In 2017, the fictionalized film, Dunkirk, hit theaters and the hearts of critics when it depicted different perspectives of what happened during the evacuations on the beaches of northern France at the outbreak of the Second World War. Before the film, not much attention had been paid to the hundreds of thousands of British and French soldiers who had carried out one of the largest evacuations in the history of warfare. After the news of Dunkirk arriving in cinemas, my mother, like many others, woke up our entire house one Saturday morning to go and watch it as a whole family. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay. However, the difference was that when we got to the 10:00 screening, it doubled as a resource to further our knowledge about our family history. The plot of the film, also called "The Mole", takes place over the course of a week, the longest time span from the three different perspectives told in the film. With thousands upon thousands of British soldiers attempting to escape death, Naval Commander Bolton suggested evacuation via the concrete piers on the East Mole where over 200,000 lives were saved. Soldiers were shown lined up on the beaches, armed and ready to fight, as they hopelessly waited for their rescue from the battle where they were significantly outnumbered by the Germans. During "The Mole", Tommy, Alex, and other soldiers sought rescue while exhibiting traits of greed, fear, and failure. After passing through thousands of French soldiers, hiding under docks, sneaking onto a ship that was later torpedoed, swimming ashore, waiting longer on beaches, and witnessing numerous suicides and deaths along the way, Tommy and Alex cross paths with the father-two sons from the Dunkirk "Sea" storyline and flee on their boat to safety. Dunkirk is shot with a complexity that coincides with the nature of the evacuation. The three separate stories depicting the efforts on land, sea and air give the audience the different viewpoints needed to understand the attack from the soldiers' point of view with a chaotic feel, similar to the soldier's instincts and emotions during the battle. By portraying Tommy and Alex as two soldiers who would risk anything and cut anyone to escape the beach, it really shows how desperate the English and French were to leave Dunkirk. I chose to focus on the third part of the film from the point of view of the land, where it was more about my family history, because my great-grandfather took part as a soldier in the British territories. My great grandfather is somewhat related to Alex and Tommy because when he was stranded, he similarly struggled with the lack of rescue ships. He told my uncle that someone actually slapped his hand with the ore on the boat, inferring that he should find another passage. After persuasion from another passenger on the ship, he was left on board. This sometimes leads me to ask the question: could there have been an alternative ending to the Battle of Dunkirk for my family, and if there had been, I would be here to share the story today??