OT: Dunkirk- why you should see it

[clob94]

I told the world to Fvck off today around 1pm and went to Alamo draft house to watch a movie and relax. I chose to see Dunkirk.

For those of you that are history impotent, the battle of Dunkirk was fought in May of 1940. Over 400,000 British troops were to invade France and then link up with the French army to halt the German advance. Hitler blitzed the forces dividing the French from the Brits and then drove the Brits all the way to the sea. He had U boats waiting in the channel to sink the troop ship and armor ready to crush the British army onshore. Meanwhile the Luftwaffe were peppering the sheet out if them overhead. For some reason, Hitler took his foot off the gas just long enough to allow over 300,000 of the Brits to escape back to England.

It should have been a slaughter and could have led to the invasion of England by the Germans. After Dunkirk, Churchill gave his famous speech about "we shall never surrender" and the rest is history.

There will be no single actor win an Oscar because, quite frankly, nobody had enough lines or screen time. There's no "star" of this movie and not one character has more than a half dozen lines.......but the cinematography is unreal. The movie itself is unreal. There s no cheesey hero worship or a single "hero" saving the day. It's about war. The awful, terrible truth about war and the human condition and the fight for survival. Bottom line is: it fvcking sucked on that beach and after having their a$$ whipped by Hitler, those boys had zero hope for survival.

It's a must see.

 

[TX1972]

There's a show on one of the history or military channels about the pauses: the Wehrmacht ran on speed. The troops were issued pills of methamphetamine. After 3,4,5 days of frantic activity, they ran out of steam and needed to rest. Hitler became addicted as well. He developed a tremor and had a personal physician who kept him going. Hitler took downers to sleep, so when the Allies landed at Normandy, he couldn't or wouldn't be woken up.

 

[TXSFRED]

I told the world to Fvck off today around 1pm and went to Alamo draft house to watch a movie and relax. I chose to see Dunkirk.

For those of you that are history impotent, the battle of Dunkirk was fought in May of 1940. Over 400,000 British troops were to invade France and then link up with the French army to halt the German advance. Hitler blitzed the forces dividing the French from the Brits and then drove the Brits all the way to the sea. He had U boats waiting in the channel to sink the troop ship and armor ready to crush the British army onshore. Meanwhile the Luftwaffe were peppering the sheet out if them overhead. For some reason, Hitler took his foot off the gas just long enough to allow over 300,000 of the Brits to escape back to England.

It should have been a slaughter and could have led to the invasion of England by the Germans. After Dunkirk, Churchill gave his famous speech about "we shall never surrender" and the rest is history.

There will be no single actor win an Oscar because, quite frankly, nobody had enough lines or screen time. There's no "star" of this movie and not one character has more than a half dozen lines.......but the cinematography is unreal. The movie itself is unreal. There s no cheesey hero worship or a single "hero" saving the day. It's about war. The awful, terrible truth about war and the human condition and the fight for survival. Bottom line is: it fvcking sucked on that beach and after having their a$$ whipped by Hitler, those boys had zero hope for survival.

It's a must see.

I'll have to go see it. I consider Dunkirk, a defeat, to be THE finest hour of the Brit "Everyman"... even more so than the airwar Battle of Britain. The Channel is ~26 miles wide and people ran their private boats across to take folks home.

The Germans knew they had to win the air battle to successfully invade England and they couldn't. I recommend everyone read the story of Douglas Bader, the legless 26 kill Ace. They finally got him or he got himself by flying too close and a Messersmitt chewed the tail of his airplane off.. right behind the Radio Mast. One of his leg appliances was hung on something in the cockpit and what was left of his Spitfire was dragging him towards death. He calmed down and unbuckled the false leg and fell free to pop the chute. Now all he had to do was drop in a way that the metal sleeve left on his other stump did not driven up into his guts. He managed.

Later , an outraged German Dr told him " We would not allow this- a one legged man flying Fighters.." and Bader just smiled as he waited for the Dr to remove the sheet and find out he was legless.

Bader requested a set of replacement legs be sent over. The Luftwaffe was still pretending to be Knights of the Air, and very "Honor thy enemy." The Germans gave a bomber "Kings X" to come over and drop the legs to the Germans. Very romantic, right?. On the way out, the Brit Bomber dropped bombs on the Germans.

"After all, old boy," the Pilot said, "this IS war we are playing at."

 

[LonghornMM]

clob, I was on the fence in deciding to see Dunkirk or not. Thanks for the post your comments. I'm going to go see it one evening next week now.

 

[COWBOYintheUK]

The wife ( who is British) and I are going to see it Saturday......I am retired USAF and Love history and especially military history and I lived in England for 10 years, so much history to see there........I can;t wait to see it...........Dunkirk was kind of like the "Apollo 13" of WW2..........it was a great failure, but the failure led to one of the most incredible and fantastic outcomes in history

 

[diadevic]

Agreed - this is a GREAT MOVIE.

OT - a couple of weeks ago I stumbled across "Look Who's Back" on Netflix. Premise is Hitler has been in a coma for 70 years and wakes up in today's Germany. Fight through the subtitles - its worth it.

 

[Orange40Acres]

I was Stationed near Augsburg when the wall came tumbling down. Good God I'd love to see the expression on Hitler's face when he saw today's Deutschland.

 

[WelcomeToAustin]

This movie was outstanding. Period.

 

[clob94]

This movie was outstanding. Period.

Right? Seriously, it could have been a silent film and been just as effective.

 

[mikeined]

The wife ( who is British) and I are going to see it Saturday......I am retired USAF and Love history and especially military history and I lived in England for 10 years, so much history to see there........I can;t wait to see it...........Dunkirk was kind of like the "Apollo 13" of WW2..........it was a great failure, but the failure led to one of the most incredible and fantastic outcomes in history

Hope you got to go to the Air museum in Duxford during your time in England. Suppose to have one of the finest static displays of WW2 aircraft in the world. It's definitely on my bucket list. Dunkirk is a very weldone movie and tells an exceptional story. Are you familiar with the World At War documentary series about WW2? I consider it the definitive documentary series covering WW2.

 

[WelcomeToAustin]

Right? Seriously, it could have been a silent film and been just as effective.

Effective, maybe, but not as enjoyable. The music contributed greatly to the film. I'm also a huge Hans Zimmer fan.

Those aerial scenes were incredible.

Anyone else see in 70mm? Not sure if that actually makes a difference but I did it anyway. Beautiful movie in IMAX.

 

[CAHorn47]

Effective, maybe, but not as enjoyable. The music contributed greatly to the film. I'm also a huge Hans Zimmer fan.

Those aerial scenes were incredible.

Anyone else see in 70mm? Not sure if that actually makes a difference but I did it anyway. Beautiful movie in IMAX.

Just came back from seeing Dunkirk in 70mm. Amazing. Agree, Zimmer's music was powerful. Nolan should start writing his Oscar acceptance speech.

 

[WelcomeToAustin]

Agreed - this is a GREAT MOVIE.

OT - a couple of weeks ago I stumbled across "Look Who's Back" on Netflix. Premise is Hitler has been in a coma for 70 years and wakes up in today's Germany. Fight through the subtitles - its worth it.

View embedded media

Good movie. Saw it a few months ago.

 

[COWBOYintheUK]

Hope you got to go to the Air museum in Duxford during your time in England. Suppose to have one of the finest static displays of WW2 aircraft in the world. It's definitely on my bucket list. Dunkirk is a very weldone movie and tells an exceptional story. Are you familiar with the World At War documentary series about WW2? I consider it the definitive documentary series covering WW2.

We lived about 30 miles from RAF Duxford in fact every weekend during the Spring and summer we would hear planes , look up and there would be Lancaster, usually a Hurricane, a Spitfire , and ME-109 and Heinlke flying over the house heading to an airshow.........I went to Duxford, it was incredible, but I also realized I was getting old......in the American section they have F-111E 020 "The Chief" , I had worked on that aircraft many times, it was our Wing Bird at RAF Upper Heyford ( I was there 1986-92)
We did go see the movie......incredible.......I loved that they told the story realistically , they didn't "spice" it up, it didn't need to be, I thought it really gave tribute to those heroes, both the military and civilian heroes

 

[mikeined]

We lived about 30 miles from RAF Duxford in fact every weekend during the Spring and summer we would hear planes , look up and there would be Lancaster, usually a Hurricane, a Spitfire , and ME-109 and Heinlke flying over the house heading to an airshow.........I went to Duxford, it was incredible, but I also realized I was getting old......in the American section they have F-111E 020 "The Chief" , I had worked on that aircraft many times, it was our Wing Bird at RAF Upper Heyford ( I was there 1986-92)
We did go see the movie......incredible.......I loved that they told the story realistically , they didn't "spice" it up, it didn't need to be, I thought it really gave tribute to those heroes, both the military and civilian heroes

I envy your opportunity to live so close to such an amazing airbase that is steeped in so much history. I would have been like a kid in a candy store. And you are right---they didn't spice up the movie. It was too good of a story to have to do anything like that.

 

[clob94]

MM is checking local listings as we speak.

 

[COWBOYintheUK]

I envy your opportunity to live so close to such an amazing airbase that is steeped in so much history. I would have been like a kid in a candy store. And you are right---they didn't spice up the movie. as too good of a story to have to do anything like that.

As I said I lived in England for 11 years, my wife is from Bicester , near Oxford.........I am retired USAF was stationed at RAF Upper Heyford from 1986-92 and RAF Lakenheath from 1996-2002........love history especially military history and there was no shortage.......one funny thing is that everywhere there is a clearing, whether a meadow or a farmers field, chances are it was a WW2 Airfield......it was crazy, every time they would dig , like for construction they would find unexploaded bombs

 

[clob94]

As I said I lived in England for 11 years, my wife is from Bicester , near Oxford.........I am retired USAF was stationed at RAF Upper Heyford from 1986-92 and RAF Lakenheath from 1996-2002........love history especially military history and there was no shortage.......one funny thing is that everywhere there is a clearing, whether a meadow or a farmers field, chances are it was!p a WW2 Airfield......it was crazy, every time they would dig , like for construction they would find unexploaded bombs

Wait, wut?

You're telling me that you dudes used to dig up WWII ordinance during routine construction jobs?

Brit with a shovel "Oh my. Whut have we here,chaps? It seems my shovel has struck a Nazi bomb."
Cowboy with a shovel "Aww sh!t fire Limey. It ain't nothin but a dud. Here, hit it with my hammer and you'll see........."
Brit with a shovel "Errr, right-o my good man. I believe I'll mind the gap in this case...."
Cowboy with a shovel "Fine.... here, hold my beer!"

 

[LonghornMM]

MM is checking local listings as we speak.

clob, been a busy week and it doesn't look like I will be able to see it this week. I will try to catch it one day next week.