don't forget to go see the movie DUNKIRK

[Skittles]

93% on the Tomatometer

my English grandfather was one of the last guys picked up by a little ship; yes INDEED

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. You got it, my dear Skittles.....yes INDEED!

Just read a glowing review in today's LA Times and I am so looking forward to seeing it.

We don't go to the movies anymore--now we wait till Netflix or someone has it on disk or is streaming it, and THEN we see it.

Yay for your grandfather!

[Chasstev365]

2. Saw it last night. No spoiler alert except: GREAT FILM!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

3. I'll pass. I hate war movies, won't go to them.

It's getting good reviews, but I still won't go.

[Skittles]

4. I don't like war movies either but I will see this one

Dunkirk was unique, because it was both a stunning defeat and a major victory

[longship]

5. J B Priestley broadcasting on Auntie Beeb on June 5, 1940.

From the BBC site:

In his first radio postscript for the BBC on 5 June, JB Priestly, the popular novelist, added a new dimension to the miracle of Dunkirk. Priestly told the story of 'Gracie Fields', a paddle steamer named after Britain's most popular singer, which served as a ferry between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight, before she was used in the evacuation. According to Priestly ...

' ... this little steamer, like all her brave and battered sisters, is immortal. She will go sailing down the years in the epic of Dunkirk. And our great-grandchildren, when they learn how we began this War by snatching glory out of defeat, and then swept on to victory, may also learn how the little holiday steamers made an excursion to hell and came back glorious.'

To hear this report in its entirety is indeed glorious, a part of history. I used to have a copy of it. Sadly, that hard drive died an ignominious death.

Here it is, from Auntie Beeb:
JB Priestley Dunkirk Postscript

[Blindingly apparent]

12. I have been planning to see it since the very first trailer

Would it be considered a spoiler if you tell me is it subtitled? If it is, I will need to take someone with me to read them to me

[longship]

13. I have not seen the film.

Will wait for NetFlix DVD.

I am just a WWII history buff, and Churchill fan.

[SwissTony]

6. I used to play chess with a guy who had been on the beach.

He only talked about Dunkirk once, and his tongue basically stuck to the top of his mouth.

Forty years on, he was still scared. We can't even imagine.

[True Dough]

7. I'm torn

because the reviews are great but after watching Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers a few times, I feel like there's nothing overly original left to do on the big screen when it comes to WWII. I have seen several documentaries about various WWII battles, one about Dunkirk, as well.

[Skittles]

20. go see it

Dunkirk was unique, because it was both a stunning defeat and a major victory

yes indeed

[PoliticAverse]

8. Did he go back and kick Nazi ass? n/t

[Skittles]

11. he was in WWI and WWII

he was 38 years old in Dunkirk - yes indeed

[Laffy Kat]

30. Whoa, Skittles.

Movie must have been quite emotional for you.

[Skittles]

35. I will see it when the crowds die down

but I do expect it to have an impact, for sure

[CTyankee]

9. Going soon to see it! My friend and I...can't wait. Sounds thrilling...

[Skittles]

10. two degrees of separation my sweet!

WOOT!

[hunter]

14. My wife's uncle was one of the last guys to be killed by the Nazis.

He's buried at Arlington, relocated there after a rough burial in Europe.

My wife's family was celebrating Victory Europe and expecting he'd be home soon when they learned he'd been killed.

My wife's grandma never recovered from that.

Another of my wife's uncles was a POW in Japanese occupied China, and was later held by the Chinese Communists. He came home and drank himself to death.

War sucks.

My family got off easy. One of my grandfathers was a pacifist and a welder. He refused arms. He was put to work building and repairing ships for the Merchant Marine. My other grandfather was an Army Air Force Officer. I'm certain he wanted to be another Jimmy Stewart Hollywood hero but apparently he had some mad skills the Army Air Force wasn't willing to risk in flight. He was later an engineer working on the Apollo Project, landing men on the moon, having acquired an understanding of exotic metals in some manner he was not allowed to speak of.

[Skittles]

15. war does indeed suck

my grandfather was a calm, gentle man - no sign of ptsd.....my mum said during the war, he was so upset over the death of a girl her age in the village (bombing raid), he took her to live for a while in some military barracks in Blackpool

[cwydro]

16. My parents were both English.

Teenagers during that war. So many stories they told me. Dunkirk was one.

God I wish they were still here to tell those stories again.

[Skittles]

18. my mum was a kid when her dad was in Dunkirk

she said long after he had passed she saw a Dunkirk documentary on TV and it freaked her out

I remember my grandfather and his buddies talking about the war - now I really wish I had listened more

[Aristus]

17. I can't WAIT to see this!

I've been waiting for months!

[Solly Mack]

19. I will. What an interesting bit of family history!

[OnDoutside]

21. Dunkirk, one of the few times the British got to the beach before the Germans ....

[bluecollar2]

22. just got back in from seeing it

My dad was 9 and evacuated from Portsmouth as the invasion was feared. His father had served in the British Army during WW1...

The movie was excellent, riveting, powerful, etc.

Definitely reccomend.

[Skittles]

23. My grandfather also served in WWI, in the British Army

he was older in Dunkirk, nicknamed POPS by the young troops

I'll be seeing the movie in a couple of weeks

[bluecollar2]

24. Grandad was a Lt. at age 17

Royal Engineers in the trenches at Ypres...or Wipers as he called it. Survived all 4 years.

I remember playing on a few bomb sites when I was very young. Places hadn't been cleared fully after the war.

Incredible what my father and his father experienced.

[Skittles]

25. can you even imagine, at that age

I was in the military when I was 18 but our grandfathers were AT WAR at age 17

[bluecollar2]

28. I waited until 21 to join the navy

I can't imagine what it must have been like...

[Docreed2003]

26. Excellent film... breathtaking cinematography!

[greatauntoftriplets]

27. I'm looking forward to seeing it, not sure when right now.

One of the great operations of WWII.

[Laffy Kat]

29. Going this evening and taking my two young adult sons.

My sister saw it today and said she really wish our deceased father could have seen it. Hope I'll be able to sleep afterwards.

[heather blossom]

31. Plan to see it

Thanks for the reviews. I look forward to seeing it. I am a WW II history buff. Have 2 uncles that served in the Pacific theater.

[Cuthbert Allgood]

32. Movies are $5 for us on Tuesdays with free small popcorn.

I got my tickets for that show on Thursday and 75% of tickets were sold already.

[beveeheart]

33. Going to see it tomorrow with my daughter

and 28 yr old grandson. Just happened to see Kenneth Branagh talking about the film on Colbert's show last night.

[Skittles]

34. I really like Kenneth Branagh

yes indeed

[lame54]

36. Saw it tonight...

It was great

[HeiressofBickworth]

37. Saw it last night in IMAX.

Sat in the fifth row -- I like sitting close enough so the screen nearly fills my vision.

The action was constant. Some must have been computer generated but was well done and I wasn't certain of the line between CG and real action.

My favorite movies always seem to include elements of personal sacrifice. This movie showed the efforts of civilians in their personal boats taking on the Herculean task of this critical rescue. Victory out of defeat.

[lindysalsagal]

38. Just saw it. The message was: when the planes start gunning

The ships, water, and beach, it's really a crap shoot deciding what will keep you alive.

Throughout the film each character made personal choices with their guts, including the British fighter pilot who ran out of fuel and landed, set the plaNE on fire and was taken by the Germans. The Story ended there. So there aren't any resolutions in the film: the rescued soldiers would just be sent back to fight. Many just drowned. A brutal experience of the realites, not a patriotic romantic justification.

The film was honest. Saw. It in imax. Definitely the way to go.

[Skittles]

39. now GET THIS, lindysalsagal

I finally got to see it last night - being a sentimental gal I took my grandfather's watch with me - the hanging kind, no band......had it in my hand when I heard it buzz - yup, it started ticking.......I've had that watch for decades and it has never worked. So strange.

I'm so glad the story of Dunkirk is now more widely known. For the longest time, if I mentioned my grandfather was at Dunkirk, people in America very often had no idea what I meant.

[lindysalsagal]

40. Can I ask if he survived? Would that be rude?

[Skittles]

41. yes, he was one of the last guys picked up

he was older -38, and insisted the young lads had to get home to their mums

[Hassin Bin Sober]

42. Was he the original ass kicker??

[Skittles]

43. well

if he was, he was the kindest, calmest guy I ever knew - certainly not high-strung like me and my mum

[lindysalsagal]

44. Wow! He survived a total nightmare. Amazing.

[LanternWaste]

45. Wonderful treatment, but its execution and narrative was too art-house

Wonderful treatment, but its execution and narrative was too art-house for a simple mind like mine, though I did enjoy it much more than the late fifties production by the same name.

Weekend at Dunkirk ('64 or '65?) is the best film I've seen about the evacuation, with Mrs. Miniver being the best film that relies on it as a plot device.