MovieChat Forums > Dunkirk (2017) Discussion > 1970s train at the end

1970s train at the end

posted 4 years ago by Cranmer (139)
4 replies | jump to latest

I'm assuming films like this have historical advisers to make sure everything is accurate.

So why did they show, for several minutes at the end, the soldiers on a 1970s British Rail train carriage?

You can tell it's from that era because it's open plan (nearly all British trains were compartment trains in 1940) a large window and white plastic walls, and it even has a formica table!

There are several working historical railways in the UK and it would be very easy to film a proper 1940s train on them.

For a train buff like me, it's as bad as showing the RAF flying jet planes or the soldiers all carrying 1950s SLR rifles!

[–] liscarkat (16530) 4 years ago

You're right, but if they really cared they would take the trouble to get it correct.

[–] gr1nch (6) 3 years ago

I noticed that too and was annoyed by it. Even in the early 80s some of the British Rail trains I travelled on in London were the old compartment trains with a carriage-long corridor. It was ridiculous that the Director decided to film on it and the producers let it through.

[–] MikeCable (1662) 3 years ago

I feel the same way when movie sound editors make all helicopters sound like a lumbering old Huey from the late 1950s.

[–] TearofLys (2398) 3 years ago

because there are maybe only a few dozen people in the world that would pick up on such a subtle detail? And no, they have a fixed budget and CANNOT see to every historical detail. In this instance, the movie loses nothing by using a 1970s passenger train. Now, it would have mattered a great deal if they used modern day Typhoons instead of the legendary Spitfires.