Die letzte Fahrt der Bismarck

For starters, this picture was thankfully filmed in black and white. This is only appropriate for gray colored ships shooting it out in the North Atlantic. The performers were, for the most part, convincing. The movie got a little risky by using a fictional character (played by Kenneth More) for the lead role, and delving a bit into his personal life. But it didn't get out of hand. The movie takes just the right amount of time in developing and depicting the important events in the eight day life of the Bismarck. I got the feeling that I was actually there and watching these events take place. The movie is essentially accurate, based on accounts I have read in books; including one by the highest ranking German survivor. The depiction of the destruction of the British battle cruiser Hood was not exactly accurate, but I would rank that a minor point. Getting the ship used in the movie to blow up the same way the Hood would probably have been more trouble than it was worth. The bottom line is the ship was destroyed and only three crew members survived.

This movie is an excellent, no-nonsense portrayal of the short and dramatic life of the legendary German battleship Bismarck.

I agree with the other reviewers who complained that Adm. Gunther Lutjens was portrayed as being a pro-Nazi when in actuality, he wasn't. In fact, Lutjens had protested against the dismissal of Jewish officers from the Navy and when Hitler came to visit the Bismarck 2 weeks before her departure, he gave Hitler the navy salute and not the Nazi salute.

Part of the problem with this movie is where 20th Century Fox obtained their material from. They used the material in C.S. Forrester's book "The Last Nine Days of the Bismarck". In that book Forrester had portrayed Lutjens as being pro-Nazi which had 20th Century Fox researched before making the movie, would have uncovered Forrester's mistake (intentional or not). A better book was Ludovic Kennedy's "Pursuit: The Chase and Sinking of the Battleship Bismarck," but I don't believe his book had come out at the time the movie was made. 20th Century Fox should have waited until it did than to base a true event on a possibly biased book.

The British have made war and historical movies with an unrivaled consistency of quality, and Sink the Bismarck is no exception. The details are meticulous, the casting first-rate (except for a hokey voice-impersonation of Churchill), and the battle sequences marked by accuracy and fine special effects.

This otherwise fine film is marred, however, by the false depiction of one of the major characters, Admiral Lutjens, commander of the Bismarck. In the film, he is stereotyped as the typical Nazi - a Hitler sycophant, careerist and wild-eyed fanatic. This was most certainly not the historical Lutjens, who was by no means a Nazi fanatic. Lutjens was a naval hero from World War I, who served out of duty and dedication, not Nazi conviction. (Lutjens protected Jews under his command, and members of his family were in trouble for their anti-Nazi views.) This is at complete odds with his depiction in Sink the Bismarck, which I find inexcusable, given that the above information was certainly available to the production. In fact, an accurate depiction of Lutjens would have, in my opinion, added interest to the plot.

Nevertheless, Sink the Bismarck is eminently watchable and a fine addition to any war movie collection, if you bear in mind the above caveat.

Yes, my children, there was a time when movies knew nothing of CGI, and very difficult scenes of violence and destruction were given over to names like Buddy Gillespie, Wally Veevers, and Warren Newcombe, Howard and Teddy Lydecker. These men looked deep inside their childhoods, and started using miniatures, filmed at slow motion camera speeds to proportionately smooth out the movement of model ships, water, model airplanes, collapsing and exploding buildings, even crash model cars.

The most difficult miniature work was with water and the look of the water in relation to a miniature ship.

It was found that the larger the model ship, the more realistic the water looked, and in Columbia's "Sink the Bismarck", the ships were anywhere from 40-60 feet in length. The water body was an indoor pool over 300 ft. in diameter, surrounded by wind machines and under the floor of the tank, large hydraulic pistons created waves.

Can you imagine what fun that was? Blowing up and sinking these huge models.....it was a dream of mine for years.

Today, a scruffy kid sits in front of a computer and creates sea battles and catastrophes that are astoundingly realistic. He uses 1's and 0's.....nothing of the physical world.

Still, the destruction of the Bismarck, and the capstone piece, the massive explosion of the H.M.S. Hood amaze and awe anyone who watches this film today.

This is a WWII film for the ages, and a centerpiece of a very fun special-effects era.

Kenneth More plays the severe cold and uncompromising Captain Jonathan Shepard who has lost his wife in an air raid, and whose son is a naval pilot in the warfare against the Bismarck...

'Bismarck' is a super German battleship of World War II that had a short, but spectacular career...

Captain Shepard guides the distinguished campaign from the Admiralty War headquarters in London: The search, the course, the deploy and the destruction of the Bismarck under an archetype that said: 'Getting emotional about things is a peacetime luxury.'

The Bismarck's admiral (Karel Stepanek) is a Nazi officer characterized by emotional instability, presumptuous and overenthusiastic...

Sighted and bombarded by British battleships, the Bismarck is incapacitated and sunk by torpedoes on the morning of May 27, 1941.

Dana Wynter is the likable attractive lady naval officer, fitting in mood and attitude...

In the climax of the film and after the naval epic, Michael Hordern, the Commander-in-Chief of the Home Fleet, turns to his men and says: 'Let's go home, gentlemen!'

This exciting sea battle would have been better on a standard screen than in CinemaScope, as its ships were clearly 'models' using newsreels footage... Nevertheless, the film is an entertaining hunt, with good acting.

Beside the search and eventual sinking of the Bismarck, I would like to mention, that the personal drama of the British sailors increase the intensity of the picture's realism...