Dunkirk

There have been short periods in my life where I have feared for it but they were soon over. Only once has complete terror - that my end was coming painfully and soon - lasted over hours and have I then had to go back into that dangerous situation a second time.
 
The film Dunkirk showed men living with that terror constantly, day after hour after minute. It was unendurable but they were inside it with no escape. I began to get a little insight into PTSD. And some beginnings of an understanding about what the people I work with have lived through.
 
The cinematography was superb and the music worked very well until Elgar crept in. Yes, it’s a heroic British story but I didn’t need any overtones of patriotism. As British and German planes strafed each other I felt equally for the young men caught in their cockpits.
 
There were two very different questions playing through my mind as I emerged:
What possesses people to create armaments?
Would conscription be possible in modern European countries?


Black and white in colour 143