John A. Lynn II, a professor emeritus of history at Illinois, will give a talk and answer questions covering the events depicted in the film “Dunkirk” immediately following the 1 p.m. screening Aug. 20 at the Virginia Theatre, 203 W. Park Ave., Champaign.
Admittance is included in the price of the movie ticket.
The theater is screening director Christopher Nolan’s film (1 hour 46 minutes, rated PG-13), from a 70mm wide-screen print from Tuesday, Aug. 15, through Sunday, Aug. 20. Shot on location in France, the film tells the true story of the tragic World War II battle in 1940 where 400,000 British and Allied soldiers were evacuated from the beaches and harbor of Dunkirk.
Show times are 7 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. General admission tickets are $8 and may be purchased at www.thevirginia.org, at the Virginia Box Office or by phone at 217-356-9063. Doors open one hour prior to each screening. The event is presented by the Champaign Park District.
Lynn, a professor emeritus of history and political science, was previously a distinguished professor of military history at Northwestern University from 2009-12. He served as president of the United States Commission on Military History from 2003-07 and vice president for the Society for Military History, 2005-07.
He received a bachelor of arts degree from Illinois, a master’s degree from the University of California, Davis, and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles. In 2017, Lynn received both the Samuel Eliot Morison Prize from The Society for Military History and a Public Scholar Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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