A horrible mess of a movie - but beautifully shot

Rating: 3/10 (7 May 2018)

I gave this movie 2 stars for the photography - it is a beautifully shot film.
I gave it one additional star for the first few minutes of what could and should have been an epic movie about an epic historical event that took place during some desperate, difficult and heroic days in World War 2.
The entire British Expeditionary Force and French -- some 400,000 men - were surrounded by about 800,000 soldiers of the German Wehrmacht and pinned against the sea at Dunkerque. The trapped Allied forces were hammered on a constant daily basis by air and by heavy artillery. The fighting on the front lines was often desperate and bloody. It is estimated that some 60,000 Brit and French troops were killed or wounded during the nine days of fighting around Dunquerque, as well as over 1,000 civilians.
The small boat navy that came into action from 27 May-4 June to evacuate the trapped armies was able to rescue 338,226 men, including 139,997 French, Polish, and Belgian troops. Left behind were 35,000 to 40,.000 mostly French troops who held the perimeter until the last moment and then surrendered.
It was a miraculous escape - beyond even the most optimistic of hopes. Churchill, for example hoped to get 30,000 back to Britain. The small-boat navy did ten times that number.
None of that is shown or even hinted at by this movie.
Instead we endlessly see a few hundred perfectly queued lines of Brits calmly standing in line in plain view on open beaches waiting to board ships that haven't arrived. Really. Never mind that in actuality those orderly lines would have been murdered by air attack and artillery bombardment.
There is no hint of the desperate fighting that took place on the perimeter. There is no sense of how dangerous it was for the small-boats when they approached the beach to take on soldiers. Of the approximately 865 vessels that participated in the evacuation, 243 were sunk - most by artillery fire or air attack. That's almost one third.
The drama, the danger, the desperation, the fury and horror of war, and also the heroics - all of these elements are missing from this beautifully photographed film.
If one wishes to see a more accurate depiction of what The Battle of Dunkerque was probably like, see the combat segments around the town of Arnhem in the film "A Bridge Too Far" or the beach landing scene of "Saving Private Ryan".
THAT's what Dunkerque would have been like - just standing up out of cover beach would have been certain suicide.
Instead "Dunkirk" offers a non-violent experience, perhaps "a meditation" on war without actually portraying warfare. One of the most intense battles of World War Two reduced to a few gunshots, a couple of explosions, and an aerial dogfight shown 3 (or was it 4?) times from different viewpoints that made no sense. I guess the beautiful photography from the different perspectives was impossible to give up.
Even Kenneth Brannaugh is wasted - spending his time on screen on a pier urging soldiers onto the maybe 20 boats portrayed in the movie. You would think an Admiral might have other issues to deal with?
It is difficult to understand what the intent here was. They didn't make a war movie; nor did they make an attempt to tell the story of Dunkerque.
It's a mess - but it is a beautifully photographed mess.