Misleading history

Rating: 7/10 (13 January 2018)

A fascinating performance and enjoyable film, but one omission that annoyed me was the lack of fair acknowledgement of the French troops, who fought like lions and in many cases sacrificed their lives when all seemed lost for France itself in order to protect the escaping British troops. The impression given was that it was the extremely brave British defenders of Calais who alone made the Dunkirk rescue possible. With current relations between France and Britain at a low ebb following Brexit, I find it appalling that the film could not pay homage to those courageous French troops. Without them, we would have lost.
Another misleading element was the implication that poor old Chamberlain was the ultimate appeaser. In fact, he had sacrificed his personal honour to buy time for Britain. The second he landed back home waving that piece of paper and proclaiming 'peace in our time' he put the aircraft factories on 24-hour shifts. Not a second too soon, admittedly, but if we had gone to war when Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia we truly would not have had a hope in hell. If the film showed one thing accurately, it was that even with the extra time he bought, it was still 'a close run thing'.