Films seen in August 2017

1. Dunkirk

Lots of hype about this and reviews read and reports from friends all good except for the secularisation, missing out the national day of Prayer from Evangelicals now.
   My first thing to say is that us going to the cinema is a rare event. Last there on the opening day of Les Mis. Nothing intros visit is likely to persuade me to take up cinema good.
   First moan. Due Cinema's; online booking is user extremely unfriendly if you have to enter voucher codes. I probably took almost as long to book online plus three phone calls as it did to watch the film.
   Seats comfortable but as before, sound unpleasantly loud, commercials pushy for consumer goods on sale in foyer and interminable trailers for films to come, most of which I would pay to stay away from. Sci/fi and fantasy utter rubbish.
   But to Dunkirk. The first film I have seen which is meant to give you an experience. It assumes you know the story. Hundreds of thousands of troops stuck on the beach.The German army resting its tanks allows the Luftwaffe to strafe and bomb like ducks set up in rows. The discipline is extraordinary. Dialogue is minimal. The viewer is to let it all wash over them. The poor soldiers complain about lack of RAF protection. The RAF had to stay and protect its bases. It was a fight for the whole war, not only this battle. It ended with Churchill's speech. I would have liked to have heard the quote from the commander of the operation. It is on the wall of his command post in Dover castle and is to the effect that, "It is sometimes granted to a general to command a victory, but not a miracle'. Over 300,000 evacuated not the tens of thousands expected.A miracle? Yes if you believe God commands the weather.
   I noted two things missing. Prayer. I do not recall anyone praying. Badly unrealistic. Welcome unrealism. No swearing. One more absence. No Americans. Enough said of late arrivals to partys.. Other near absences - one person of colour. Probably proportionate. A handful of women, nursing or making tea and sandwiches. Proper place during combat.
   Final thoughts are two. I am thankful I was born after the end of the war and not before it like my father.Then the amazing absence of my father from that beach. All the Royal Artillery recruits with whom he trained finished up on the beech. Gunner Weeks, my father, and his sergeant, Day, were the two not sent to France. Dad reckons some officer had a sense of humour missing out Day and Weeks. Dad was sent to Yorkshire, met my mother and so I can write this ramble of a review. A film to be experience but one viewing is enough for me. My return to view on the big screen could be years away.