There’s an obvious hole in the Dunkirk story without a single clip of Mr. Churchill.
It’s not a hole. It’s understanding what story they’re trying to tell. When push comes to shove movies are short stories, novellas at best. In under 2 hours you aren’t telling the whole of Dunkirk, you ain’t even telling the half of Dunkirk. They 3 stories basically: a handful of soldiers trying to get out, 1 civilian boat, one squad of Spitfires. It’s a “soldier’s eye” of the story. We spend a little time with that Admiral but he’s mostly just telling the audience stuff: why the destroyers can’t come in, what the tide schedule is, why this isn’t a massive air sea war. In a book form that character wouldn’t exist because the author would just fill that in. Including Churchill would have broken the scope of the story.
For that side of this same story, please see The Darkest Hour due out in November.