I recommend are Das Boot, All Quiet on the Western Front, Lawrence of Arabia, Zulu and The Great Escape.
Dunkirk had pretty much the entire british army so getting them off the beach was essential. There was ample of reasons for the germans to finish off these troops. I think Britian then lost a ton of men during operation garden. I mean it makes sense why they no longer were able to keep their position in the world after WWII.
Do you mean Operation Market Garden 4 years later? Yes the British had lost whole lot of people all over the world by then. Even the USA had time join in after the war had been going on for 3 years. (Britain stepped up and declared war on Nazi Germany because it was the right thing to do. USA only did when they were directly attacked by Japan.) A lot of history behind Britain's postcolonial shrinkage, and a lot of it was due to changing attitudes to the rights and sovereignty of colonial people. For most of the past 200 years Britain was mostly the Good Guys. Among other things, it's why we ended the international slave trade at a huge cost in blood and treasure in opposition to almost every country in the world.
@@michaelnolan6951 Is that what they teach you in school? That Britain was 'mostly' the good guys for the 2 centuries prior to WWII?
@@michaelnolan6951good guys according to who lol? Britain was also the biggest part of the slave trade in the first place, and allowed it to continue in certain parts of the empire for the best part of a generation. And when they ended the slave trade they just pivoted to opium instead. We were NEVER the good guys mate
Don't get too full of yourself.
A lot of bad went with the good. The British textile industry extended the existence of American slavery by at least 60 years. They were the chief supplier of weapons to the Confederacy and even assisted Confederate guerrillas in the St. Albans, Vermont raid.
They didn't do a damn thing for the Polish in 1939 despite their promises. During the massive Indian famine of 1942-43, Churchill denied the Canadians prmission to send their excess grain supplies because he was pissed at Ghandi. Thousands died!💀
even when they stopped slavery (but kept it in certain parts of the empire, paid off the slavers not the enslaved, and substituted it with indentured servitude which often looked remarkably like slavery) they pivoted to a new income source: opium. And they fought two wars for the right to do so. The economic engine of the British Empire transitioned very smoothly from slavery to drug cartel. During this same period they engaged in ethnic cleansing of their own (including AFTER WWII). They were the good guys in their own eyes only.
This is one of the greatest IMAX experiences to date. The camera work was intense, the score was anxiety inducing, and I loved the use of time in this. It took a little while until you really grasp the concept they use, but once you recognize it you can see where paths intersect. This movie is very re-watchable and easily one of my favorite war movies. It wasn't very gory/bloody, but I still feel this movie did an amazing job capturing the absolute fear and hysteria that so many faced. Imagine being trapped on a beach, out in the open, without anywhere to go while planes randomly come by and drop bombs/spray bullets. I adore this movie for the fact that it does a solid job depicting real events and really shows the horror of war where people literally just lose hope even though they were so close to home. Phenomenal movie.
THIS MOVIE SIMPLY MUST BE WATCHED in pairing with Gary Oldmans "Darkest Hour" it's a genius telling of the politics behind all this and the speech that rallied a nation
Dunkirk pt 2 is Saving Private Ryan ? Give me strength!!!
It’s another 18 months before America even comes into the war. What do you think the Brits did until you joined in?
It wasn't until the Geneva Convention that it was made a rule of war that you could not purposefully target medical personnel. I'm not sure if like, that is also the case for targeting civilians or if that has always been a war crime. Of course, militaries get around that today by simply claiming they didn't target them specifically.
The thing I think is most horrifying about the ship sinking while they were all in it is the fact that the power on the ship goes out as the water starts flooding in. So it's so dark, that when you get submerged, you don't even know which direction is towards the surface of the water.
fun fact, the main characters actor (fionn whitehead) this was his first movie. he worked at a coffee shop before this
My grandad was taken off the beach at Dunkirk, went back at D-Day+1 and fought through to end up in Aachen in Germany when the war ended. I remember as an eleven year old in 83 asking him if he was scared at Dunkirk. He just smiled and said there was no point in being scared, if your number was up it was up....
Thank you Spidey for the save at the beginning. I heard 40 years and, as a History major, was like 😭
I know me too.
A few unrealistic things in this, firstly the beach would have been way more crowded, Nolan wanted to shoot on the actual Dunkirk beach with no cgi, so that’s why there’s not many people.
The British navy allowed french soldiers onboard just the same as British forces,
And the spitfires would have had enough fuel for a round trip.
Yes, Spitfires could round trip over the Channel. However, unlike US fighters which prioritised range, Spitfires were optimised for home defence so they typically had more armour and firepower than range. What they could not do is have extended loiter time over the Channel (particularly when engaging in multiple firefights and having damage to their fuel guage.)
You just had to be that guy didn't you. Nitpicking
@@itzbp9949 hahah sorry, the Dunkirk scenes in Atonement are a better representation of the crowds and chaos.
@@joesteel7409 yes I agree but still what nolan did here is still pretty spectacular. What he managed to achieve here is still pretty good
He had to sacrifice certain things to film practically. It's hard to argue with the results. And we are told how many people there are on the beach and how many were rescued, even if it doesn't quite look like it.
One of the most beautifly shot films--that shot with Farrier (Tom Hardy) gliding over the beach with the sun in the background + the fabulous music just gets me--I watch it a lot!
These civilian boats were sailing across a 26 mile shooting gallery. This was the majority of the British army, pushed to the English Channel by advancing Germany forces. Over 338,000 troops were evacuated by civilian boats.
My uncle was in WWII for six years as a front line infantry and he never said one word about it until he was 92 years old, and only because I specifically asked him, and it took him two years to agree to talk to me. It's NOT entertainment!!! Watching children watching war movies and going whoop whoop wow how exciting and then what shall we do now it's over? Pizza. It's YOU people who make war continue and people like Nolan who think somehow making a movie about war will what? Somehow stop war?
The second part of Dunkirk would be The Great Escape with Tom Hardy's character being one of the team leaders.
The mixed up sequences and stories of the film are due to three different but converging timelines. The troops on the beach and the mole scenes are set over one week. The small boats are set over one day and the aerial scenes are set over one hour. Thats why we see multiple perspectives of the same event, often in reverse order depending on who's perspective the shot us from.
Try to help dunkirk is extremely important that was mostly all of Britain's army not sll but so mamy the nazis had incirceled them and french soldiers. They had to if not how could they fight back. Luckily they made it home and hitler never invaded cause he didnt see them as a threat then surprise attacked Russia and that was an even bloodier and more brutal battle. Aftwr the battle of Kursk and Stalingrad russia was able to fight back and push them back but lost millions. And when uma entered the wra Stalin told the allies to open a second front, he had lost millions russia was hitlers main goal. The conference of all 3 I'm pretty sure u can find on youtube btw stalin and Churchill and FDR
Wow thats quite a HUGE amount of nonsense in one post... Well done !!!
I recommend listening to "Supermarine" by Hans Zimmer if you want to make any situation incredbly tense
The use of Nimrod (the music playing when Hardy's plane lands) is probably the most moving and patriotic part of the whole film. For me Nimrod is the greatest piece of British music ever composed.
35:02 when the engine spins the turbines with grease there’s no resistance against the water so the boat keeps slipping and can’t move.
At the outbreak of WW2, my father joined the RAF and became a mechanic working on spitfires, especially in North Africa. Another brother also joined the RAF and served in northern Australia facing the Japanese. His second brother joined the Royal Horse Artillery and was one of those taken off the beach at Dunkirk, and subsequently was at El Alamein with Montgomery. At El Alamein he was the only survivor of his eight-man gun crew when a German shell landed among them.
Sincerest respects to their service and memory.
WWII. There's no eject on airplanes.
850 small boats sailed.
European PoWs were treated better than Russians, who died horribly in captivity, sometimes 90%, as the Nazis considered them subhuman.
Always beware those who “other” or delegitimise people, or consider groups not fully human, for that is the seed bed of such outrages.
One of the extras on the dvd shows how they did the aerial sequences. Those Spitfires flying over the boat were real. The actor playing Mark Rylance's characters son says he wasn't acting at that point. His reaction was genuine
The civilian boats mostly delivered troops to Royal Navy Ships out in deep war.
I've never seen anyone talk about this, but part of the reason the British couldn't accept French troops onto their ships is that the French would have needed authorisation from their own command to retreat. Without that authorisation, the troops in question would be considered deserters.
Also, the civilian boats' job was to bring troops from the beach to deeper water where they could be transferred to larger Navy vessels. That way, the Navy could avoid its ships being sitting ducks at the very limited number of available moles.
Well over 100,000 were evacuated at the same time!
Although, my mother, a Red Cross nurse at the time, was rushed to the English coast specifically to nurse French soldiers who’d been rescued from Dunkirk because she could speak fluent French.
I loved the decision to not show the German soldiers until the end, and even then it was just silhouettes. Made them feel like more of a force of terror.
I think you guys misunderstood what Operation Dynamo was
the Navy etc didn't abandon the British Expeditionary Force, they were picking up constantly, but the civilian response was in response to the government's request for all civilian craft to assist, so they would form up often alongside Naval vessels to make the journey.
Additionally the larger naval ships needed to use the pier, which wasn't going to be enough, whereas civilian ships could get up to the beach.
21 miles from British shores to France, thousands of stranded allied soldiers stranded on a length of beach. Churchill called for anyone with any type of boat to volunteer to save our soldiers, who were injured and depleted of any energy. One thing about us Brits is that we stand together and die together.
My grandad was evacuated from Dunkirk and came home when my mum was two months old. He was then posted to North Africa where he fought the Italians and the Germans again. He came home in 1943 when my mum was three and that is all she can remember of him because he was posted to India and then Burma where he was killed in action on 02/02/45. Another six months and he would've made it all the way through.
At least quarter of a million British soldiers were rescued. That made the battle of Britain possible. The US turned up 18 months later.
Britain was desperately defending its beaches, the Soviets were locked in endless combat losing mass swathes of its land and then after ages finally taking it back inch after inch, Australia and the other Oceanic countries facing the brutal and cruel overwhelming force of the Japanese.
All while America was sitting pretty, waiting for the rest of the world to be so weak that taking control of the world was a piece of cake. All just so they could take the same violent and dehumanising governing methods Germany and Italy and Japan used and refined it, exported it off to far-off hidden corners of the world instead of their direct neighbours.
It's ironic how quickly and easily the USA incorporated all those ideals and policies from them, considering Hitler himself stated he was greatly inspired by the historic actions and methods of the American Governments up until that point
@@gg_sam7847 I hate to jump in the way of your 'I hate America' train, but until mid 1941 (6 months before pearl harbour), the Soviets and Germans were allies, including a joint invasion of Poland in 1939. Meanwhile the US was supplying GB with an awful lot of supplies and material, and things such as the 'Destroyers for bases' initiative.
While I grant that the US hasn't always been on the right side of history, comparing the US and Nazi Germany is just a gross misunderstanding of the last 80 years. Especially when held against the actions of other powers of the time like the Soviets, I'm sure the Holodomor, Katyn massacre, the NKVD operations in 'liberated' nations after WW2 are all completely forgivable for you.
Let's also remember the huge amount of material, vehicles, aircraft and other supplies from the US and UK that allowed the Soviets to sustain this endless combat while the US was sitting pretty, without which they would simply have collapsed.
@@gg_sam7847America wasn’t waiting for the world to be weak so they could take over. They just didn’t want to jump straight into fighting. They were still feeling the effects of WWI and didn’t want to repeat it. But it’s not like they just sat idly by either. They were constantly trying to play negotiator between the Allies and Axis and they were delivering supplies to the British, Soviets and Chinese. You make it sound like they just sat there watching but they were involved even before joining the war.
@@joshcorbett9674 Most of the lend lease shipments arrived after the Battle of Stalingrad. That's easily verifiable. If they didn't need Lend Lease to win that battle, and subsequent battles, then it follows that the lend lease program only hastened an otherwise inevitable victory. Your claim about the USSR "collapsing" without it is fatuous.
@@joshcorbett9674 ruclips.net/video/8FRmflmnTkc/видео.html
It was not so much a war movie, it was a movie about a war
Good film but the best version was the original 'Dunkirk' (1958).
Best part of this was at the beginning when the protag was getting shot up. "Is it Frederic Zoller?!"
So the "mole" is actually the wall around the harbour which keeps big waves from getting in. Usually ships wouldn't tie up to this and people wouldn't get on/off from it but by this point all of the piers were destroyed and larger ships couldn't get into the harbour anyway - the sea around the mole was deep enough to tie these larger ships up to the mole alongside, meaning you could move more people off faster.
one thing about the "where is the air force" line the raf was actually present at the Dunkirk evacuation and fought tooth and nail to try secure the sky, how ever due to the extremely over cast day many of the solders on the ground had no idea that the raf where actually there, so the raf didn't actually get any recognition of their role in the evacuation until some time after. also the british expeditionary force or the BEF where sent to counter Germanys invasion of france but they ultimately failed however britian did have a large involvement in Asia, pacific, Africa and Italy before the Dday landings.
This was really made for the big screen to get the full intensity of visuals and sound. It doesn't really work on a tv, especially without a proper sound system.
The timeline of this movie is very confusing, but it works like this: For the troops, the story plays out over 1 week. In fact, the rescue took 9 days, but this story covers 7 of those days. For the civilian rescue boats, the story plays out over 24 hours, because that's how long it took for one boat to cross the Channel both ways. For the aviators, the story plays out over 1 hour, because that's how long they could stay in the air on their fuel. During the rescue in real life, the boats made numerous trips back and forth, and the aerial combat was going on over the Channel the whole time, trying to protect the troops and boats, but the troops might not have been aware of anything that was going on over the water.
Also, fyi, Dunkirk was at the start of the war. D-Day signaled the beginning of the end of the war.
You guys should watch Masters of the air, it's great and shows a different perspective of the war (bombing)
I definitely agree
Yep a good one. Basically MOTA is the third companion series to Band Of Brothers and The Pacific.
In the mid 1960s I was in hospital in a men's ward, as an 11 year old, and there was a guy in one of the beds who was in his fifties, and had been at Dunkirk. He'd been in the water when he got shot and his friend had drowned next to him and he was still traumatised by it all.
My Father was captured with the rear guard at Dunkirk, and spent 5 years in POW camps. He was age 23 when captured.
Your father must've been born in 1921 or 1922 if he was 23 years old during WW2 1945. If he's still alive, he would be more than a 100 years old. That would make you atleast in your 80s or 70s dude. Stop the bullshit with made up stories.
If you want to watch an anti-war movie there’s a really intense movie called Come and See. No fun tho, just horror
My great uncle was at Dunkirk in the army, he was one of those who got back, fought through the second world war and returned for D Day. He was shot in the leg on VE day when someone messing around with a gun accidentally hit him. He died in the 1990's.
The British Expeditionary Force and the best units of the French army moved forwards into Belgium to stop the German advance but the Main German thrust cut through supposedly impassable terrain to get behind them, cutting the allied forces in two and a significant portion of the BEF and other allied troops fell back on Dunkirk to escape the trap they found themselves in. A number of naval vessels were evacuating the troops but it needed all those little ships to help get those guys off the beaches before it was too late.
The Spitfire was recovered a few years back. It has now being rebuilt,
I recommend the Tv Show Masters of the Air.
5:02 Quite possibly the greatest shot of any war movie ever created.
Somehow still ended up shouting America at the end even though they had F all to do with this...
My father was at Dunkirk and was one of those who survived the war
The Royal Navy had massive naval superiority over the Kriegsmarine in general, but they did suffer heavy losses from Luftwaffe bombers in the course of the operation. A big feature of it would have been the fight to keep German Torpedo Boats (E-Boats) out of the Channel and away from the evacuation area. E-Boats could have smashed up the small boats, but there again the Royal Navy had superiority with it's own MTBs as well as Destroyers whose original design purpose as a ship-type was precisely to destroy torpedo boats.
There were similar naval battles and evacuations in the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea with Soviet amphibious operations and evacuations, but I've yet to see any movies about them.
I was born 20 Year's after the war so I knew all the stories. But Even in Britain We helped each other. With even women all helping out to do their duty. It was very sad. But I'm Proud To Call Myself An English Women. And I Want to Thank Everyone who gave me my freedom. And Right Now Our Freedom Is Being Compromised By A Weak Government That Britain Has Never Seen Before 😢 FREEDOM ✊✊✊🇬🇧🏴🇬🇧🏴