History YMMV / Dunkirk

* AwardSnub: Though a lot of people feel Roger Deakins deserved his Best Cinematography win, a ''lot'' are not happy about the fact that a [[Film/BladeRunner2049 movie that features lots of green screen and CG]] snubbed a movie with in-camera shots from spitfires. The same reason is why many are angered by Creator/ChristopherNolan losing Best Director to Creator/GuillermoDelToro.

* HilariousInHindsight: Creator/JamesDArcy appears to be making a habit out of starring in films about World War II events; literally the previous year he had starred in a film about the bombing of Guernica.

* SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct: Harry Styles - best known for his music in One Direction - was given some praise for his first acting role here.
* HilariousInHindsight: James D'Arcy appears to be making a habit out of starring in films about World War II events; literally the previous year he had starred in a film about the bombing of Guernica.

** In contrast to his good takes on the general American and Birmingham dialects, Cillian Murphy's attempt at an RP accent is a bit [[IAmVeryBritish too over-the-top]] to be believable[[note]]People did talk like this in the 40s for sure, but no one else in the film does; even officers played by Kenneth Branagh and James D'Arcy who have the accents naturally still feel understated[[/note]]. It's even more glaring next to fellow Irishman Barry Keoghan's flawless accent.

* UnfortunateImplications: When a book about the making of the movie came out, it revealed that parts of the scenery were made ''[[http://www.indiewire.com/2017/08/dunkirk-prison-labor-1201872143/ using prison labor]]'' apparently unbeknownst to the cast and crew.

* 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. Christopher Nolan insisted 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.

** 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 they 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.

** 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 they 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.

*** And in that same scene, after getting over the gate, Tommy spends a solid fifteen seconds crouched in place and fumbling with his rifle, while a machine gun tears up the gate literally inches beside him. It takes him awhile to figure out he'd never win the fight, at which point he drops the rifle and runs. More to the point, he's hiding behind the non-existant protection of the wooden fence. ...Which is attached to a stone wall. Although, as above, no urban training, and he's clearly panicking.

* TheScrappy: The Shivering Soldier proves to be TheLoad when he's rescued from his boat, [[spoiler: causes George's death]] from his own paranoia and spends most of his screentime chewing out Peter and his father. Cillian Murphy's performance is also seen by some as weaker than his previous efforts.

* OlderThanTheyThink: ''Dunkirk'' is not the first film about the battle as some claim. It was the subject of films as far as 1958's ''Film/{{Dunkirk|1958}}'' and 1964's ''Film/WeekendAtDunkirk'', as well as a rather famous [[TheOner oner]] from 2007's ''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 plenty of HilariousInHindsight for those who saw both same to the deliberate use of tropes that show up in ''Dunkirk''.

* OlderThanTheyThink: ''Dunkirk'' is not the first film about the battle as some claim. It was the subject of films as far as 1958's ''Film/{{Dunkirk|1958}}'' 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 plenty of HilariousInHindsight for those who saw both same to the deliberate use of tropes that show up in ''Dunkirk''.

* OlderThanTheyThink: ''Dunkirk'' is not the first film about the battle as some claim. 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 plenty of HilariousInHindsight for those who saw both same to the deliberate use of tropes that show up in ''Dunkirk''.

* 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 insists 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.

* 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.

* 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. 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 like lip service, especially when French extras and historians from Dunkirk noted how Christopher Nolan praised the heroism of the city's defenders on set. The film has been largely praised in France for its technical brilliance and drama and did good business there, but there is still a feeling that a great occasion to brilliantly subvert the CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys trope has been missed.

* BrokenBase: Prior to the film's release, the movie's PG-13 rating. Many believed that the rating meant that it couldn't truly capture the sheer horrors of war that an R-rating would allow it to show, while others believed that it the film could still be intense and hard-hitting without resorting to gratuitous violence. Following the film's release, the public consensus leans much closer to the latter perspective.

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

* 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 plenty of HilariousInHindsight for those who saw both same to the deliberate use of tropes that show up in ''Dunkirk''.

* TheWoobie: Almost everyone really.

* AwardSnub: Though a lot of people feel Roger Deakins deserved his Best Cinematography win, a ''lot'' are not happy about the fact that a [[Film/BladeRunner2049 movie that features lots of green screen and CG]] snubbed a movie with in-camera shots from spitfires.
** The same reason is why many are angered by Creator/ChristopherNolan losing Best Director to Creator/GuillermoDelToro.

* 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 largely praised in France for its technical brilliance 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.

** Bolton due to being played by Creator/KennethBranagh, Laurence Olivier's successor as the greatest actor in the English-speaking world himself.

* WinBackTheCrowd: After ''The Dark Knight Rises'' and especially ''Interstellar'' received more divided (but still overall positive) responses, ''Dunkirk'' seems to have won back those who thought Nolan may have lost his touch, with several critics praising this film as his best one yet.

*** And in that same scene, after getting over the gate, Tommy spends a solid fifteen seconds crouched in place and fumbling with his rifle, while a machine gun tears up the gate literally inches beside him. It takes him awhile to figure out he'd never win the fight, at which point he drops the rifle and runs. More to the point, he's hiding behind the non existant protection of the wooden fence. ...Which is attached to a stone wall. Although, as above, no urban training, and he's clearly panicking.
* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical: A number of people have suggested that the movie's depiction of the British army's heroic escape from a German-dominated Europe is meant to symbolize Britain's departure from the European Union. Given that Christopher Nolan got the idea for the film in the mid-nineties and the film went into pre-production before the EU referendum was held in the UK, this seems unlikely to have been the intention.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Surprising pretty much nobody, Farrier has emerged as the clear favorite character among many fans of the movie despite never interacting physically with a single other actor, due to being played by Creator/TomHardy and his feats of supreme AcePilot badassery like [[spoiler: shooting down a German bomber after his plane has already ''run out of fuel.'']]

* HilariousInHindsight:
** 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... though he does crash a German bomber. With no survivors.
** 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 or Max is up to a viewer's own imagination.]]
** Creator/CillianMurphy [[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.