Rent Dunkirk (2004)

What was that about? - Dunkirk review by BE

I viewed this at the cinema against my better judgement as not a great enthusiast of war films but was swayed by the write ups of professional critics. I personally found the film boring and extremely noisy. I was under the impression that film scores were supposed to enhance what is is being shown on the screen. Wrong! The thunderous film score appeared to be competing for the highest decibel emissions along with the deafening noise of diving planes, bombs, artillery and general warfare - and all this in Dolby sound! There were no endearing characters to empathise with and not a German soldier in sight. I understood that during the Second World War, there were over 900 small British boats came to the rescue of our troupes lined up for home on the Dunkirk shoreline. With such a lot of money being ploughed into this film, may be they didn't have enough resources to pay for more than the scant array of craft that eventually showed up on the horizon, seemingly having battled their way across the water to pick up our thousands and thousands of tired, weary and injured soldiers from Dunkirk. From what I've seen of tv footage, we also had far more than 3 Spitfires and a couple of Destroyers battling the enemy at Dunkirk at this time in the history of the Second World War. This film deafened the ears, gave false impressions and to my mind was a waste of time and money. The only redeeming feature was Harry Styles (from the band One Direction) who showed great promise in his first screen role, albeit only a small one.