Why the (true) history of 'Dunkirk' matters

Washington Examiner ^ | July 19, 2017 | Tom Rogan

[C19fan]

Never has so much ignorance been rendered on such a great feat by so few.

Such is the historical record of reviewers of the new movie, "Dunkirk."

First, a brief historical primer. Dunkirk was the site of the British Army's evacuation from northern France in May-June 1940. The evacuation was made necessary after the British Army in France, deployed as the British Expeditionary Force, was encircled by a rapidly advancing German army. Thanks to the immense courage of rearguard forces, RAF pilots, and British civilians (who lent their boats to the effort), 200,000 British soldiers and 140,000 French, Belgian and Polish soldiers were saved from capture.

Now to the reviews...

[C19fan]

The Spitfire pilot played by Tom Hardy wearing another mask should have been a transgender person of color.

[Grampa Dave]

Excellent article and review!

[grobdriver]

The Spitfire pilot played by Tom Hardy wearing another mask should have been a transgender person of color.

Naw... back then Men were Men and Women were grateful.

[Netz]

You can’t repeatedly stuff a square peg into a round hole.

I wish the PC do-gooders would stop with this nonsense.

Knowing history provides perspective and due to the fact that many kids no longer read books, it is good that the movie industry has taken it upon themselves to teach that history to a generation of imbeciles and ignaorami.

If this and other good movies like it inspire people to investigate the events covered in the films in Google, then it is a good thing.

To try to frame modern mores and assumptions onto the battlefields of WWII is a gross injustice.

[HeadOn]

I second that. Great article.

Thanks for posting.

[Fiji Hill]

At USA Today, Brian Truitt laments "the fact that there are only a couple of women and no lead actors of color." This, Truitt explains, "may rub some the wrong way."

I figured we would be hearing something like this from the mainstream media.

[originalbuckeye]

So sad that so many Media types care more about inflicting political correctness on us, instead of historical accuracy. If there were women and persons of color present, I suspect they would have been represented (and probably over-represented). I absolutely detest it when the mores/social constructs of today are applied to history to rewrite it. ACCURACY IS WHAT IS IMPORTANT.

[allendale]

It is true that Hitler could have never successfully launched an invasion of Britain. If Dunkirk had failed and the BEF was killed or captured, its doubtful, Churchill or no Churchill, that Britain would have continued to fight and would have sued for peace. BTW the fuel that was powering the German war machine at that time came from the Soviet Union.