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== Historical Characters==

The movie has a great many characters. However, none of them are based on historical characters. None of the British soldiers shown in the movie are based on real-life individuals. Not even the leading figures in the evacuation are portrayed in the motion picture. The best example of this is Kenneth Branagh's Commander Bolton. In Nolan’s movie, he is shown as one of the leading figures during the operation and key to the success of Operation Dynamo. In fact, there was no commander Bolton and he is rather a composite character. He is loosely based on several important Royal Navy figures who played crucial roles in the evacuation, such as Admiral Sir Bertram Ramsay, who oversaw the evacuation. Bolton's duties in the film include the role of pier master, who organizes the boarding soldiers onto the ships, but, this was all overseen by James Campbell Clouston<ref> Atkin, Ronald. Pillar of Fire: Dunkirk 1940. Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited, 1990</ref>. Nolan has been widely criticized for the creation of composite characters. In this sense, the movie is very inaccurate and it does not recognize the role of the many brave individuals who helped to save the British army.

The movie was criticized for focusing too much on the British involvement. Dunkirk has a special place in British history and the success of Operation Dynamo helped to save the country from a Nazi invasion. However, while the British were the main protagonists in Operation Dynamo other countries were also involved. In fact, there were many nationalities who were also present at the fighting and the evacuation of Dunkirk. There were tens of thousands of French and Belgian soldiers who had retreated with the British to the area. They also wanted to be evacuated and they wanted to avoid capture by the Nazis. Many of these wanted to escape to England to continue the fight for their nation’s freedom. None of the French and Belgium contingents at Dunkirk are shown<ref> MacDonald, p. 213</ref>. There are also no Canadians soldiers shown in the movie, there was also a sizeable contingent of men from the Royal Canadian Army serving with the British Expeditionary Force. Another criticism of Nolan’s movie is that all the servicemen in the film are white. This was not the case at the time, the British and the French had vast colonial Empires in Asia and Africa. The British has Indian units and the French several African units at Dunkirk <ref> Atkin, p. 115</ref>. The film has caused some controversy in India as it failed to show the many Indian soldiers who served with the British at Dunkirk or the very many French colonial troops, mainly African who were among those present at the battle.

[[File: Dunkirksoldier1.jpg|200px| British soldiers fighting at Dunkirk |left|alt text]]

==How accurate was Dunkirk==

The movie is primarily focused on action and by and large it shows the events that unfolded during Operation Dynamo very accurately. It shows the courage of the participants and how the operation at Dunkirk achieved the unthinkable and saved almost an entire army. Nolan’s movie also shows the importance of the RAF and the Royal Navy to the success of the evacuation. However, there are inaccuracies and these include the fact that the Luftwaffe was not as effective as shown and it did not really deal with the issue of why the Germans did not try and press home their advantage at Dunkirk much more forcefully. Another significant inaccuracy was that none of the historical characters involved in Operation Dynamo are shown and that the movie used composite characters. However, Christopher Nolan was honest and did not claim to be making a historically accurate film he wanted to provide a dramatized version of the events and wanted to give a new generation unfamiliar with WWII an insight into Dunkirk. The English director hoped to encourage moviegoers to investigate the history further themselves. The movie Dunkirk is overall reliable with regard to the Battle and gives the viewer a good overview of Operation Dynamo but it is certainly not a documentary of what happened in May 1940.