dforster

I so looked forward to seeing Dunkirk but sadly I concur with the negative reviews. I feel I must add my voice to counter the majority.

I want to add the following in addition to my main objection - the overblown incessant sound really hurt and prevented me from appreciating any of its parts.

The story of Dunkirk - how it came about and its evacuation are fascinating and historically intriguing but sadly none of this was brought out. Dunkirk did not provide context to the battle as it unfolded even confusing what little story there was with oddball editing, e.g., day and night times bounced around.

Dunkirk had a chance to explore why the Germans did not attack to fully destroy/capture the allied troops which by all accounts they could have fairly easily done. There was one reference in the movie when it was mentioned almost in passing that the the German tanks simply stopped their forward motion but nothing was said about why or even wonder why. I have read of possible reasons concerning Hitler's order not to destroy the expeditionary forces but now with the perspective of over 70 years this should have been included as the key missing piece of this story.

I gave Dunkirk a rating of 4 instead of 1 because of its visual production value but I am being generous.

Although this is about the stepmother, I want to first say that I found all the characters well portrayed and supported by an excellent script, cinematography, and of course a great director. I scanned some of the user reviews and for all those giving a very low rating it seems to me that they missed the essence of Cinderella - it is not supposed to be an action nor hard/boiled tale that apparently even some children want today and should not become such.

I particularly appreciated the stepmother's portrayal because it included clear justification for her anger and bitterness. Not to say given that justification she was correct to have done what she did. But a worthy lesson for us and particularly for children.

The specific scene I am referring to is when she overhears her husband telling his daughter how much he misses her mother, i.e., where is the love and support she desires - a more modern understanding of the difficulty of joining an existing family. This and other related scenes gives the stepmother a depth that makes her more real in place of the one-dimensional cartoon version - but what a joy that version was for me many years ago.