“I thought what Dunkirk brilliantly captured was: the absolute in the gut desperation sentiment of “Will I make it out of here? Will I make it on a boat, or be one of the people left behind to be taken prisoner or be killed by the enemy?”
And did it without a horrendous number of “blood and guts” scenes.
Actual acting and storytelling carried the movie.
I don’t want to think about what a gorefest it would have been with Americans writing, directing and producing.
Boy, think about what a gorefest in REAL life it would have been if the Nazis hadn’t stopped their infantry and armor advances for a couple of weeks to rest and rebuild!
Yes, it was almost Hitchcockian in its expression of that sentiment without the graphic mayhem to drive it home.
The scene that stuck out for me was when all those men were lined up on that long pier, and one guy heard the German plane. At first faintly, and he looked up in fear, teeth grimacing in tension, searching for the sound, hoping he wasn’t actually hearing it, then a few more, then people who had been in conversation stopped and looked up, searching, faces also grimacing in fear and tension, then when everyone caught sight of them, the collective shudder and maneuvering in no space to maneuver to find cover.