Powerful story poorly told. Know your history.

Rating: 5/10 (5 August 2017)

There are NO spoilers in this review, but some helpful information to understand it if you see it.
This movie is based on the true story about the rescue of over 300,000 (out of 400K) British solders during WWII. I went into this movie believing the soldiers were POW's in a camp and most of the story would be about *them*. THEY ARE NOT. The troops are "stranded" on the beaches of France, cut off from England a mere 22 miles across the English Channel. Cut off by land by Nazi troops (whom we never see) and by sea in the heavily patrolled waters by German planes & "U-boats" ("Underwater boats", aka: submarines.) The movie is told in three parts (actually 4): Land, Sea (2 sea stories) & Air... but the movie expects you to figure that out for yourself, making things quite confusing. Part one is "The Mole" and takes place over the course of a week, but here, a "mole" isn't a "spy", it's a French word for extended shoreline/pier. It would have helped immensely if the screen told you this was "*STORY* 1: The Beach" instead of "1. The Mole". I spent the first hour trying to figure out who the Spy was (and the paranoia of some of the soldiers didn't help.) The movie is well acted (and LOUD), a lesson in one of Britain's proudest moments, but the telling of that story is too disjointed... a prime example of why writers should not direct their own movies (and vice versa.) Christopher Nolan (Director of the Batman films) both wrote & directed Dunkirk. He's a great director, but should have outsourced the writing to someone with more experience.
I rated this a 5. Deserves at least a 7.5 for the story & production quality, but is just so damn disjointed, everyone who sees it says they would need to see it again "now that they understand what was going on." But no one wants to see a movie twice just because they feel they HAVE to to enjoy it *once*. :(