Comments by "Ronin Dave" (@RoninDave) on "History Buffs" channel.

@marthas8108 that's a good point about the feel. I recently rewatched the film and I think while the accuracy in terms of the actual numbers and fighting was low, the feeling of hopelessness and fear was very prominent. In reality, the Tommy character would be more like a soldier - looking for his unit, reporting in, asking questions about where to get a ship, etc... but he was supposed to be symbolic of the fear and the feeling of being lost by the average Tommy soldier. Also interesting is with the exception of the planes, we hardly see any German soldiers which heightens the fear.
2
CGI is fine if it's in the background to create a scenario of more soldiers as was the case of the historic Dunkirk. Overall, I think Nolan did a great job of making a horror movie within a war film creating dread and suspense but he missed some realistic marks with the soldiers. Soldiers are going to try and reconnect with their squad, platoon, company, battalion because anyone with military training is trained to look for such but the main character Tommy never does this and we have no idea what unit he belonged to. I get that he is supposed to be symbolic of the "Tommy" at Dunkirk but actual Tommies were more organized and understood the chain of command.
1