Dunkirk

• was what Churchill called the evacuation from Dunkirk, and as narrator Tim Dalton informs us, the quarter of a million British troops snatched from Nazi claws in June 1940 were to be the core of the British Army throughout the war.

Churchill reminded his countrymen "not to assign to Dunkirk the attributes of victory," but still - it proved to be event that would bolster England for the war in general and the Battle of Britain - only a month away - in particular. The British pluck in the face of an enemy that had by then defeated all of Europe helped bring in the Americans without which the war would undoubtedly be lost.

We cannot be reminded often enough what might have happened, and what nearly did happen in 1940. As the film shows with admirable accuracy, Churchill was pretty much alone in his decision not to give in to appeasement policy and make bargains with the Germans, for which determination his fellow politicians, Chamberlain and his ilk, awarded him with the moniker 'warmonger'.

We don't seem to have many Churchills these days, among the heaps of Chamberlains that persist in telling us that 'war is not the answer.' Sometimes it helps to have the question repeated. As in this film. Back in 1940, the question was how to respond to German imperialism, Nazi atrocities and disregard for Geneva Conventions. It was a defense of the British values that Churchill so eloquently voiced.

BTW, I hardly recognized Simon Russell Beale as Sir Winston. Excellent bit of make-up, that.

This is a documentary of the Dunkirk evacuation over 10 days in the summer of 1940. The British Expeditionary Force is trapped against the coast along with French and other Allies. It is purported to be accurate. There are the shakey cam recreations intersperced with some old footage. There are recognizable actors. It's quite straight forward in its telling. After watching Nolan's Dunkirk recently, this is a good companion piece. It has some more information and the rear guard action that is missing from Nolan's movie. There are compelling real historical figures. It's solid work for TV doc that is compelling to watch all the way to the end.

I watched this dramatization some years back and thought it did an excellent job of telling the real-life story, capturing the desperation of the retreat, case in point, only smoke bombs for one group of soldiers tasked with holding back the German tanks!

Buy it on Blu-ray or DVD if you can find it. Perhaps its also downloadable. Its well worth the time spent watching it.

After watching this re-enactment, I found Nolan's 2017 Dunkirk to be an utter disappointment. It greatly saddened me to see how the Dunkirk story could be so badly told, and more so when I read reviews about how it gives you a sense of what war is like - rubbish. These people really should watch the 2004 Dunkirk dramatization and Saving Private Ryan, and I'd also recommend Schindler's List.

I found this film to be educational. I learned a lot of facts that I never knew existed. The scenes with Churchill and his advisers were hypnotic. The acting was touching and down to earth. I am now looking forward to the new rendering of 'Dunkirk'(2017) armed with the knowledge from this remarkable film.

After seeing the BBC Adverts for "Dunkirk" i was honestly looking forward to seeing this Docu-Drama showing us the events leading up to and the evacuation of over 300,000 British,Belgian and French troops from the beaches at "Dunkirk".

It must have only been 10 minutes into the first episode of the Three part series that i began to feel let down by a programme that at best i can only describe as OK.With the BBC's experience of helping to make "Band of Brothers" and resources that should have been made available for such a project,OK just isnt good enough. Did the BBC not think that showing black and white stock footage of Stuka dive bombers and German soldiers might impede the viewers ability to actually feel like they were there with there soldiers.The whole thing contradicted itself,make a Docu-Drama for realism then show old footage(in black and white!) Germans Aircraft and Troops? Just as i found myself getting into "Dunkirk" some stock footage would pop up,presumedly just to remind the viewer that the non black and white images arent actually real,which of course is true but thats not the point. The use of stock footage only showed me that this is a Low budget programme and it didnt take long before my thoughts were confirmed. As in one of the so called "Action" scenes a dozen or so British soldiers are attacked by around 7 German troops and some Tank Tracks.Bizarrly as soon as the Officer sees those Tank Tracks he orders his men to surrender giving the impression that they fought for around 2 mins before giving up.Now this is annoying(even if you do ignore the lack of an actual Tank) because in reality one of the reasons those men were taken to the barn and executed was because they had fought stubbornly and inflicted heavy casualties on the SS soldiers they faced.The German Commander(Moltke) was annoyed by this and the British troops payed a terrible price for their stubborn fighting.

Overall i thought "Dunkirk" was badly let down by its (obviously)Low budget.As it was made by the BBC it really shouldnt have been so cheaply made,is this all our Veterans deserved?. The BBC might do well to bare this in mind for future projects,if youre not going to do it properly then dont do it at all.