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Christopher Nolan’s latest production already managed to achieve its first successes. The movie continues to remain in the box office with a debut earning of $50.5 million. On top of that, everybody is starting to link Nolan to the next Oscar winner. However, probably one of the most honorable rewards the director could receive is the review of an actual Dunkirk veteran.
Nolan’s Movie Moved the 97-Years-Old Dunkirk Veteran to Tears
Christopher Nolan adventured for the very first time in the intricacies of creating a World War II movie. The director confessed that he had watched a lot of mute movies to learn how to build action with little to zero dialogue. He was also stubborn in his pursuit to rely less on CGI and bring actual war props on filming sets. On top of that, he had experts by him to attest the authenticity of the reconstruction of the evacuation from the beaches in 1940 France of more than 300,000 soldiers.
However, the ultimate test was an unsolicited one. A 97-year-old Welsh man, Ken Sturdy, entered Westhills Cinema in Calgary, Canada, in his military jacket adorned with medals to see the movie premiere. He viewed the World War II drama of what had actually happened to him almost 80 years ago.
Sturdy is a Dunkirk veteran, and he was 20-years-old at the time of the nine-day operation of evacuation. He worked for Royal Navy and sailed to French beaches to save stranded soldiers caught in the German fatal trap.
For Sturdy, seeing the movie was like reliving his past. He recounted his many friends who lost their lives during this event. Therefore, the veteran found the movie as close to the real evacuation as possible. However, he also encouraged the audience to not just tag Nolan’s work as just entertainment. He wanted people to learn something from the past.
“We the human species are so intelligent, and we do such astonishing things. We can fly to the moon, but we still do stupid things.”
Sturdy recalled that he was on one of the small boats that saved the operation from failure. Thanks to these ships, soldiers were able to embark right from the shores. This was impossible for large vessels that were capable of carrying hundreds of soldiers instead.
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