10 Movie “Mistakes” That Were Put There Intentionally
9. German Planes, Yellow Noses (Dunkirk)
Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk isn't entirely historically accurate, but for the most part, there are only minor issues that put holes in its depiction of a 1940s war-torn France.
But a particular one of these issues was wholly intentional, and was put in place to ensure audiences could follow a rather hectic, breathless movie as easily as possible.
This mistake revolves around the film's German planes. Nolan and his crew painted the noses of the Messerschmitt Bf 109 a bright yellow - so viewers could more easily tell which planes were German, and which were English - despite these planes not having yellow noses until about a month after the Dunkirk evacuation.
The director explained this creative choice in a chat with USA Today:
"In reality, the planes were not painted yellow until about a month after Dunkirk... but it’s a very useful colour scheme for trying to distinguish two planes in the air. We need to tell the story in a clear way, and there are going to be things that we have done that are inaccurate, but they are done with eyes open and with respect for the real history."
Ultimately, this feels like the right choice, but it would have been interesting to sit there not knowing which planes were which - this could have made the dogfight scenes even more nerve-wracking.