Good but could have been better

Rating: 7/10 (4 August 2017)

I love history and World War II especially, so I thoroughly enjoyed the historical aspects, realism, etc. The air battle aspects were very good (Stuka dive bombers, Henkel bombers, Messerschmidts, and Spitfires). The story related to the small boat that came over to Dunkirk was very good. However most of the coverage of Brits wanting to escape showed them to be almost to a man, self-serving, uncaring (about others), etc. and although that's human nature, it did not put them in a very good light, and perhaps unfairly. There were supposedly 400,000 men looking to escape from Dunkirk, but even in this CGI age I don't think they ever showed a beach shot with more than one or two thousand men on it. And I don't think the most encompassing shot of small boats from England ever had more than 15 or so boats in it. I just don't get why they did not create what I would assume to be a more realistic picture of the magnitude of the effort. Finally, the story was not "linear," i.e. we figured out later that they were showing the same dive bombing or other event all over again from a different perspective (but minutes, not seconds later), or the same person hours before. I'm open to such approaches, but IMO it did not help with the story much. So all in all, I'm glad that I saw it but was hoping for a bit more. The air warfare was the best part. I guess I think the best parts are those that showed men the most willing to sacrifice and who displayed the most honor and selflessness. Perhaps in this day and age that's not so much in vogue.