Spirit of Dunkirk 1940

Programme Outline

This programme looks at two versions of the ‘Spirit of Dunkirk’ – one from British films which managed very quickly to turn the pictures of retreat into a story of victory. The other is from a full-length German documentary, Victory in the West, to be shown all over occupied Europe in 1941. German cameramen stayed in Paris at the frontline and took harrowing and unique pictures of the British defeat. Victory in the West shows dead bodies, abandoned equipment and the chaos of retreat. The music is used ironically to reinforce the fact that the British, whom the commentator always calls ‘English’, are truly beaten.