I just re-read The Cruel Sea after 30 years and its a cracking good yarn. I’ll try to rent the video.
What was that old English film that had to do with a cruiser battle? The British ship is sunk but one crewman is taken prisoner by the Germans. They pull into a deserted island to do repairs and the British seaman escapes with a rifle and delays them with sniper fire. It’s been years since I saw it but I thought at the time it was well done.
I have to disagree with Mr. Grune’s characterization of “Gallipoli” as “a rousing failure.” I have no idea how much money the movie made in the U.S., but it was one of the first Australian films to make any impression in this country at all. (It was released in 1982.) It was nominated for a Golden Globe, won quite a few other awards, got extremely favorable reviews from virtually all the critics, and as I understand it is generally regarded as having launched the big-time careers of both Mel Gibson and the director, Peter Weir (whose most recent effort in the genre was “Master and Commander”). I saw it for the first time in a little old restored theater in Norfolk, where it was on a double bill with “Breaker Morant.” (On the way out of the theater I distinctly heard one of the other patrons ask, “why don’t the Australians just nuke the British and be done with it?”) I admit that after the first 45 minutes I was wondering when the fighting was going to start, but the finale practically blew me away. The DVD & Video Guide 2006 gives it 4 1/2 stars out of a possible five, and calls it an “appealing character study” that “manages to say more about life on the battlefront than many of the more straightforward pictures in the genre.”
I agree. It doesn’t have any spectacular, wide-screen battle scenes (which no Australian movie company of 1982 could afford), and it doesn’t really make any effort to narrate the events of the campaign. There’s certainly room for another, more spectacular, more narrative-oriented movie on the same subject. But so far there have been remarkably few movies about World War I, and I personally would rank this one among the four or five best.
I think the movie Onyxman is talking about is called “Sailor of the King.” According to Leonard Maltin’s 2004 Movie and Video Guide, it was released in 1953 and had the alternate British title “Single Handed.” It starred Jeffrey Hunter, Michael Rennie, and Wendy Hiller, and was based on a short story called “Brown on Resolution,” by none other than C.S. Forester.
I can’t resist asking the following trivia question. There’s another connection between Jeffrey Hunter and C.S. Forester. Anybody know what I’m referring to?
[:D] You are full of brilliant ideas Mr. Cooper perhaps you may try entering to the scriptwriting too. However, I assume that you have confused a little historical point. During the crimean war Britain and Ottoman Empire were allies fighting against Czar’s Russia. the floating batteries you mention were french and were used against the russian fortress of kinburn at the very end of the war. Well crimean war is a very interesting major conflict of the long 19th century, at least for the first large scale use of the industrial revolution’s products such as telegraph, rifled weapons, shell guns, steam engine and photography, its dramatic part that may please hollywood bosses is rather on the old fashioned land clashes (remember the charge of the light brigade or the thin red line ? ) the subjects of the real showdown on the seas of industrial revolution are still on the pages of the war between the states. And I insist that the story of CSS Albemarle is a certain pillar for a possible blockbuster. built virtually from nothing on a cornfield (what we speak here is not an indian canoe but the high tech of the age), she menaged to crush nearly whole unionist presence in her area and her end is the result of another legendary show of individual courage and clever use of new technology. I can’t think a better script for a good epic.
As a little footnote to professor Tilley’s comments, I have a wonderful little novel which is named “Prisoner of War”. It’s plotline even gave me doubts for if it was originally written as a movie script. This book tells the story of a young british sailor who participated to the battle of jutland as member of a destroyer’s crew which escorted the battlecruiser squadron. The hero witnesses the mauling of Adm. Beatty’s ships then his ship is sunk too and he’s taken prisoner. the rest of the book tells his attemps to escape from the camp in Germany. well that may not be what we exactly want of a great war naval movie, it has plenty of potential to attract attention from movie industry and I pray for that this becomes real one day.
I consider ‘Sink the Bismack’ the best ship-to-ship war movie I’ve seen so far. ‘Enemy Below’ is also great. It’ll be great to see a good remade, even it’s CGI.
Indeed, I was confusing the facts a little, after all, the Krimean war is not exactly the talk of the day anymore, and it has been a while since I saw that documentary. However while I was writing my previous post the word French already was haunting in my head [:)]
As for entering scriptwriting, I don’t know, I hardly have enough time between work, modeling and gaming as it is.
I agree about "Sink the Bismarck. Most of it was done with models, but I can’t recall having seen any more convincing model work in a movie.
I did have a couple of small reservations about it. I’ve never been able to figure out why those moviemakers took a couple of liberties with history, in that they showed the Bismarck shooting down a Swordfish and sinking a British destroyer. (Neither of those things actually happened.) They also made the German admiral, Lutjens, into something of a caricature - the aging, fanatical, and slightly naive Nazi. (“The ship is sinking? She can’t! The Fuhrer promised!”) The books I’ve read suggest that Lujens was a thoroughly competent, veteran officer. Whether he actually joined the Party or not I don’t know (lots of German naval officers of that generation didn’t), but I find it hard to believe that he behaved like the actor in the movie.
My nominee for the worst use of ship models in a movie is the old John Wayne/Kirk Douglas flick “In Harm’s Way.” The models in that thing were enormous (the Yamato had three people inside it, and the destroyers one person each), but considerably less detail than the typical 1/700 kit has nowadays. And some of the overall proportions (especially the American cruiser) were awful. My understanding is that Kirk Douglas was furious with the results; he said the ships looked like toys. He was right.
Second place in that category goes to the A&E “Hornblower” shows. I reviewed a book called Hornblower’s Ships, which described how those models were built. Some stories are really better left untold…
I’d also wonder why the ANZACs would support the mother country. After Gallipoli they were sent to the Somme where they were slaughtered capturing a small village some weeks after the main Brit attack began.
To add to the wish list, I wish a movie about the WW2 naval war in the pacific would be made. Like a Midway remake sans pathetic love story that seems to be necessary in war movies nowdays. Thank goodness Saving Private Ryan didn’t have one. A decent movie about the Island hopping war would be made, and Windtalkers and Thin Red Line definitely don’t count. I know Clint Eastwood is releasing 2 this year, about Iwo Jima from the American and Japanese perspectives. I think it holds potential…
What a travesty Master and Commander was. The art direction and historical re-enactment was thrilling, but SO much hokum. Poor Patrick O’B must have been rolling in his grave. And the A&E Hornblower series suffered from the terrible ships IMHO.
Military movies have to have that really big action showdown. Spectacle ain’t in it, as Jack Aubrey would have said. And the good guys have to win. That’s what made the maligned ‘Gettsburg’ actually rather good.
So I recall Sink the Bismarck fondly. And consequently I think an absolutely ripping film could be made from ‘HMS Ulysses’, it has all the right elements for a boffo Hollywood flick. I forget the author’s name, same guy that wrote Ice Station Zebra.
I have to mention K-19, the Widow Maker. The interior scenes were as accurate as any and are in the same class as Das Boot (as they were shot in an old Soviet diesel boat I think) and the reactor set was pretty much on the money if a tad oversimplified. A very well executed piece. Also, the drydock scenes were dead-on, just like any winter dry docks I’ve been subjected to. My feet are freezing in my steel toed boots just thinking about it.
Now, in some fairness, I must disagree, Master & Commander was an awful movie for me–an egalitarian, we’re all in’it t’gether Boyos, Royal Navy jsut “rang” wrong for me, as did the peculiar way the sailing sequences were set up.
I’m not entirely certain Hollywood could turn out a decent historical movie anymore (the hysterical drayma “Pearl Harbor” does rather leap to mind).
I’ve not seen Sahara, but that is because fellow Clive Cussler fans advised me not to, as trusted observers tell me they left half the story out, and the bits they invented to fill the gaps were not an improvement. Now, I’ll admit to being reflexively cynical about Hollywood output, since it seems to be centered on remakes of 70s tv shows. (Hmm, does that suggest that Monitor v. Merrimack might be remade . . . ?)
Now, if the Turkish cinema were to make Lepanto into a movie, that would be different. There’s a very large quantity of quality cinema coming from Asia (east & west) that is worth watching.
Jutland from the German POV would be very interesting. But, then, IMHO, so would Leyte Gulf from the Japanese side.
But, that’s just me, others differ.
I agree with Gerarddm, Master and Commander was a disapointment on may levels… but I think it highlights the problem with naval movies, the story lines are simply too complicated for even the above average intelligence movie goer and there is not much current ‘relevance’. Prior to the 1960s (and the Lockheed Constellation and Boeing jets) anyone traveling overseas went by ship, and their were a lot of WWII and Korean war vets that could interpret shipboard life for their friends and families in the audience. Plus a lot were attracted by the “and I was there” factor. Saving Private Ryan was one of the last movies able to cash in on that factor, it was even written into the movie. The Bismarck, Pearl Harbor (Tora Tora Tora not the Disney abomination), Midway and Graf Spee stories were already in most of the public’s imagination when the movies were made… there was even a popular song by American singer Johnny Horton in the early sixties called ‘Sink the Bismarck’ (he also had one on the Battle of New Orleans). So today we will have to setttle for remakes of the Poseidon adventure.
But for current relevance, there is one naval movie that Hollywood would love to make, the true story of the Spanish Galleon San Jose and one Captain Sebastian Perez del Castillo in the late 16th century. Call it “Brokeback Galleon” or “Mutiny on the Sodomy”, get Willie Nelson to write a theme song for it “Sailors, frequently, secretly” and change the name of the ship to San Francisco. The ending would even be politically correct with the ‘hero’ ending up like “Breaker Morant” and we get to bash the Catholic Church. And just like Master and Commander, we won’t need any actresses.
And I’d love to see Russel Crowe get… uh, never mind.
I have a very poor VHS copy of “Sailor of the King” with both endings. I was captivated by that move on a Saturday night in the early '60s and finally found a copy. If you ignore the snow and occasional video dropouts, the movie inside is very good.
Another really good cold war flick was the Bedford Incident(US warship vs Russian sub) Richard Widmark was the the captain of the US ship,a frigate I think. The enemy below Robert Mitchem I think thats how its spelled US destroyer vs U-boat WWII was also good
Back around 1956 (I was just a lad then) I saw a picture in the theater called Battle Stations, starring Richard Boone. I don’t remember very much about it, except it was based on the story of USS Franklin, and I remember thinking how brave these guys were. I’ve never seen it on TV or video since, but I’d like to view it again and see if it’s any good. It’s a great story that could have been done well that soon after the fact, as the hardware would have been more authentic to the period. Much of it was shot aboard USS Princeton. My recollection was that it concentrated on the crew and on serving (and saving) the ship, rather than on air ops. Has anyone else seen it?
The Bedford Incident was a scary realistic movie. I also agree that Sink the Bismark was well made especially for 1960. I think they should have been more historically accurate and not have the Bismark sinking the destoyer, which of course never happened. Wouldn’t mind a newer CGI version myself.
How we failed to mention Mission of the Shark ! One of the best movies I’ve ever seen about the perils of being shipwrecked and possibly the most accurate account of an historical event (USS İndianapolis) on the whitescreen.
Regards
The Bedford Incident was indeed a chilling example of wjat could have happened during the Cold War. In the movie, the Bedford was a Forrest Sherman class destroyer and it’s hard-core skipper, Richard Widmark, pulled off the role with superb acting skills. The fact that it ended with the Soviet sub and the Bedford going up together in a nuclear blast was a classic statement of atomic overkill.
The Enemy Below was a fave of mine, too, with Bob Mitchum’s Buckley Class destroyer escort pitted against Kurt Jurgen’s U-Boat. The models were well-made and filmed very realisticly, but best of all, it was a pure action flick all the way through … two enemy vessels locked in a struggle to the death … mano-a-mano … good stuff.
As for a Jutland movie … they should script it from the perspective of two main battery gunners, one Brtish and one German, following their lives from the early days before the conflict and all the way through to the German fleet scuttling at Scapa Flow. Sure, throw in the romance with wives and girlfriends, but make it a history lesson as well and use a lot of period clothes and customs and utensils and such. The German fellow would be posted on SMS Von der Tann, oldest of the new German dreadnaughts, but with a feature that made it deadlier than even Seydlitz … the ability to elevate it’s 11" guns to 45 degrees. It was this anomoly that enabled it to engage and sink HMS Invincible from extreme range, covering it with glory at the outset. The British sailor should be on Admiral Beatty’s flagship, the Battlecruiser HMS Lion, pride of the fleet and a stunning contrast to Von der Tann. You can’t tell me there isn’t a lot of good red meat in that story line …