Dunkirk: WTF Really Happened to this Movie?

Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk ranks as one of the director’s most ambitious movies. An immersive war epic, the film depicts the Evacuation of Dunkirk from the perspective of the soldiers on the beach, the Allied High Command, the volunteer sailors helping to evacuate the troops, and from the air via the heroic pilots giving the soldiers cover. The film has very little in the way of dialogue, with a script that only runs seventy-six pages. In this episode of WTF Really Happened to this Movie, we try to put together how historically accurate Christopher Nolan’s account of the Evacuation of Dunkirk is, exploring what, if any, historical liberties were taken by the famously dedicated director.

Notably, the film is among Nolan’s shortest movies subverting audience expectations at every turn. Rather than try for a large-scale historical drama, Nolan opts to put you right in the shoes of a handful of characters. The result is a movie that, at times, is a harrowing experience, especially when seen in Nolan’s preferred IMAX or 70MM formats. It also gave One Direction star Harry Styles his first significant movie role, with him about to get his first starring vehicle, the controversial Don’t Worry Darling, which opens this week. After Dunkirk, Nolan went back to large-scale action-adventure, making Tenet, but his next film, Oppenheimer, seems to be more in the Dunkirk model.

This episode of WTF Really Happened to this Movie is written by Brian Accardo, edited by Adam Walton, narrated by Steve Seigh and produced by Taylor James Johnson. Let us know in your comments what you think of Nolan’s dedication to realism in Dunkirk.