History YMMV / Dunkirk

* AmericansHateTingle: [[https://www.thelocal.fr/20170719/dont-forget-the-bravery-of-the-french-at-the-battle-of-dunkirk The film has caused controversy in France]] regarding the considerably downplayed role of the French army and the heavy focus on the British Expeditionary Force, the RAF and and the Little Ships flotilla, while French extras and historians from Dunkirk noted Christopher Nolan praised the heroism of the city's defenders on set. Historically, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6C5P-AYGdY the French defense of the city was crucial to slow down the Germans' advance]], gaining time and allowing for a greater number of soldiers to be successfully evacuated. In the end, although the French soldiers don't have much screentime (their most prominent presence is [[spoiler:a soldier who takes the identity of a dead British soldier so he can get on one of the boats, though he's still portrayed reasonably sympathetically]]), and the fact that UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill unofficially ordered to prioritize British soldiers over them to "bring the army back home" is brought up, they are paid some due respect by Commander Bolton, who stays behind to wait for them as they evacuate, and the fact that they are holding ground against the Germans is also mentioned, but it still felt insufficient. The film has been praised there for its technical aspects and drama and did good business in France, but there is still a feeling that a great occasion to deliver a huge blow to the CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys trope has been missed.

* AmericansHateTingle: [[https://www.thelocal.fr/20170719/dont-forget-the-bravery-of-the-french-at-the-battle-of-dunkirk The film has caused controversy in France]] regarding the considerably downplayed role of the French army and the heavy focus on the British Expeditionary Force, the RAF and and the Little Ships flotilla, while French extras and historians from Dunkirk noted Christopher Nolan praised the heroism of the city's defenders on set. Historically, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6C5P-AYGdY the French defense of the city was crucial to slow down the Germans' advance]], gaining time and allowing for a greater number of soldiers to be successfully evacuated. In the end, although the French soldiers don't have much screentime (their most prominent presence is [[spoiler:a soldier who takes the identity of a dead British soldier so he can get on one of the boats, though he's still portrayed reasonably sympathetically]]), and the fact that UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill unofficially ordered to prioritize British soldiers over them to "bring the army back home" is brought up, they are paid some due respect by Commander Bolton, who stays behind to wait for them as they evacuate, and the fact that they are holding ground against the Germans is also mentioned. The film has been praised there for its technical aspects and drama and did good business in France, but there is still a feeling that a great occasion to deliver a huge blow to the CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys trope has been missed.

* OlderThanTheyThink: ''Dunkirk'' is not the first film about the battle. It was the subject of films as far as the 1958 ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunkirk_(1958_film) Dunkirk]]'' and 1964's ''Film/WeekendAtDunkirk'', as well as a rather famous {{Oner}} from 2007 film ''Film/{{Atonement}}''. ''Film/TheirFinest'', about the creation of a WWII propaganda film about the evacuation, was released in 2016.
** The propaganda film in the latter also provides plensty of HilariousInHindsight for those who saw both same to the deliberate use of tropes that show up in ''Dunkirk''.

* AmericansHateTingle: [[https://www.thelocal.fr/20170719/dont-forget-the-bravery-of-the-french-at-the-battle-of-dunkirk The film has caused controversy in France]] regarding the downplayed role of the French army in the film and the heavy focus on the British Expeditionary Force, the RAF and and the Little Ships flotilla, while French extras and historians from Dunkirk noted Christopher Nolan praised the heroism of the city's defenders on set. Historically, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6C5P-AYGdY the French defense of the city was crucial to slow down the Germans' advance]], gaining time and allowing for a greater number of soldiers to be successfully evacuated. In the end, although the French soldiers don't have much screentime (their most prominent presence is [[spoiler:a soldier who takes the identity of a dead British soldier so he can get on one of the boats, though he's still portrayed reasonably sympathetically]]), and the fact that UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill unofficially ordered to prioritize British soldiers over them to "bring the army back home" is brought up, they are paid some due respect by Commander Bolton, who stays behind to wait for them as they evacuate, and the fact that they are holding ground against the Germans is also mentioned. The film has been praised there for its technical aspects and drama and did good business there, but there is still a feeling that a great occasion to deliver a huge blow to the CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys trope has been missed.

* AmericansHateTingle: The film caused some controversy in France regarding the downplayed role of the French army in the film and the heavy focus on the British Expeditionary Force, the RAF and and the Little Ships flotilla, while French extras and historians from Dunkirk noted Christopher Nolan praised the heroism of the city's defenders on set. Historically, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6C5P-AYGdY the French defense of the city was crucial to slow down the Germans' advance]], gaining time and allowing for a greater number of soldiers to be successfully evacuated. In the end, although the French soldiers don't have much screentime (their most prominent presence is [[spoiler:a soldier who takes the identity of a dead British soldier so he can get on one of the boats, though he's still portrayed reasonably sympathetically]]), and the fact that UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill unofficially ordered to prioritize British soldiers over them to "bring the army back home" is brought up, they are paid some due respect by Commander Bolton, who stays behind to wait for them as they evacuate, and the fact that they are holding ground against the Germans is also mentioned. The film has been praised there for its technical aspects and drama and opened very well there, but there is still a feeling that a great occasion to deliver a huge blow to the CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys trope has been missed overall.

** Not only does Hardy have a good part of his face covered after ''Film/LayerCake'', ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'', and ''Film/MadMaxFuryRoad'', [[spoiler:but he lets himself be captured by enemy troops in the end. Whether or not he eventually breaks out just as dramatically as Bane is up to a viewer's own imagination.]]

** Creator/CillianMurphy [[http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/BatmanBegins once again]] plays an otherwise calm and composed character who then dramatically loses his sanity and is left in fear-stricken trauma for the remainder of the film.

** It should be taken into account though that some find that the movie's plotline full as it is and pulling away from the beache and giving focus to the french action would have included a fourth and munch more cluttered plot line compared to the other three which which focused on very specific aspects of the retreat which would make any french plotline far too confusing, distracting and jarring for to be worth while. (There also a argument to be made that the french action's to cover for the british retreat would work more as a film itself.)

* OlderThanTheyThink: ''Dunkirk'' is not the first film about the battle. It was the subject of films as far as the 1958 ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunkirk_(1958_film) Dunkirk]]'' and 1964's ''Film/WeekendAtDunkirk'', as well as a rather famous {{Oner}} from 2007 film ''Film/{{Atonement}}''.

* AmericansHateTingle: The film is causing some controversy in France regarding the downplayed role of the French army in the film and the heavy focus on the British Expeditionary Force and the Little Ships flotilla, while French extras and historians from Dunkirk noted Christopher Nolan praised the heroism of the city's defenders on set. Historically, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6C5P-AYGdY the French defense of the city was crucial to slow down the Germans' advance]], gaining time and allowing for a greater number of soldiers to be successfully evacuated. In the end, although the French soldiers don't have much screentime (their most prominent presence is [[spoiler:a soldier who takes the identity of a dead British soldier so he can get on one of the boats, though he's still portrayed reasonably sympathetically]]), and the fact that UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill unofficially ordered to prioritize British soldiers over them to "bring the army back home" is brought up, they are paid some due respect by Commander Bolton, who stays behind to wait for them as they evacuate, and the fact that they are holding ground against the Germans is also mentioned. The film has been praised there for its technical aspects and drama and opened very well there, but there is still a feeling that a great occasion to demonstrate a larger aversion of the CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys trope has been missed overall.

* AmericansHateTingle: The film is causing some controversy in France regarding the downplayed role of the French army in the film by heavy focus on the British Expeditionary Force and the Little Ships flotilla, while French extras and historians from Dunkirk noted Christopher Nolan praised the heroism of the city's defenders on set. Historically, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6C5P-AYGdY the French defense of the city was crucial to slow down the Germans' advance]], gaining time and allowing for a greater number of soldiers to be successfully evacuated. In the end, French soldiers don't have much screentime (their most prominent presence is [[spoiler:a soldier who takes the identity of a dead British soldier so he can get on one of the boats, though he's still portrayed reasonably sympathetically]]), the fact that UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill unofficially ordered to prioritize British soldiers over them to "bring the army back home" is brought up, they are paid some due respect by Commander Bolton, who stays behind to wait for them as they evacuate, and the fact that they are holding ground against the Germans is also mentioned. The film has been praised there for its technical aspects and drama and opened very well there, but there is still a feeling that a great occasion to demonstrate a larger aversion of the CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys trope has been missed overall.

* HeReallyCanAct: The general reaction to Music/HarryStyles, with his performance being praised.

*** Not only does Hardy also has a good part of his face covered after ''Film/LayerCake'', ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'' and ''Film/MadMaxFuryRoad'', [[spoiler:but even he lets himself be captured by enemy troops in the end. Whether or not he eventually breaks out just as dramatically as Bane is up to a viewer's own imagination.]]

** [[spoiler:The Heinkel bomber crew who despite successfully sinking the British vessel going around for another pass to presumably finish off the men in the water, despite losing it's fighter escorts and being tailed by a Spitfire.]]

** Tommy's infantry section in the opening carelessly wanders about an urban battlefield down the middle of a street instead of at least cautiously moving from house to house to minimize their exposure. When are promptly spotted by the Germans and fired upon, they panic and sprint along the street instead of immediately barging into the doors and windows of the buildings they were next to. [[RealityEnsues Unsurprisingly]], they are cut down in seconds with Tommy as the sole survivor due to the virtue of climbing over a wooden gate in time. TruthInTelevision, as the British Army never really developed effective urban warfare training until after the war; without their training to resort to, the recruits would likely act on their own fear and survival instinct.

* WTHCastingAgency: Quite a few people objected to [[Music/OneDirection Harry]] [[Music/HarryStyles Styles]] being cast as a main character in ''Dunkirk'', given that it's supposed to be a serious war movie and Styles is best known as a teenybopper pop singer. Nolan insist he had no idea about his music career before casting him and did so solely on the strength of his audition. However, some of the initial objection disappeared after the movie came out. See HeReallyCanAct above.

* HeReallyCanAct: The general reaction to Creator/HarryStyles, with his performance being praised.

* PeripheryDemographic: A large number of teenage girls and young women, not considered a typical audience for a dark UsefulNotes/WorldWarII film, [[http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/heat-vision/dunkirk-harry-styles-fans-give-movie-more-bargained-1022380 flocked to the movie]] thanks to the casting of Creator/HarryStyles.

** Hardy also has a good part of his face covered after ''Film/LayerCake'', ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'' and ''Film/MadMaxFuryRoad''.

** [[spoiler: Peter is visibly shaken when he was told that his best friend George died from his head trauma...for about two seconds, [[StiffUpperLip then he gets back to helping the soldiers like normal.]] He doesn't comment on the fact again until he sees George being lauded a hero in the newspaper after he got home.]]

* SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped: "All we did was survive!" "That's enough."

* MoralEventHorizon: Among the ships that the Stuka dive bombers attack at the mole, one is clearly marked as a hospital ship in white with large red crosses. This is a clear war crime.

* EightDeadlyWords: Several critics complained that the minimal characterisation of the main cast had the side effect of making it hard to get invested in their story.

** In the last Creator/ChristopherNolan [[Film/TheDarkKnightRises film]] Creator/TomHardy was in, he gained MemeticMutation for [[Memes/TheDarkKnightTrilogy "crashing this plane"]]. In this movie, Hardy's character is explicitly trying to ''not'' crash his plane.

* DeadStarWalking: Many assumed that Harry Styles's Alex would be killed off, as he was the only one of the three main characters to have any sort of name recognition with the general public. [[spoiler:[[AvertedTrope However,]] he manages to survive to the end, while one of the leads played by an unknown is killed off. Moreover, the characters played by Cillian Murphy, Kenneth Branagh and Tom Hardy all survive as well (although the latter is taken prisoner and may not survive in a POW camp).]]

* FanNickname: The Shivering Soldier is often simply called "Creator/CillianMurphy", as he's not given an actual name in the movie proper.

* DeadStarWalking: Many assumed that Harry Styles's Alex would be killed off, as he was the only one of the three main characters to have any sort of name recognition with the general public. [[spoiler:[[AvertedTrope However,]] he manages to survive to the end, while one of the leads played by an unknown is killed off.]]

* FanNickname: The Shivering Soldier is often simply called "CillianMurphy", as he's not given an actual name in the movie proper.

** One critic thought Alex's line "He's got an accent thicker than sauerkraut sauce" took them out of the film somewhat.

* {{Narm}}: Some criticism was directed at [[https://mobile.twitter.com/jpraup/status/761327973253414912 one of the extras in the trailer]], who can be seen with a (very) slight smile, which some feel goes against the somber mood.