Zwischenfall im Atlantik

Excellently acted and directed. I came to this movie late, too. I've always held the better known "Dr. Strangelove" and "Fail Safe" close to my heart, but I happened to catch "Bedford" on a cable channel a couple years ago and was completely blown away. Absolutely brilliant plot device by keeping the soviet sub unseen, mysterious; focusing instead on the character dynamics on the destroyer.

No outrageous special effects, huge explosions, ridiculously unbelievable stunts, or mannered performances. Why can't Hollywood make politically suspenseful films like this, "Dr. Strangelove", "Fail Safe", and "Seven Days In May" anymore???? Of course, I know the answer. Modern movie audiences have the attention span of a gnat, the cerebral tenacity of a chipmunk, and the spoiled expectations of a pampered child.

Richard Widmark is a determined naval ship captain in "The Bedford Incident," which also stars Sidney Poitier, Eric Portman, Martin Balsam, James Macarthur, and Wally Cox.

This is quite a different meeting from the one Widmark and Poitier had in "No Way Out," where Widmark is a bigot who lashes out at Poitier. Poitier in this film plays a journalist, and there is never any mention of his color. This is not only remarkable but marvelous.

Martin Balsam is the ship's new doctor. Poitier and Balsam board ship together and pick up almost immediately that there is a tension on board and that the men are intimidated by their cold, tough captain.

The Bedford's assignment is to patrol for Russian subs and ships.

When a submarine is detected in the area, the captain seems to want to take the matter too far. Portman, as a German adviser, disagrees with him.

The role of the captain, Finlander, is the type of role normally associated with Widmark, and he is excellent as an uncompromising man reminiscent of Captain Queeg.

Poitier turns in a stellar performance, which really builds as he becomes more and more concerned about the captain and the potential international situation. Martin Balsam is very good, actually providing, along with Wally Cox, a little comic relief.

The scenes showing the gray sea and huge icebergs might be dated now, given what film technology is capable of, but they are no less evocative of the atmosphere.

After the buildup of drama and tension, the last moments of the film are incredibly exciting - staggering even. And you'll do what I did - just sit and stare at the words "The End." A very good film.

Channel surfing, I stumbled across this movie on TCM and must say, "Wow!" As a child during the Cold War, I remember the tension between America and Russia, which this film captures well -- at least from the U.S. perspective. Richard Widmark's performance tops that of Humphrey Bogart in "The Caine Mutiny," strawberries or not. Sidney Poitier fits his role like a glove -- the scene between Poitier and Widmark in the latter's cabin is splendidly acted, allowing the viewer to get inside Widmark's head while not giving away too much -- and Martin Balsam gives another example why he was one of the screen's greatest supporting actors. It's better than "Fail Safe," sparing us Henry Fonda's hysterics as president. The tension builds aboard ship until a breathtaking climax. One worth watching.

Along the same lines as FailSafe this is a tense Cold War drama with a cat and mouse game going on between an iron willed Navy Captain and an essentially unseen Soviet submarine. Great performances all around are what make this a good film. Richard Widmark is great as the somewhat tyrannical ships skipper who has his crew drilled, trained and poised for all out war up to the breaking point. Sidney Poitier as always does another superb job as the journalist aboard to do a story of a Navy deployment and gets more than what was expected. Despite the fact that an individual like the Poitier character would not enjoy that much freedom aboard a US Naval vessel this motion picture is quite realistic. Martin Balsam and James MacArthur also put in outstanding performances with Balsam as a newly arrived unappreciated ships doctor and MacArthur as an Ensign who is dogged endlessly by his commanding officer.

You can't watch this movie without being impressed by the performance of Richard Widmark. He was absolutely outstanding as Captain Eric Finlander - a totally obsessed Cold Warrior in command of an American warship off the coast of Greenland. Having detected a Soviet submarine in the same area, Finlander becomes fixated on forcing the sub to surface. It might be "peacetime" (even if it is the Cold war) but Finlander wants to prove to the world that the Soviets were where they shouldn't be. The best moment of the movie probably came when the West German commodore and former U-Boat commander in World War II (played by Eric Portman) aboard Finlander's vessel the Bedford described Finlander as "frightening." That pretty much summed things up - and Widmark captured the description perfectly. There's a strong supporting cast in this (it includes Sidney Poitier as a reporter on board and Martin Balsam as the Bedford's new medical officer) but it's Widmark's movie from start to finish.

This would be best described as a tense and suspenseful movie but there are scattered times throughout when you start to wonder if this is all worth it. It is, after all, depicting the COLD War. Nothing's really going to happen as a result of all this. It looks like an interesting depiction of a cat and mouse game between the Bedford and the sub, but really it comes across as more of a psychological study of Finlander himself and you do wonder if the tension and suspense are going to lead up to unrealized potential and leave the viewer frustrated. They don't.

The end of this movie is quite shocking, and captures what the fears of a lot of people during the Cold War were - the fears of a nuclear accident or even an accidental nuclear war. Those fears were very real in people in the era, and this movie plays on those fears. The end actually is quite stunning. It grows out of the psychological study - Finlander having ridden a young officer (played by James MacArthur) so hard that he was so afraid of doing something wrong that you almost knew he would have to do something wrong. He does. This is a very well done film. (7/10)