Nail biting stuff

Rating: 10/10 (24 February 2018)

I see the review trolls are at it again. Statements like "Soul-less. Confused. Loud. Disappointing." with a rating of 2/10 are actually ironic, because, that is a very accurate depiction of war. Soul-less. Confused. Loud and disappointing. There are no winners. Everybody who complains about this movie being boring and tedious has no clue about war. A lot of war is sitting around and waiting wondering what the enemy is up to, or hoping you will make the next day, which can be boring and tedious but also soul killing. I really enjoyed every aspect of this film and was invested in the characters and their survival all the way. The sound editing and Zimmer's music was also phenomenal and I was on the edge of my seat from start to finish. It was way more realistic and historically accurate than many other movies. I'd say it's an accurate depiction of war. The writer and director set out to tell the story out of the perspective of those who were trapped on the shores of Dunkirk and who escaped to tell the tale, and I can honestly say, he did a good job of it. I have never seen war first hand, but have some close relatives and friends that have seen and lived through it. Those include the Angolan war in South West Africa, as well as civil war in Northern Uganda and Southern Sudan. I have heard many first hand accounts of war, and have also seen the effect of war on people's personalities, bodies and on nature and cities up close. It's not the "sexy" version Hollywood has sold to us many times. It's really terrible. I can imagine after you've killed so many times, and you have seen so many people killed and mutilated around you, there are not much emotion left. The way those characters in the movie were depicted, I feel is very accurate. Everybody just keeps going. Some commit suicide. One person I knew, who died several years ago as an old man, was actually in Pearl Harbor shoveling coals on a ship because he was too young to fight. He survived the ordeal because some guy offered him a plank that kept him afloat when their ship was sunk in the harbor. He even named his son as a result of this. He did not talk much about the war, but sometimes when I drank coffee with him, he would speak about things he did and saw. He was also a POW in Japan where him and his mates were tortured. Among things, he managed to escaped by strangling his captor and torturer with bare hands. War had a permanent effect on him and his family. His daughter has told me many times, how he used to wake up screaming at night. That is war for you, and that's what is depicted in this film. I live by the ocean, am involved in maritime sea rescue and also have aviation experience. This film ticks all the boxes for me.