The Finest Hours

This movie has a lot of action and suspense, which is what many of us look for in a film. However, it is much more than a story of an event at sea, it is a testimony of what four men of the US Coast Guard in the '50s were willing to do despite the risk to their lives.

A full scale nor'easter stirred the waters of Massechusetts Bay, making the seas dangerously life threatening. Word by two-way radio of vessels being damaged and broken from the force of the waves demanded the local Coast Guard Commander send his men to rescue who they could.

Reluctant, initially, to respond to such a perilous task, to rescue men that may still be alive aboard one sinking vessel, the Pendleton, Boatwainsmate Bernard Webber gathered three volunteer sailors to assist him. The freezing snow, winds, rain and treacherous waters were certainly more than he and his men bargained for when they enlisted.

Webber took the helm of the craft, the size of which could barely hold him and his three man crew through fifty and sixty feet waves, finally reaching, purely by luck, the darkened liner, a 503 foot, 10.448 gross ton tank vessel that, at its start, contained a full cargo of kerosene and heating oil.

Tactics used to keep the Pendleton from sinking are a lesson to watch. During today's rescue efforts, it is the CG's option to use a helicopter for such undertakings, but when the numbers are as many as these survivors, I doubt one trip would end with Webber's results.

The bravery and single-mindedness needed to accomplish what these four men sought to do makes me very proud to know our country has such heroic individuals willing to give their lives to save complete strangers.

In 1950, in Cape Cod in Massachusetts, the US Coast Guard station in Chatham receives a distress signal from the oil tankers SS Pendleton and SS Fort Mercer. Commander Daniel Cluff (Eric Bana) assigns the crew formed by Bernie Webber (Chris Pine), Richard Livesey (Ben Foster), Andy Fitzgerald (Kyle Gallner) and Ervin Maske (John Magaro) to rescue the crew of the SS Pendleton in a small enclosed lifeboat. Cluff is warned about the intensity of the storm by Bernie and also by his girlfriend Miriam (Holliday Grainger) but he keeps the order. Meanwhile the SS Pendleton has broken and lost his forward part and his skilled and experienced engineer Ray Sybert (Casey Affleck) assumes the command of the survivors. He uses his abilities to steer the stern in a safer position, grounding it on an unstable bank of sand to avoid sinking.

"The Finest Hours" is based on the most daring rescue of a crew in a blizzard with a small enclosed lifeboat-rescue boat. The heroic work of the US Coast Guard crew is impressive, saving thirty-two survivors from the SS Pendleton. The ability of the engineer Ray Sybert is also praiseworthy. The film is technically impressive with breathtaking action scenes of the rescue operation. The romance is silly and only completes the running time. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Horas Decisivas" ("Decisive Hours")

The fact that the movie is based on true events makes it a bit more special to watch. It's a nice story about courageous coast guards that risk their own lives trying to save an entire ship crew from a sure death. The movie is well made and if you are like me a bit afraid of big storms at sea then you will have the same feeling of anguish as I had during almost the entire movie. There are some cheesy moments as well, when it's more about their romance, but for the rest it's a good movie. If it was not for a couple scenes that I didn't like I would score it even more. Those scenes were unrealistic and bothered me a bit. Scenes where they are at sea in a major storm and have a conversation on a non rocking boat. That is simply impossible, but for the rest it's all good. Good actors, good story, and interesting due to it's historical facts.

The FINEST HOURS is a rip-roaring, edge of your seat action thriller that will keep you guessing all the way to the end.

There....that should get me on the poster.

That said, I will have to admit that I had low to middling expectations going into this film and it exceeded my expectation in almost every way.

Starting with the Cast. Chris Pine (good ol' Cap't Kirk) stars as Bernie Webber a mid-level Coast Guard officer who is flung into the forefront when an oil barge splits in half in very rough sees during a storm. Pine presents Webber not as a square-jawed hero, but a real person with doubts and insecurities but a strict code of ethics and when his Capt. (the always capable Eric Bana) sends him out for what could be a suicide mission, he goes out.

While Pine holds down half of this movie, Casey Affleck holds down the other half as the leader of the group of survivors on the oil tanker. Normally, I am not a big fan of Affleck's work, but in this movie, I sure am. He is a man of few words and tells much with his expression. If there is a "squared jawed hero" in this movie, it is Affleck.

These two are supported by a veritable who's who of "that guy" actors. Ben Foster, John Ortiz, Michael Raymond James and good ol' Abraham Benrubi are just the tip of the iceberg, so to speak, of wonderful character actors filling the roles of other Coast Guard members and crewmen of the doomed ship.

Only Holliday Grainger as Pine's strong-willed fiancé fails for me, but I blame a weak written character more than her acting for that one.

But, make no mistake, it is the action that makes this movie exciting. From the opening where the oil ship splits in half through the attempt to get out to the ocean to find the doomed ship to the actual rescue itself, I was on pins and needles, literally vaulting myself up out of my seat to get over a wave at one point. Director Craig Gillespie, not known as an action director, does a nice job of leading us through these scenes, I am anxious to see what he takes on next. I hope it is another action flick.

Is it a great film? No. The opening (after the tanker accident) drags and the movie bounces around in tone trying to find out what kind of movie it wants to be, but once Pine and company goes out to sea to rescue, the movie zips along just fine.

7 (out of 10) stars and you can take that to the Bank (of Marquis)

This film starts kinda slow and unrelated to the story ( you expect to see) and it is rather slow paced at the beginning, but soon it gets more packed with action and rests until the end.

I enjoyed the film. It was even touching at the end. The fact that it is based on the true story does give it a plus. The breaking of a ship ( two, in fact) in haft because of the storm was really wow! I really got into the scene when they showed the first breaking of the ship. It was intense and really well done. I guess I liked those scenes which were filmed inside of the ship and all the hard work being done to prevent the sinking of it that caught my attention the most and the ones I really enjoyed. However, the relations between the sailors ( in the ship and at the land were somewhat superficially done and yes, you get that some of them are not liking each other, but, why is that is not rally explained and I though it should have been)

The love story that also goes parallel to the disaster at sea is sometimes sweet but most of the time is kinda blah and maybe it should have been cut in entirety from the film. It does add something to the film, but not that much in reality. But I guess it is important as it is one of the true facts.

All in all, not bad. I give it a rating eight!