Evaluation of Historical Accuracy of The Film Dunkirk

World War Two was the deadliest war that history has witnessed, with huge social, economic, environmental, and technological consequences that changed the world, and whose impact can still be felt today. These consequences came as a result of many things that happened during the war, not only the battles that were fought. The different alliances, tactics, technological advancements, propaganda etc., all played a big role in the development and outcome of World War Two. Some of the biggest battles of the war, such as The Battle of Stalingrad, The Battle of Normandy, The Battle of Pearl Harbor etc., played a big role in the final outcome of the war. Despite them being important, the role of the smaller battles shouldn’t be forgotten, as they had their own importance. One of these small battles was the battle of Dunkirk. The events known as ‘Dunkirk’ took place between 26 May and 4 June 1940, when approximately 336,000 British, French, and Belgian troops were evacuated from the beaches of Dunkirk in northern France by the combined efforts of naval and civilian crews in ‘Operation Dynamo’. Despite this historical event being remembered more as a rescue and evacuation mission, it certainly played a role in the final outcome of the war. Evacuating all these troops that belonged to the Allied Forces saved a lot of man power, and a failure in this mission would result in fewer troops to fight the war ahead. Because of its significance, the brilliant film director Christopher Nolan wrote and directed a movie called “Dunkirk”, that represents the Dunkirk evacuation of World War Two. The movie was filmed in Dunkirk, France, in the same beach where the evacuation took place, and some of the evacuation boats in the movie were the same boats used by the British Navy during the war. Christopher Nolan is known for his dramatic effects in movies, which gets the viewer engaged and makes them feel part of the movie. In “Dunkirk”, the story is told from three points of view, the air, the land, and the sea, as opposed to telling the history of the evacuation from a single point of view. The movie consists of mostly real events, but some things have been changed for dramatization purposes. In this essay I will argue that the historical facts presented in the movie are mostly accurate, and they heavily outweigh the parts of the movie that are not true, thus making the movie both brilliant and a very accurate representation of history.

Firstly, I will start by talking about the historical events that the movie “Dunkirk” portrayed accurately. The movie starts with British soldiers walking around the streets of Dunkirk, and at the same time some sheets of paper are dropping from the air. One soldier grabs the piece of paper and reads “We Surround You”, while also seeing a graphic showing the beach of Dunkirk and German troops arriving from every direction. Germany was known for its propaganda during the war, and this propaganda is correctly illustrated in the movie, as Germans really did drop flyers that showed the soldiers their location and how they were trapped. This was a way for the Germans to discourage the Allied troops and make them surrender. Despite getting this historical fact right, Christopher Nolan does make small changes to the flyers, as the original flyer didn’t include colour and was written in both the English and French language.

One of the perspectives the movie is filmed through is from the point of view of the sea, where Nolan focuses on a private rescue boat headed for Dunkirk beach. The rescue boat features the owner Mr. Dawson, his son, and a friend, and focuses on their efforts to get to Dunkirk, showing the struggles they go through in order to save their fellow countrymen. This sense of pride and patriotism is historically correct, as the British stepped up when their country needed them. Richard Weight, focusing in 2002 on the small boat’s component of the ‘myth’, associates it with the popularity of the notion of the British as an ‘island people’ for whom the sea was ‘a protective moat’, and who, though naturally pacific, became doggedly belligerent when the shores of the nation were endangered. At the end of the movie, we see the many rescue boats that help the troops, and this private rescue mission is portrayed accurately in the movie, because history tells us that many boats arrived at Dunkirk during the evacuation. Over 700 British ships and boats of all sizes took part and about 160 French vessels.

Another perspective of the movie is filmed from the point of view of the air, where Nolan focuses on the pilots flying the legendary “Spitfire” planes, sent by the British Royal Air Force to fight the “Luftwaffe”. The movie tends to focus on the pilots faces during battle, showing the struggle they go through to make the viewer feel part of the war itself. But it also shows the capabilities of these airplanes, who regularly track, chase and shoot down German planes. This part of the movie is historically accurate, as the “Spitfires” were superior to any other war plane of the time. RAF pilots who got the chance to play with it, discovered it was a highly effective killing machine, supported by Dowding’s efficient command organisation, the radar early warning system and two outstanding fighters, the young pilots were able to meet, and overcome the German onslaught, while regularly shooting down the “Luftwaffe” fighter units.

The third perspective of the movie is filmed through the point of view of the land, where Nolan focuses on the soldiers stranded on the beach, and the constant fear they face from any attacks. The movie correctly shows how the soldiers are all lined up and waiting to be evacuated, and how the wounded are being carried to navy ships to be attended to. A significant part of the land point of view, is the lack of German ground troops, which is another detail where the movie is historically accurate. Hitler believed the “Luftwaffe” were strong enough to handle the evacuating troops of Dunkirk beach, and this turned out to be a huge mistake. The rescue of nearly 340,000 allied troops was due less to divine intervention than to enormous blunders on the part of the German High Command and the failure of the “Luftwaffe” to maintain its earlier dominance over Dunkirk and the beaches. Both the blunder of not sending ground troops and the failure of the “Luftwaffe” were accurately shown in the movie.

Winston Churchill was the British Prime Minister during World War Two, and as such he played a key part in the war. Churchill was known for his famous motivational speeches, preaching patriotism, and the movie Dunkirk shows us a part of his famous speech after the battle of Dunkirk. “Wars are not won by evacuations, but there was a victory inside this deliverance that should be noted. Our thankfulness at the escape of our army must not blind us to the fact that what has happened in France and Belgium is a colossal military disaster. We must expect another blow to be struck almost immediately. We shall go on to the end. We shall fight in France. We shall fight in the seas and oceans. We shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air. We shall defend our island whatever the cost may be. We shall fight on the beaches. We shall fight on the landing grounds. We shall fight in the fields and in the streets. We shall fight in the hills. We shall never surrender. And even if this island or a large part of it were subjugated and staring, then our Empire beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the British Fleet, would carry on the struggle until, in God’s good time, the New World, with all its power and might, steps forth to the rescue and liberation of the old”. This was Churchills speech at the end of the movie, and it has exact quotes from the actual speech from 1940, making it very much historically accurate.

The historical event of Dunkirk was mostly an evacuation instead of a battle, as most troops stuck on the beaches were unable to provide any help to fight off the enemy. English, French and Belgian soldiers were waiting to be saved, and at the end of the movie after the evacuation, the soldiers arrive at Dover and get on a train to head home. Despite the safe return home, the troops don’t feel that this evacuation should be considered a victory, and they feel embarrassed. When they see civilians from the train window they feel ashamed and don’t want to look, but to their surprise they are welcomed back as heroes. This part of the film is historically correct, as the evacuated soldiers as well as Churchill didn’t want to consider the evacuation a victory and were never satisfied by it. But the evacuation was a success, and the many troops saved had an impact later in the war, which is why this evacuation should be remembered as a victory. Dunkirk encapsulates features of British history that are enduringly popular: British isolationism, patriotic sacrifice and the success of the few against impossible odds due to intrinsically noble qualities plus a capacity for improvisation, and the attempts to debunk Dunkirk will never be successful in Britain, because the understanding of it as a story ‘about heroism and a miracle’ is ‘too entrenched in the national psyche’.

The movie Dunkirk had the majority of historical events right, but it was also part fiction, not for a lack of skill but more for dramatization purposes. The one thing that really stood out to me was that all the characters in the movie are fictional, and none of their names can be found in any journals or books. However, I believe the characters represented all the people that were part of the Dunkirk evacuation. The few land troops portrayed in the movie represent all the soldiers stuck on the beach, and the struggle they went through to survive. The RAF pilots were filmed close up, and I believe this was done to make the viewer experience the emotions and drama they were going through while chasing the Luftwaffe planes. The civilians from the rescue boats were portrayed as well, and even they had to go through difficulties to serve their country. Despite the characters being fictional, the emotion they deliver make the viewer feel part of the war.

Another thing the movie doesn’t get right, is the presence of the RAF, rescue ships and navy destroyers. The role of the Royal Air Force is significantly downplayed in the movie, as only a few planes are shown in battle. In reality there were a lot more. The RAF lost 177 aircraft during the nine days of Operation Dynamo.

The movie also shows a huge number of private rescue boats, and despite there being quite a few in reality, the private boats only accounted for about 5% of the total evacuation, as opposed to the movie where most troops were rescued by the private boats.

In the movie there are a handful of destroyers that come to the rescue, but in reality there were over forty, which accounted for the majority of evacuated troops. Although the Dunkirk rescue efforts were shown in the movie, the exact numbers of these efforts were not historically accurate.

The soldiers on the beach of Dunkirk in the movie were majority British, and we saw very few appearances of French troops. This part of the movie is inaccurate, because in reality there was quite a diversified group of troops waiting to be evacuated. Between 29 May and the morning of 4 June the Royal Navy, supplemented by civil craft, achieved the goal of equal evacuation-139,732 British and 139,097 French. These numbers show that the movie downplayed the number of French troops on the beach, and focused mostly on the British troops.

World War two will be remembered forever as the deadliest war, one that had a big impact on the present and the future of the world. The battles during the war were many, but in this essay I focused on comparing the battle and evacuation of Dunkirk to the movie Dunkirk, and how historically accurate this movie is. The story of Dunkirk in the movie is told through three different perspectives, each having its own effect on the emotions of the viewer. The movie was full of historical accuracies, but there were points where fiction was used for different purposes. In this essay I argued that the historical accurate events presented in the movie are significant and heavily outweigh the parts of the movie that aren’t true, making the movie Dunkirk a brilliant representation of the evacuation of Dunkirk.