"Dunkirk"

[PJ Hardtack]

T'ain't Cowboy, but I'm a history buff so I went to see this stinker.

Don't bother and don't even wait for the video. Pee-Yew !!!

[Major 2]

Thanks...I considered going.... Normally, I avoid the popcorn palaces ...Den's of rude yapping asshats, & "cough induced"  airborne maladies" ...unless it's really something I wanted to see.   

You saved me the ridiculous cost of admission.   


   

[Fingers McGee]

T'ain't Cowboy, but I'm a history buff so I went to see this stinker.

Don't bother and don't even wait for the video. Pee-Yew !!!

Thanks.  You just saved me a few bucks.  I'll wait till it's on one of the premium channels so I wont be paying just for it.

[Abilene]

Well, everyone has their opinions.  On Rotten Tomatoes site 93% of critics and 82% of viewers gave it a thumbs-up.  And IMDB site rated it 8.5/10 with 160,000 reviews.  I personally only go to the theater once a year at most, as my brother has a Netflix membership that lets him have 5 dvd's at home at a time, so I wait for dvd for everything, as I will for this.

[Coal Creek Griff]

I've read good reviews too and two of my (adult) children thought it was excellent, although not perfect. It's very rare that I pay the outrageous price for theater tickets, but I'll watch this when Netflix has it.

CC Griff

[PJ Hardtack]

Compared to "Saving Private Ryan", "A Bridge Too far" and other epic WWII films, this one rates a poor 4/10 on the scale. The Dunkirk evacuation was a feat second only to the D Day invasion for it's sheer scale and the number of people involved - 4000,000 plus.

A few lines of bedraggled, demoralized soldiers on the beach, a few warships, a few private vessels, a few Spits, Me109s, a couple of model He111s, Ju87s, etc.

A lot of CGI and a whole bunch of disjointed, unconnected incidents that don't add anything to the story. Poorly edited and most of the dialogue is unintelligible, especially between the RAF Spitfire pilots.

You will see the longest dead stick flight of a Spit during which the pilot shoots down a He111!!! Then it makes a hand cranked wheels down landing on the beach and is set afire by the pilot. While it burns, you see that the prop is held in place by a steel rod - no engine block!

I don't expect them to burn a real Spit, but today's movie goers expect more. CAS people get bent out of shape if a gun or tack is period incorrect in a movie. This movie was full of very amateurish portrayals and inadequacies.

Kenneth Brannagh, one of my favourite actors, mumbles unconvincingly through his pitiful lines and repeatedly addresses an Army Officer as "Colonel" when the man is wearing the three pips of a Captain.

This story deserves a whole lot more. It kept England in the war and made it possible for final victory.

[Baltimore Ed]

Saving Private Ryan is a very high bar to top. Other than Band Of Brothers which is equally as good. And I hate it when you can't catch the dialogue for all the background noise. Guess I'll have to wait for the dvd. Previews looked good but you can't tell anything fron 3 minutes of footage.

[PJ Hardtack]

In those three minutes, you got the best part of the movie. The rest was a waste of film.

[Baltimore Ed]

PJ, have you seen the last version of The Four Feathers and The Lighthorsemen? Both are very good films, while The Four Feathers is slow in spots the British Squuare battle is great. The Lighthorsemen is about the Australian mounted infantry, the horse charge at Beersheba is absolutely amazing. If you dont get moved as they charge across miles of nothing, thundering hooves, cut to the artillery gunners cranking down on the elevation until the horsemen are 'under the guns' and the shells exploding harmlessly behind them.  Don't know how much was cgi but sure looked real to me.

[Johnny McCrae]

A friend of mine who is a WW2 History buff saw it. He said the editing was terrible. I'll wait for Netflix also.

[PJ Hardtack]

PJ, have you seen the last version of The Four Feathers and The Lighthorsemen? Both are very good films, while The Four Feathers is slow in spots the British Squuare battle is great. The Lighthorsemen is about the Australian mounted infantry, the horse charge at Beersheba is absolutely amazing. If you dont get moved as they charge across miles of nothing, thundering hooves, cut to the artillery gunners cranking down on the elevation until the horsemen are 'under the guns' and the shells exploding harmlessly behind them.  Don't know how much was cgi but sure looked real to me.

Yes, I saw both movies and thought they were well done. "Gallipoli" was also good. The Aussies know how to do it right.

The charge in "Lawrence of Arabia" was also good. That has to be one of my favourite war movies of all time. Peter O'toole was borne to play that role. ALL of the actors were great - Omar Sharif, Alec Guiness and others.

Favourite line - "Nothing is written"

[Baltimore Ed]

Galipoli was just too depressing and pointless for me. Such a waste. Similar to the French Foreign Legion's loss at Dien Bien Phu. I enjoyed Lawrence though.

[38OVI]

My friend's father felt it was fairly accurate, and he was one of those who took the small boats over there in 1940.

[PJ Hardtack]

Galipoli was just too depressing and pointless for me. Such a waste. Similar to the French Foreign Legion's loss at Dien Bien Phu. I enjoyed Lawrence though.

War is depressing. "Gallipoli" was a gross blunder on the part of First Sea Lord Winston Churchill who expected the landing to draw German/Turkish troops and resources away from other fronts.

The landing was a success but they failed to expedite it and this allowed the Turks to mount a counter offensive that prevented the ANZACS from getting off the beach head. Their sacrifice was wasted but it was a monument to their fighting spirit.

The fall of Dien Bien Phu was a military debacle on the part of the French and a tribute to the energy and fighting spirit of the Viets and General Giap. Unfortunately, the US inherited the mess and we all know how that ended.

A good read on the battle is entitled "Hell In A Small Place". The debacle is taught in French military schools as the way not to fight a losing war.

[Baltimore Ed]

I have read 'Hell in a very small place' many years ago. I'd forgotten the title. If I'm remembering correctly, the only position not to fall before the surrender was the quad .50 position, don't remember the name as each position was a French girls name. A testament to our hero JMB.

[PJ Hardtack]

A moving account in the book was about a French Officer in charge of some Colonial troops. He was hit crossing a runway and his soldiers kept coming out to rescue him and getting cut down by Viet gunners.

To save them, he shot himself in the head!

"Greater love hath no man than to lay down his life for that of his fellows."

[Crow Choker]

Went and saw it several nights ago. Am also a WW2 history buff. I'll give it a 3 out of 10. Poorly written, scenes/story presentation that could have been left out, never saw any Germans until the last 15 seconds of the show. Had a friend who saw it before me tell me of the absence of any Germans. Told him maybe the producers couldn't get ahold of enough K98k rifles and German uniforms-who knows. Glad I didn't pay top dollar to see it. A small theatre near me only charges $2 admission, $1 for seniors to get in. Run by volunteer help and donations. I always just toss em a $5 to help keep it open. A senior age friend of mine is driven nuts by my doing so--advise him if theatre closes, may have to go to another local town and pay $12-15. Anyway, movie poor representation of Dunkirk as it happened. Previews are good, movie in its full run a flop IMO!

[Coal Creek Griff]

I can't defend the movie--I haven't seen it--but I did hear an interview with the writer/director.  He said that his goal was to drop the viewer into the scene with no background regarding the characters and to show events from their perspectives.  He said that the majority of the British soldiers didn't see the Germans up close, but only had mortar shells, bombs, etc falling around them.  He said that, by leaving out scenes of the Germans, he avoided having to explain their side, but left them as an unseen menace, which was more frightening in his estimation.  He chose camera angles that showed the point of view of the participants.  He said that he didn't want to write a war movie, but to show a story of survival.  That may all have been a cop-out to cover for poor production techniques, a low budget or whatever, but that's what he said.  I'm waiting for the DVD, which I'll get from Netflix rather than buy.  I'm disappointed to hear the reviews here--I had high hopes for this one...

CC Griff

[PJ Hardtack]

It might have made it as TV movie but as a full length production, it was a disappointment. One really unlikely vignette was the Brit yacht owner who was unbelievably unperturbed by the shell shocked Officer he rescued who subsequently caused the death of his son.
He was so placid about the incident that he was almost catatonic.

Too many other war stories eclipsed it and still included scenes of the individual survival of unknown characters. You can bet the producers and director won't repeat the mistake.

Canadian actor/director/producer Paul Gross did a low budget war film entitled "Passchendaele" about the Canadian victory during the third battle of Ypres. It was well acted, well edited and gave you the close up in-your-face experience that "Dunkirk" tried and failed to deliver.

They actually used real Canadian soldiers as extras so they actually LOOK like soldiers and not actors in soldier suits. They handled weapons like soldiers would instead of props, like ex-soldiers in re-enactment units.

[Buffalo Creek Law Dog]

This is one of those movies that really has split reviews.  It will either get an academy award nomination or go straight to DVD and end up in the Walmart bargain bin. To me, it seems that it is evenly split on whether it is a great movie or a piece of crap.  I haven't seen it myself other than the previews on TV, so I can't comment yet.