Excellent film - saw it yesterday. Unlike other war films it refused to do several things: there is no love interest - the few women who do appear offer tea and sandwiches - the man about to die doesn't show a photo of his wife to friends, the wider political context is not going to be served to you on a plate BECAUSE the whole film is about the common man surviving the long, long wait. Incidentally, the British were right to leave the French till last - most of them volunteered to return home to German POW camp when France capitulated. Compare that to how the Poles simply fought on without hope or homeland.