British films have always focused on the defeats and disasters of WWII, no doubt partly because they are cheaper to stage than the victories. But in the old films like In Which We Serve, Ice Cold in Alex, and the John Mills Dunkirk, there was that same sense of defiance which, in real life, saw the country through. Not here. I think the wartime generation would have been insulted by the passive, supine way they are depicted. There is no sense of Dunkirk being (as it really was) a fierce battle; instead it's like a military Waiting for Godot, people just hanging about on a beach and staring out to sea, looking sad. Even visually, it looks washed out.

The sort of person who likes this film will probably take it as an endorsement, but the Americans would never, ever have made it. They have too much self-respect. I think the film, and particularly its rapturous critical reception, marks a new low in Britain's view of itself. We didn't accept defeat in 1940 - but it certainly seems that we have now.