This is an excellent war movie, especially considering it is from 1958. It has aged well. Today’s war movies are more visually impressive, of course, with the special effects that make it seem like you are witnessing the real thing. This version can’t match all that, but except for setting it up politically with newsreel clips and people discussing the “phony” war, this film shows the personal journey of Dunkirk. The home front, soldiers caught behind the rapidly shifting line of battle, and later on the masses of soldiers on the beaches waiting for the civilian “navy” who lent their boats and themselves to the impossible task of getting the trapped army back home to England.

The voiceover narration seemed unnecessary at times. I felt they should just get out of the ways and show this human side of the battle of Dunkirk, which could have been a massacre but was instead a stunning rescue operation. We almost expect our war movies to be three-hour spectacles these days, and they are visually impressive, but I still appreciate movies like this one, which balance realistic small-scale warfare scenes with scenes depicting the human interest stories of war.