Dunkirk

Before Christopher Nolan’s big budget affair, director Leslie Norman put his cast through the paces to achieve as much realism as possible in reconstructing the story of Operation Dynamo during WW2 – focusing in the evacuation of surrounded British (and French) troops from the beaches in Dunkirk. John Mills, Bernard Lee and Richard Attenborough lead the stellar cast.

While the battle itself took place between 26th May and 4th of June 1940, the story kicks off beforehand when newspaper journo Charles Foreman (Bernard Lee) tries to ruffle up his complacent readership from the possible threat of a so-called Phoney War. Meanwhile, his acquaintance John Holden (Richard Attenborough) stands as the other end of the spectrum as he – as a small factory owner – profits from manufacturing buckles. Meanwhile over in France, British Corporal Binns (John Mills), platoon leader Lt. Lumpkin (Kenneth Cope), Private Mark Russell (Robert Urquhart) and other members of a depleted section successfully manage to blow up a bridge before returning to the their camp but bad news awaits them when they learn that their Company has pulled out and thus left them stranded in France. This leaves Binns in charge of his 5-men squad and the first section of the movie tells about their desperate struggle to make it back to England, told in sequences which are tense and harrowing to watch and which give a real sense not only of the physical but also of the psychological impact. After trying to overcome gruelling obstacles, and with the loss of life, eventually they reach Dunkirk but here they find themselves stranded together with thousands of other soldiers waiting for their evacuation.

As the situation becomes ever more desperate, General Viscount Gort (Cyril Raymond) disobeys orders and pulls out two divisions in order to reinforce the Belgians while the Admiralty calls on all civilian boats to help evacuate the stranded soldiers from the beach of Dunkirk – an undertaking that is met with patriotic enthusiasm but is of course highly dangerous, courtesy of constant aerial bombings. Unfazed, Foremann and Holden head direction Dunkirk in their boats…
Clocking in over two hours it must be said the combat scenes are as brutal as they are awesome (from a cinematic point of view) as the agony, the sheer horror and the bloodshed of the battle of Dunkirk unfolds in front of our very eyes.

This 2K restored version does the memory of those involved proud and to commemorate the event, a Special Premiere event will be held on 20th & 21st of September on the beaches of Camber Sands (where this 1958 movie was filmed). For more info and to book tickets please visit: http://www.scnl.co/DunkirkPremiere