The Cruel Sea
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Movie Reviews of The Cruel Sea
Movie Review: WWII sub-hunting
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a somewhat dry Navy movie about sub hunting during WWII. While Naval combat has changed quite a bit during the last 50 years, the threat of submarines to surface ships has not. The horror of having your ship torpedoed was always on the minds of sailors during the second World War. The fate of the crew and the anguish of a captain who has lost his ship are showcased in this movie.
If you're a fan of British naval movies made not too long after the end of the war, this one may be worth checking out. It's always interesting to me to see old movies that are filmed on ships that actually FOUGHT in the war, as opposed to trying to make re-enactments of the ships in today's movies.
Movie Review: The Cruel Sea
Summary: 4 Stars
The Cruel Sea, is one of the best sea/war stories that I have ever read. I was interested to see how well the movie followed the book. Naturally, the film had to condense the book, but it did follow the sequences of the story faithfully.Movie Review: classic war drama
Summary: 4 Stars
Excellent black and white british film! Had forgotten "old" movies were so interesting.Movie Review: Great subject, but less than the sum of its parts
Summary: 3 Stars
I really wanted to like "The Cruel Sea", a documentary-style flick about life on an RN warship on convoy duty in WWII. It's a worthy idea for a story, with great characters and dead-on acting. Jack ("Land of the Pharaohs") Hawkins is Captain Ericson, the proper yet amiable skipper of the "Compass Rose". When we first see him, he's correcting two new officers on the protocol for saluting superior officers - no apologies, he tells them kindly, if you're going to salute, just do it right. And this guy is a warship commander! He's an interesting character - in voice-overs, Ericson tells how the war pulled him from merchantmen and deposited him at the helm of a corvette tasked with hunting U-boats, with little doubt that he's unsuited for the new job. The story then goes on to tell of the newer officers - the ship's martinet of a first mate, the sonar officer and other crew, all of whom are only weeks past having been yanked from their civilian lives (the XO sold used-cars).
These are interesting characters, but the story of "Cruel" doesn't sufficiently incorporate the stories of its officers, or choose one of them to focus on. "Cruel" begins before the fall of France: U-boats haven't yet gained the range benefit of French ports, so they're a rarity, leaving bad weather as the chief foe. When that changes, and the Atlantic becomes a U-boat shark-tank, the weather becomes the RN's ironic ally, and the seas become truly cruel. Because the story extends through the war, it has a lot of ground (sea?) to cover, and the effect seems pretty rushed, becoming little more than a series of unconnected stories linked by common character - the ship goes out, convoys get smacked by "wolfpacks", the convoys return, the crews realize the futility of seeking rest after sea duty, and the ship goes out again. There's one great moment in the story, as Ericson realizes that dozens of survivors from a sunk merchantman are floating over a U-boat contact, and he must decide on whether he's going to drop depth charges on them in a likely futile attempt to kill the submerged hunter. It's a great scene, but one the story passes it over in search of the next story. Unfortunately, the story relies for cohesion on wearing its heart on its sleeve - we're instantly sympathetic of the lower officers, contemptuous of the bullying XO, admiring of Ericson and so on - that undermine its otherwise effective appearance of docudrama. There are some moments that stretch belief (such as Denholm Elliot's glamorous wife dolling herself up for a night on the town, belying the deprivations of British war-time life) or just don't look right (German sailors abandon an apparently undamaged U-boat - couldn't they at least have smoke or fire belching from it, or have it sink on an unevenl keel?), but for the most part, "The Cruel Sea" tackles an extremely worthwhile subject but offers something less than the sum of its parts.
Movie Review: The Cruel Sea
Summary: 3 Stars
The movie was as good as can be expected for the year it was made. Also the reality of escort duty in WWII. The Cruel Sea is definably a movie to watch for people like me, die hard WWII buffs.