Dunkirk (2004)

Today is the anniversary of the start of Operation Dynamo (the British evacuation from Dunkirk) on May 26, 1940.

            Dunkirk has been covered in two significant movies (I put the word “significant” in so I don’t have to hear anyone piping up about some obscure movie no one cares about.  The 1958 movie is a standard war movie following a squad that makes it to the beach and British civilians that cross the Channel to rescue soldiers.  The Christopher Nolan 2017 movie that daringly took a three part time frame to cover the soldiers, the small boats and the RAF.   We also have “Darkest Hour” which covers the time period when Churchill became Prime Minister and had to deal with the crisis.  If you watch all three, you will get a decent feel for the history of Operation Dynamo, but it won’t replace reading a good history of Dunkirk.  If you say “to hell with reading”, I have an alternative for you.  In 2004, the BBC made a docudrama about it.  It falls under the heading of edutainment.

            The 3 hour series covers Dunkirk day-to-day.  There is a little background on the Nazi blitzkrieg through France, but it then concentrates on the soldiers, the little ships, and Churchill.  The various characters are all real people and the scenes are based on first-hand accounts.  The series makes good use of archival footage, including color footage.  But most of the series is actors reenacting the evacuation and the military and political actions.  These scenes are of the quality of a movie and make use of a good cast of recognizable British actors.  For instance, Benedict Cumberbatch plays an officer in command of a rearguard unit.  It was one of his first acting roles and you can see his potential.  “Band of Brothers” fans will recognize Rick Warden (Lt. Harry Welch) as a doctor dealing with the casualties.  Simon Beale is good as Churchill.  The series does a great job covering Churchill’s conflict with Lord Halifax over whether to negotiate or not. 

            For a television series, the combat is quite good.  It doesn’t look like a low budget production.  The series focuses on several small units.  One is a group that is retreating and surrenders despite orders to fight to the last.  The series is not afraid to show some warts.  The captives are put in a shack and grenades are thrown in.  The two Dunkirk movies did not show German war crimes, so kudos for going there.  There is a scene where British soldiers trying to avoid fighting to the death are shot by officers as they attempt to get out of the trap.  Another unit does put up a last ditch stand and gets wiped out.  Cumberbatch’s unit is one of the ones left to hold the line to the end.  At one point, they use a machine gun against advancing Germans.  Later, the Germans return with civilians to shield them.  Cumberbatch’s character uses a rifle to pick off the Germans, but it just postpones the inevitable.  Rick Warden’s doctor is one of the medical personnel that draw the short straws to stay with the wounded and go into captivity with them.  There are some graphic surgeries that are shown.  The series is not for the squeamish. 

            “Dunkirk” eschews the standard talking heads combined with footage format of most documentaries.  Clearly, many of the characters were interviewed, but their reminiscences are used for the screenplay and actors portray their experiences.  The dialogue is excellent.  The soldiers talk like soldiers and then we have the actual words spoken by Churchill.  The production did not skimp on uniforms and weapons.  Obviously, they did not want to hear from veterans and WWII buffs.  The blending of footage is well done.  Footage is used effectively to show the German air attacks by Stukas.  I found this better than the clearly fake models used in “Battle of Britain”.

            I was surprised how good the series is.  I almost sent the Netflix DVD back, thinking I had better things to spend three hours on.  I am glad I watched it. I should not have been surprised at its quality because I have used similar BBC docudramas in my Western Civ classes.  “Colosseum” is excellent on gladiators and “Pompeii:  The Last Day” uses actors to show various people caught in the ill-fated city.  These kind of productions bridge the gap between documentaries and movies.  They are entertaining and educational.  You certainly will learn more about Dunkirk than you will from the various movies.  

GRADE  =  A