Dunkirk: The History Behind the Major Motion Picture

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Joshua Levine. Dunkirk: The History Behind the Major Motion Picture

Copyright

Dedication

Contents

Preface

‘I Don’t See It as a War Film. I See It as a Survival Story’

Survival

Quite Like Us

The Long and the Short and the Tall

High Hopes

Fighting Back

Halting the Panzers

Escape to Dunkirk

No Sign of a Miracle

A Miracle

Where’s the Bloody RAF?

A New Dunkirk

Illustration Credits

Picture Section

Acknowledgements

Select Bibliography

Also by Joshua Levine

About the Author

About the Publisher

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To Peggy whom I hope to inspire.

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The enemy barely makes an appearance in the film. German soldiers appear only very briefly, and even then the audience barely sees their faces. But this, as Nolan points out, reflects the reality of the situation, the subjective experience of the men on the beach. ‘When you look at first-hand accounts, close contact with the enemy was extremely sporadic for most British soldiers. I wanted to put the audience in the boots of a young inexperienced soldier thrown into this situation, and from the accounts, they did not stare into the eyes of Germans. I wanted to be true to that and embrace the timeless nature of the story. The reason the story has sustained generations of interpretation and will continue to do so, is because it’s not about the Germans and the British, it’s not about the specifics of the conflict. It’s about survival. I wanted to make it as a survival story.’

In fact, the actual enemies of most of the British soldiers (at least those not defending the Dunkirk perimeter) were aeroplanes, artillery guns, submarines, mines and gunboats. And a battle against an unseen enemy that can’t be fought, touched, or often even seen, creates an unusual war film. In fact, in Chris’s eyes, it is not a war film at all. ‘It’s more of a horror than a war film. It’s about psychological horror, about unseen threats. The guys on the beaches had very little understanding of what was happening and what would happen – and I want the audience to be in the same position.’

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