Dunkirk - BBC2

[Q]

Have just watched the 1st part of this and found it extremely gripping and very shocking.What those poor soliders went through I guess we will never know.Excellent programme and a must watch over the next 2 nights (Thurs,Fri at 9pm)

Its been a while since I actually sat down and just watched the Tv stricitly for an hour without doing anything on the pc but this programme made me do this.

[axelb]

Didn't see my Grandad in it ....
I'll look out for him in the next few

[Peter UK]

I thought it was tosh; really dissapointed as I was looking forward to it for the past month :nuts:

Hammy acting, cliched naughty Germans, and the, for me, unworkable acting/docu footage made it worse.

[Little_Dragon]

Originally posted by Peter UK
I thought it was tosh; really dissapointed as I was looking forward to it for the past month :nuts:

Hammy acting, cliched naughty Germans, and the, for me, unworkable acting/docu footage made it worse.

I agree, I was really looking forward to it, and it was terrible.

The constant voiceover was annoying, and playing the archive footage against the "reconstruction" looked so cheap and nasty.

[keeperbear]

Originally posted by Peter UK
I thought it was tosh; cliched naughty Germans

I agree with all your criticisms, but the German's did actually shoot British prisoners just outside Dunkirk.

The voice over was very annoying. Overall, it was better than I expected from the BBC. Is it just me, or does the BBC over-hype everything with 'advertising' so that the viewer must always be disappointed?

[cervaro]

I can't understand why the BBC didn't run this series at the end of May/early June to coincide with the actual Dunkirk events? Recording it for now so can't comment on the series as yet. Funnily enough I watched the movie Dunkirk with John Mills the other day, and even though it's a little cheesy in places, that's still the best fictional coverage of the what happened in 1940 for me.

[losimagic]

overall i thought it was very good, the only thing i didn't like was the absolutely terrible Churchill "lookalike" - took me a while to work out who he was, it wasn't until he started smoking a cigar that i realised who it was supposed to be

[Idle Child]

Dramatically and acting wise, i thought it started off bad (a lot of foul language in the first opening scenes that got in the way of the narrative) but then it became more gripping as the story unfolded. Technically, I also didn't like the juxtaposition of real colour WW2 footage with this series re-creations. It was something about the continuity and the blending of the 2 genres which seemed a bit off, i suppose i'd have prefered if it wasn't so "Jekyll and Hyde". Timothy Dalton could have had his voice-over parts as subtitles to give it a more scholarly tone. The director also chose to have Brits saying in combat stuff like: "What are you shooting at?" - "I dunno". Which made them look inept somewhat, and it also showed commanding officers issuing orders for soldiers to be shot on site for decent which made them look cruel ( - you don't see that kind of talk in Band Of Brothers).

But once the first half hour was over and we got the soldiers surrending to the Germans it then took off for me. Very gripping, very frightening, very powerful for what ensued. These will be "fictionalised" war images i won't forget (much like the harrowing images of the storming of Ohmaha beach in Saving Private Ryan).

Did anyone use the BBCi interactive service afterwards? i watched the eye-witness reports from the veterans and their real life accounts were far scarier than anything the first part of "Dunkirk" managed to show. The story of the Stukas dive bombing refugees and targetting old/children without assaulting the army parade was disgusting. Also the story of how the ships tried to steer away from the dive bombers with officers lying on the deck and looking up at the bombers with binochulars would have sounded comical if it wasn't so frighteningly real. And it went on.. the accounts of officers mercy killing injured men on their burning ships.. all of this was horrendous to hear - glad i never had to live through that.

Either way, for all its apparent faults, the Dunkirk TV series still raises awareness about what was asked of men some 64 years ago. And that can't be a bad thing.

[jpig]

i liked it, if 'like' can possibly be attached to a programme about such a subject!

[rainbird]

It was compelling and it strikes me as unfair, if not ignorant, to suggest it was cliched since it was so closely based on interviews and written accounts by the survivors. Particularly the scene where British soldiers were captured and then cold-bloodedly executed by the SS was horrific.

However, I didn't like the way the reconstructions were filmed at all. I do wish directors wouldn't go for this bleached out look with the exagerated colours. It just makes the whole thing look like a pop video or one of those ghastly Renault car ads. I find it incredibly distracting not only because it doesn't look like 'reality' but also because it had the effect of widening the gulf between itself and the archive footage which was used in the programme.

There was also rather too much emphasis on shooting everything in close up or mid-shot although I appreciate this was probably forced on the production team because of the low budget.

The other criticism I have to make of 'Dunkirk' is the constant use of hand held camera with lots of arty close ups and little zooms into people's faces. This REALLY got on my nerves after a few minutes. Can't they just put the camera on a tripod? The material is so strong that it doesn't need all these stupid stylistic gimmicks and there were moments in 'Dunkirk' where I found myself looking away from the screen just to give my eyes a rest from the constant, disorientating shaky-cam technique. :oh-hum:

Anyway, that aside, I'll be tuning in again for pt 2 tonight.

[Peter UK]

Originally posted by rainbird
if not ignorant

It was just so contrived though; if you're going to portray the horrors of war dramatically then at least get some decent actors that don't look like they're going through the motions shacked up in a barn waiting to get shot and go home. I actually thought the best bit of that scene was one of the closeups after most were dead. The voiceover didn't bother me too much but I thought the personal recounting would've been better if retold by an older voice; it just seemed odd hearing a soldier speaking about himself on screen but sounding the same age.

Still gonna catch part 2 though :p

[snow patrol]

I was disappointed. I wish the BBC could have done something more in vein of BoB - although I realise that would have stretched things budget wise...it's just that the 'action' footage was pathetic, some of the acting was poor and the general directing was very annoying.

Not sure if I'll bother to watch tomorrow. I'm hoping that the up-coming BBC production 'D-DAY' will be better. :)

[freelancer]

Does anyone know if this is to be repeated anytime soon? Perhaps on BBC3?

I am an NTL digital customer, and although on a normal aerial i would get BBC2 Wales, bloody NThell show BBC2 W, which is, well, i dont know. Different programs to BBC2 Wales, and it wasnt on last night or tonight. The third part is on tomorrow though, so perhaps im expected to watch the final episode only?

[Idle Child]

Oh dear.. i missed tonights final episode. Looks like i'll need to catch a repeat too.

[Art Vanderlay]

Originally posted by Idle Child
Oh dear.. i missed tonights final episode. Looks like i'll need to catch a repeat too.

They are running a day behind in Scotland, so if you have Sky you can see the final episode from there tonight