Dunkirk

1958 2h 14m EN

👍

6.9

SOLID

★6.9TMDB · 77

DramaWar

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

A British Corporal in France finds himself responsible for the lives of his men when their officer is killed. He has to get them back to Britain somehow. Meanwhile, British civilians are being dragged into the war with Operation Dynamo, the scheme to get the French and British forces back from the Dunkirk beaches. Some come forward to help, others were less willing.

“Some stories are better left unspoiled.”

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Cast

John Mills
Cpl Tubby Binns
Richard Attenborough
John Holden
Bernard Lee
Charles Foreman
Robert Urquhart
Mike
Ray Jackson
Barlow
Ronald Hines
Private Miles
Sean Barrett
Frankie
Roland Curram
Harper

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Leslie Norman
Writers: David Divine, W.P. Lipscomb
Languages: English
Countries: United Kingdom

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 7

ERA

Did you know

68 years old — a genuine piece of film history.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Leslie Norman, shot by Paul Beeson. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 7

ERA

Did you know

Original score by Malcolm Arnold. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 7

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Gordon Stone shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 7

CAST

Did you know

John Mills and Richard Attenborough and Bernard Lee carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 7

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0051565 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 7

WILD

Did you know

Only 77 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Leslie Norman directs. Paul Beeson behind the camera. Malcolm Arnold scores. Gordon Stone cuts. Produced in United Kingdom. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

168 years old — a genuine piece of film history.
2Directed by Leslie Norman, shot by Paul Beeson. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
3Original score by Malcolm Arnold. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
4Editor Gordon Stone shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
5John Mills and Richard Attenborough and Bernard Lee carry the top of the cast.
6IMDB entry: tt0051565 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
7Only 77 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.
8Classified under 10 themes, including "sacrifice", "world war ii", "evacuation", "normandy, france".

The technical file

Cinematography: Paul Beeson
Original score: Malcolm Arnold
Editing: Gordon Stone
Costume design: Ivy Baker
Makeup / hair: Roy Ashton
Runtime: 134 min · 2h 14m
Status: Released
Original language: EN
IMDB: Dunkirk (1958)

Also by

Leslie Norman

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

John Chard2019-06-10
★ 8/10
It may be a phoney war to you, but it's not to all the blokes at sea. Never has been. Dunkirk is directed by Leslie Norman and adapted to screenplay by David Divine and W.P. Lipscomb. It stars John Mills, Richard Attenborough, Bernard Lee, Robert Urquhart, Ray Jackson and Robert Hines. Music is by Malcolm Arnold and cinematography by Paul Beeson. "Dunkirk was a great defeat, and a great miracle. It proved, if it proved anything, that we were alone but undivided. No longer were there fighting men and civilians. There were only people. A nation had been made whole" I think it's safe to say that to fully "get" this version of Dunkirk it helps to have some knowledge of the actual events. This is no standard war film, more so given it's about a defeat and the subsequent extraction of the armed forces from the beaches of that part of France. Narrative is two fold, one strand follows soldiers as they strive to make it through perilous lands to get to the beaches, the other comes from the civilian angle and those back in Britain, where there's an ignorance about how seismic this war is going to be. While the film is hardly a rousing battle laden spectacle - it's more an appreciation of a critical moment in history - it's very authentic in its teaching, the various human interest stories and their respective emotions are absorbing and always attention holding. Absolutely a must see piece of cinema for anyone who needs to understand just why the evacuation of troops from Dunkirk was so important. Superbly played by the cast, directed with safe hands and produced with class by the brilliant Michael Balcon, Dunkirk 58 a smart bit of classic war cinema. 8/10
Peter McGinn2021-12-09
★ 8/10
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 way 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.