Acorazado de la muerte

Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger are probably best known for their mystical, romantic films like: 'A Matter of Life and Death'; 'Black Narcissus', and 'The Red Shoes'.

'Battle of the River Plate' is a decent film, but it does have some awkward lapses. There is some excellent footage shot at sea using veteran Royal Navy ships. Unfortunately this sits uneasily with the studio sets. During the battle scenes I had the uneasy feeling someone out of shot was throwing buckets of water in the air to simulate shell-fire.

Instead of indulging in Technicolor, I feel the producers should have gone for the harsher monochrome which 'The Cruel Sea' and 'Sink the Bismarck!' use so well. Black and white photography also makes the shift between location and studio work much less obvious.

There are some good performances in the film, notably Peter Finch as Langsdorff. I remember seeing newsreel footage of the real Langsdorff attending the funeral of his men in Montevideo, he gave a German Naval salute instead of the Nazi version. His portrayal as a 'decent' German has a basis in fact.

The battle of the River Plate was the last Naval action to take place without the benefit of technical advances such as radar. It was a fine piece of seamanship and the story deserved to be told. At the end of this film, unfortunately, you can't help feeling it could have been told better.

The "pocket battleship" (in armor and armament, somewhere between a battleship and a heavy cruiser) Graf Spee is abroad in the Atlantic, sinking British merchant shipping. She is tracked down by three British and New Zealand cruisers and after a fierce battle takes refuge in the harbor of Montevideo, Uruguay. In accordance with the Hague Convention, the Graf Spee's Captain Langsdorff is given barely enough time to make his ship seaworthy, without improving her fighting efficiency, before having to leave port. We aren't told exactly what her fighting efficiency is like but we learn she's taken more than fifty hits on the superstructure alone from the British 8-inch guns, and those are big guns.

There are shenanigans going on at the embassies in Montevideo, in which the French and British try to force the Graf Spee to leave as soon as possible, while the Germans argue for more time. All of this is reported by an opportunistic American from a well-positioned outdoor cafe where the proprietor demands he keep ordering scotch if he's going to sit there and take up the customers' space. Langsdorff is cleverly led by the British to assume that the three cruisers waiting for him outside the harbor have been joined by several other capital ships including an aircraft carrier. The rumor has been deliberately spread by British staff (over an unscrambled phone line in a hilarious scene) and everyone believes it, including Langsdorff. The German captain takes his ship out of the harbor at the appointed time but scuttles her after ordering the crew off. The British have won the Battle of the River Plate, partly through courage and partly through intelligent use of misinformation.

Actually, considering that it's a "war movie" it's pretty good natured. The British crack jokes in the midst of battle. When a shell hits nearby and burns up some possessions, one sailor approaches another bearing a pair of charred boots on a tray and asks, "You ordered the toast?" When sailors die, they do so almost nonchalantly, with time for a brave few words like, "See to the others."

As far as that goes, the film gives you a fairly decent picture of what sea duty can be like: operating the rudder from the steering aft position, for instance. (What a job!) The movie demonstrates the advantage of using real ships instead of models. The problem with model work has to do with texture. The splashes of exploding shells, for instance, send up drops of water as big as basketballs. But here there is some drop-dead gorgeous photography of ships making smoke and heeling around. Not even modern computer graphics could manage so effectively.

The Germans are treated humanely too, this being 1956 and not 1946. The Germans have a number of British prisoners aboard the Graf Spee and they celebrate Christmas together, with the captors presenting the captives with Christmas decorations. When a German officer announces to the prisoners that they will soon be released in Montevideo, he cheers along with the British.

Among the funniest scenes are those involving the blowhard American reporter. "The whole world is watching and waiting with suspense for the Battle of the Ages," or something like that. "Lays it on a bit thick, doesn't he?" asks one British listener. After a few days of this boreal oratory the reporter's voice is going and he begins to swill liquor, surrounded by a dozen glasses of scotch. "Excuse me while I get a drink," he hoarsely tells his listeners.

Withall, though, there is a tragic figure here, and that is the wounded Captain Langsdorff who has fought the good fight and is now forced to sail his ship into what he believes is certain disaster. Finch does a good job with the role, as does the script. There isn't a moment when he loses his dignity. And his courtliness seems inbred. The Brits say of him, "He's a gentleman," and, "He's a good seaman." A cheaper movie would have given Finch an unnecessary speech: "A captain belongs to his ship, just as the ship belongs to the captain. This is breaking my heart. I feel as if someone had just taken my Marzipan away." It's a genuinely sad moment when we see the coffins of the German sailors killed in battle. And although the movie ends with the victorious and quite beautiful white British cruisers sailing off into the sunset, the fact is that Langsdorff shot and killed himself shortly after these events.

A former teacher of mine who had previously served in the navy was a fan of this film and made a passionate speech once in school about the underlying themes of the film which was about understanding and respecting your enemies.

The admirable filmmaking partnership Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger turn their attention to The Battle of the River Plate 10 years after the end of the second world war with an entertaining reconstruction of three smaller warships against the German Pocket Battleship 'Graf Spee' skippered by a seemingly honourable Captain Langsdorf (Peter Finch) although in opening scenes it looks like the Graf Spee has sunk a British vessel inside Portuguese territorial waters.

There is a lot of cat and mouse as the British commanders anticipate Langsdorf's next moves, in between the lull you have diplomatic manoeuvrings between the Allies and Nazis against the Uruguayan government. In the climax you have a live American broadcast from a cafe/bar in the harbour with Christopher Lee playing a South American bar owner.

Powell and Pressburger shy away from the jingoism and histrionics that plagued a lot of post war films, I guess they did their bit for the war effort during the war itself with films like Colonel Blimp and as always were ahead of their time even when making a post war film looking back at the start of the war.

There is little about the personal lives of the seamen, we do not see them reminiscing about the loved ones waiting for them back home. Its all about strategy and getting the job done with a few scenes of comic relief.

The film is very well photographed and they had the cooperation of the Royal Navy that supplied naval ships for the film. However they could had done with some model work as their were some jarring scenes with the studio shots that do not stand up too well these days.

This is a splendid British film concerning historic deeds during WWII , the naval battle in the South Atlantic between British cruiser squadron of three ships and the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee , Dic 1939 . The main and secondary cast are stunningly incarnated by a magnificent plethora of English actors . The film contains a colorful and glimmer cinematography by Christopher Challis and an atmospheric musical score . The movie is well produced by Archers production and professionally directed by Emeric Pressburger and Michael Powell . The motion picture will appeal to warlike genre buffs and British classic movie fans . Rating : Better than average .

The film is based on true events , these are the following : Though the British cruisers were no match for the battleship , Admiral Sir Henry Harwood (Anthony Quayle) launched an attack to Graf Spee (with 6 cannons,280 mm) . German fire seriously damaged HMS Exeter (commanded by John Cregson as captain Bell) with cannons 203mm , put half of HMS Ajax (captain Woodhouse played by Ian Hunter)'s guns out of action , and then damaged Achilles (cannons 152 mm) , but the cruisers did sufficient damage to the German ship to make its captain break off and run for shelter in Montevideo , Uruguay . The British followed and waited in international waters outside the neutral port . The Uruguay government ordered the Germans to leave after 72 hours . The British cruisers called Royal and Renown were near from Montevideo and Langsdorff (Peter Finch) didn't wait possibilities to vanquish . Hitler , reluctant to risk the Graf Spee being sunk by heavier British warship which were sailing for the River Plate , ordered the captain to scuttle the vessel . He did so 17 Dec 1939 and three days later shot himself .

THE BATTLE OF THE RIVER PLATE, a docu-drama on the sinking of the German pocket battleship Graf Spee, represents an interesting marriage of talents. One the one hand the film is written and directed by the Powell-Pressburger team, a fact that ensures that its quality is lifted above the run-of-the-mill war films of the period. Whereas films such as REACH FOR THE SKY (also 1956) focused on notions of British heroism under overwhelming odds, THE BATTLE OF THE RIVER PLATE looks at the experiences of those involved in conflict at sea, whether British or German. On the other hand the cast contains just about every leading male actor of the period - a prime example of the Rank Organization's doomed attempt to replicate the star-laden productions popular in Hollywood at that time. Sometimes the experience of watching the film becomes an exercise in actor-recognition: Peter Finch, Anthony Quayle, John Gregson and Ian Hunter all have leading roles, supported by stalwart character actors such as Bernard Lee, Michael Goodliffe and David Farrar (as the narrator), with John le Mesurier turning up in a cameo role. Nonetheless THE BATTLE OF THE RIVER PLATE is worth watching, not least because of its balanced treatment of both sides involved in the conflict. We learn a lot about Captain Langdsorff's (Finch's( qualities at the helm of the Graf Spee; he is not only an adept sailor, but he knows how to treat British prisoners-of-war fairly. His character seems more sympathetic as compared with (say) Quayle's more bluff British Commodore Harwood. In terms of special effects the battle-sequences seem a little primitive as compared to today's epics, but the characterization and plotting remain as sharp and incisive as in other Powell/Pressburger movies.