I saw the movie this weekend and thought the beginning was a little muddled and confusing with the different storylines. Once the movie got going though I thought it was really done well. My favorite part was when all of the fishing trawlers, yachts and every other civilian boat in England showed up at Dunkirk to rescue the soldiers and they were cheering.
One of the main themes I got out of the movie was how a whole country perceived the existential threat to them and pulled together towards a common goal. It’s a lesson we could use in this country in 2017.
Closeup scenes on the one boat in the "one day" part of the story were filmed on another boat or a built set, but still!
By “built set” I mean that the actual boat was used in a specially built tank rather than in open water.
One of the main themes I got out of the movie was how a whole country perceived the existential threat to them and pulled together towards a common goal. It’s a lesson we could use in this country in 2017.
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Yes, I felt that too. Gave me goose bumps to see the shot of all of the “Little Ships of Dunkirk” headed toward the shore.
I was in error on two points.
The small boat “Moonstone”, the “star” of the “One Day” part of the film, was not substituted by a stand-in boat. All scenes in that story were filmed on or with that particular boat.
The boat was not filmed in a tank at any time: however, some scenes were filmed on the waters of the IJsselmeer, in the Netherlands, rather than in the English Channel.