Dunkirk

I've just got home from seeing it with DD(38) - an excellent film - wonderful cinematography, and a haunting score. Like most of us, I grew up watching all the war films from the 50s and 60s, and this one is as good if not better than most of those. the aerial passages were amazing, all the more for not being CGI "created", I hope it wins a few awards.

I was in Tesco today, and they had Joshua Levine's book Dunkirk for £2 if you bought the Sun. First time in my life I've bought that paper! It's gone in the recycling bin without being opened, though.
Got into conversation with three assistants about the film. Two had seen it, one had not. She is going to see it now.

I don't like war films much but the trailer looked brill and OH loves his war films so we have to go!
He wants to visit Dunkirk. Two years ago we went to Ypres and took a trip to Flanders field and other battlefields and graveyards.
Very humbling and moving.

It will be unpopular view I know, but I'm really tired of war nostalgia.

The director says it's not a film about war, but about survival.

Sorry, Eloethan, but I think it is important to know about war and for our grandchildren to know what happened to their greatgrandparents; otherwise complacency sets in, and we continue having wars because there is nobody to question what is happening in places like the middle east.
Before you know it we will be in the middle of a nuclear war because we have ignored what is happening.

If you look round the world durhamjen it is quite easy to see what war is and how horrendous its consequences are. War films and official commemorations appear not to have deterred people from going to war.

When organisations like the British Legion receive sponsorship from arms manufacturers, I find the whole concept of remembering and paying tribute to our war dead to be somewhat ironic.

I must admit I don't contribute to the British Legion, but prefer Hopenothate and any group that tries to stop the government arming Saudi Arabia.

However, I can't get away from the fact that my dad was at Dunkirk when he was 21. A film like this helps me to understand what he went through and why he wouldn't talk about it.
One man said, "We didn't do anything. All we did was survive."

If they hadn't....?

I would go and see it if I'd had a relative there, but my dad was in the RN and wasn't anywhere near Dunkirk fortunately. I don't like war films per se, too much noise, blood ,anything about Japanese POW camps etc . Horrible. It's important to remember these events but I wouldn't go to the cinema to see a "entertaining" film about war.

Mark Rylance's two grandfathers were POWs in Japan.

I've read a bit about Dunkirk on another forum, and what caught my imagination, as well as the sad stories of the rescued men, was the bravery of the little ships that went across the Chanel from Ramsgate to rescue them.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Ships_of_Dunkirk

I saw it yesterday. As durhamjen said, it isn't too gory but it is noisy at times. The cinematography is excellent, I felt sometimes i was in the ship that was under attack. my father and uncles all saw active service, though not at Dunkirk. I had read mixed reviews but I give it a very positive one.
it certainly brings hone again, the sacrifices made by my parents and grandparents generations.

My son, DIL granddaughter and her boyfriend went to see it last night. My dad was also there on the beaches and waited on that pier for a ship so I've got mixed feelings about watching it as I know I'll find it very emotional. They all said it was very good - boyfriend said it was the first time a film had given him goosebumps. I too think it's important the younger generation know the sacrifices their forebears made in both wars. My mum's fiancé was killed in the battle of Britain aged 19 too.

My stepfather was a POW in the Far East, captured at the fall of Singapore aged 22. He never ever spoke of it except to tell us after my mother died that he had had a Chinese girl friend of whom he had clearly been very fond; apparently they had a baby, the Japanese murdered them both.
My grandson aged 9 and I were recently looking at memorabilia about my father, when he turned to me and said very solemnly, 'Granny, it was very sad about your dad' You could say!! War is shocking and we need to remind ourselves and young people of this fact, and never forget.

Saw it tonight; was on the edge of my seat for most of the time. Need to watch it again at some point to piece together a lot of things. I love the way that the director doesn't treat time in the same way a others do albeit making for confusing viewing.I tried to find the programme about Dunkirk that the S.O. had seen, but was looking at BBC and not Ch4. Just hope my catchup is working tonight. Failing that I'll watch Inception and confuse my brain even more.

I was lucky enough to spend many happy times on Lamouette one of the little ships.

Did you have tears in your eyes when the little ships appeared over the horizon, Tegan?
You knew it was going to happen, but the relief!

I actually had tears in my eyes a few minutes into the film!!I'm still trying to watch the documentary; can't get it on the tv so having to watch it on the computer and it isn't very comfortable in this room.I kept thinking of the scene of the beach at Dunkirk towards the end of Atonement. I may go and see it again as my daughter needs to see it.It's certainly one of those films that needs to be seen at a cinema.

I'm wondering if there is a mention of Dnkirk in one of my favourite books; Melvyn Braggs 'Speak for England'. It's a long time since I read it. I need to dig it out from the archives. It's a book that left such an impression on my; the realisation that it's the 'ordinary' people that make history and need to have their stories told.

Found it; watching it now.
Levine is the author of the book I got for £2 from Tesco.
Terrible pictures of the town of Dunkirk, the ones that hadn't been seen before.

The Ch4 programme showed never before seen photos of Dunkirk that had only just been discovered.

Saw the film yesterday and if i had been at home watching on tv i would have turned off or walked out at some of the scenes, i found them too heartbreaking and had tears in my eyes most of the film.Kept thinking of my three sons and how i would have felt if they had experienced what those young men did, the absolute terror of not knowing if you were going to survive to get home!!!!

We are going to see Dunkirk today, tickets bought. Rather unusual in that the last time DH and I went to the cinema together it was to see Towering Inferno in the 70s.

We're going to see it today too, at our nearest IMAX. I was interested to read in this weekend's Observer that the French in general know little about the evacuation. The Vichy government reported that British troops were evacuated and theirs left behind to be taken prisoner. Whereas over a third of those brought to Britain were in fact French.

I suppose that's because the priority was to get British troops back first [they also refused to let RAF people onto the boats as they said they were for soldiers]and the French weren't rescued until the British were safe [this is going by what I saw in the film so I don't know if it's fact]. There were a lot of misconceptions about a lot of things, the main one at the time being the role the RAF played.

So was the ending real, Tegan?

That programme about the RAF showed that the army on the ground could not know what the RAF was doing as they were too high up.
Someone complained about there being only three planes in the film. Apparently there are only 35 Spitfires still in working order throughout the world.