Changes

The movie has been 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> Thousands of French soldiers also sacrificed their lives in an effort to protect the British troops in Dunkirk. There are also no Canadians soldiers shown in the movie. There was also a sizable contingent of men from the Royal Canadian Army serving with the British Expeditionary Force.

The movie is primarily focused on action and by and large it shows how the events that unfolded during Operation Dynamo. It also focuses on the courage of the participants and how the evacuation 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 a few glaring inaccuracies.

These include the fact that the Luftwaffe was not as effective as shown. It also never addressed why the Germans did not try to press their advantage at Dunkirk much more forcefully, but that is a fairly minor quibble. A significant inaccuracy was that none of the historical characters involved in Operation Dynamo are shown in the movies. However, Christopher Nolan was honest and did not claim to be making a historically accurate film. Instead, 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.