Given all the fluff about the movie, it was disappointing. It has its virtues but not enough to win any awards, It shows only a very small portion of the battle for Dunkirk and it doesn't always get it right. The battle for Dunkirk is seared in my memory. As a boy, I first heard of Dunkirk on the radio news but when I saw the newsreel footage and the photos in Life magazine, it became indelibly impressed in my memory. While a professional military and battle experienced officer stationed in Europe, I spent a weekend in Dunkirk and the surrounding countryside studying the battle.

If anyone wants to really learn about what happened at Dunkirk they should watch the PBS NOVA program "Great Escape at Dunkirk." In one hour, a viewer will learn far, far more about Dunkirk than depicted in the movie and have a much better understanding.

Unfortunately, the movies shortchanges the viewers by not taking a few minutes to provide the setting. Inaccurate.y, the film begins with the French and British defending against the German attack only a few hundred yards from the beach when in fact, the German lines were still 20KM from the beach on May 27 which is about when the film begins and a 1,000 KM from the beach when the British and French surrendered on June 4.

The story about the Spitfire crash landing on the beach is incorrect. To begin with, the pilot gliding his plane without fuel and shooting down a German bomber is nonsense. Then he crash lands his plane on the beach and burns the plane and surrenders to the Germans. In fact, a Spitfire did land on the beach but the pilot was not taken prisoner nor was the plane burned. In fact, it was eventually recovered long after the war and restored and it is flying today.

What was bothersome, is that the story starts out by focusing on a Britsih deserter and follows him through the film. That does not do justice to the real heroes of Dunkirk, the soldiers in the rear guard to fought valiantly to hold back the German advance until the rest of the Army escaped, and then surrendered and were put in German prison camps for the remainder of the war.

The ending doesn't tell the story. We find the British Admiral in charge of the evacuation saying he is staying for the French. In fact,123,000 French troops were evacuated. But the story is not clear when Commander Bolton at the end says "I'm staying. For the French." But most of the French had already been evacuated so what he probably was referring to over 26,000 French soldiers that were evacuated on the last day.

The story was fuzzy at times, even confusing. That was in part due to poor editing which switched back and forth and scenes often were not in chronological order. Often switching back and forth between night and day and back again. Some like that style but I found it annoying. At times the story was not told well. Apparently, the reason the story focused on the deserter is because the story of how he survived was unique. He survives a shipwreck in the movie the significance of that incident is not clear - until I saw the NOVA version.

A plus for the film was its realism. The scenes were real. The dialog was real. The acting was very good. It did not get maudlin. Nothing romantic. No gore and it could easily have been gory. It is the type of movie I don't mind children watching. But not it is not a history lesson.