I wish I read this before seeing Dunkirk

Allen Caeg
Jul 23, 2017 · 2 min read

A few scenes in toward the opening, I felt my head scrambling a little too much and had lost stride watching while trying to piece together the setting.

The jarring effect of sitting a few rows below optimal eye level in an IMAX theater didn’t help either. (But I still recommend watching in IMAX, SM MOA, rows J-K.)

I’m writing this unofficial prelude with the hope of providing you, a to-be goer of the movie Dunkirk (2017), enough background of the story and help get immersed in the film the way I think its creator intended to.

You may want to read the following just before entering the theater.


WARNING: may contain spoilers. But the movie is based on a true story, anyway.

It starts in May 10, 1940, with a surprise German blitzkrieg bombarding Holland and the French-Belgian border with air raids, parachute drops and ground attacks. The move came as a surprise to the Allied forces, who had thought any German attack would come at the Maginot Line, a fortification along the French-German border.

Belgium and Holland were hit so hard they were forced to surrender, and British troops in France, pushed toward the water by the onslaught of German forces, fought themselves to a point of no return at the French port of Dunkirk.

Text from: http://time.com/4865358/dunkirk-history-christopher-nolan-film/


Glossary:

mole \ˈmōl\

noun

1 : a massive work formed of masonry and large stones or earth laid in the sea as a pier or breakwater

2 : the harbor formed by a mole

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