"The Enemy"


I was really surprised that the movie refers to the bad guys as "the enemy" rather than "the Germans", "Hitler", or "the Nazis".

Was that a politically correct move to avoid offending the Germans or was it to create some suspense?

Either way, does anybody not know that the Germans were the aggressors in WWII?

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Don't worry, the Brits aren't known for being coy about Germany 😉

I think it was a stylistic choice...

It was so that the focus isn't on the Germans, but rather on the British trying to survive and retreat to protect their homeland... The word Nazi is so easily thrown around these days for everything from grammer (grammer-nazi) to someone we disagree with politically, so in one way it is trivialised, but in another it is very symbolic as being evil... therefore we see everyone who is on the other side to the Nazis as good and worthy by default... The film wants to delay that knee jerk good vs evil reaction in order to examine duty, cowardice, heorism, comraderie, desparation, sacrifice and such...

Also note that none of the soldiers or pilots are given names... nor are the civilians either... it is an intentional choice as Nolan is making a broader more universal statement than just about Dunkirk, or even, just about war...

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