A Glimpse of Hell

Its bad enough when young men die in battle but when they die in peacetime training accidents that could have been easily prevented and when the military tries to cover it up, it makes it infinitely worse. This is a fine film that tells of the horrible tragedy of the Iowa. Its sad that most people remember this ship only for this incident, it had a very fine record in three wars it seems. A lot of people will have a hard time understanding the naval jargon they use in the film. This is my only real complaint about it. James Caan is great as the conscience-stricken captain who does the right thing in the end at the cost of his career. The reenactment of the explosion of turrent 2 is chilling and there are some really gruesome special effects where it shows all the burned to a crisp bodies. There is one thing in the end of the film where an officer calls a sailor a little faggot. That sort of dated it because that is prohibited in the military today. The montage of photos they show at the end of all the innocent victims really makes you pause. I feel Clayton Hardwig really was innocent and that he and the forty six others need to be honored as brave men who died in their countries service.

I was on active duty in the US Navy at the time of the tragedy aboard USS Iowa, and can clearly recall the controversy surrounding the incident. Many unanswered questions remain to this day, but this film does a fine job of presenting the story. Outstanding performance by James Caan as CAPT Moosally. The scenes showing the firing sequences of the big guns are alone well worth the purchase price of the movie. There has never been, nor will there ever be a single piece of military armament as awe-inspiring and fear-inducing as the mighty 16-inch/50 caliber gun. The saddest day in naval history was the final decommissioning of the Iowa Class battleships. One small error to point out: during the opening few minutes of the film, a battleship is seen underway(at sea). The hull number of the ship is "63", which was the number of the USS Missouri - the "Mighty Mo" - not the Iowa.

I was stationed on the USS New Jersey (BB-62) sister ship of the IOWA. Not only drinking beer on a Navy ship is prohibited, having it onboard is against the UCMJ.(Uniform Code of Military Justice). Since when does a First Class Petty Officer berth in a stateroom? These are just a couple of items which discredit this movie. I think the producers did well with the plot but know little about Navy life in general.

As a Navy veteran, I can truthfully say I was mightily impressed by the quality of this movie as well as its message. The producers seemed like they genuinely cared about the welfare of the ordinary sailors who man ships such as the Iowa. The fact that the Navy falsely implicated one of these sailors, who was no longer alive to defend himself, is appalling in and of itself. The fact that FX and the people who made this movie attempted to set the record straight, speaks glowingly about the state of movie-making these days.

Well worth watching.

This is a morality tale of investigating a military cover up. An explosion aboard an aging battleship is covered up to save face for the Navy. Captain Fred Moosally(James Caan) agrees with his superiors that the fatal explosion that killed 47 is to be blamed on a homosexual rift between two sailors. LTJG Dan Meyer(Robert Sean Leonard)struggles to convince his captain that faulty equipment an gunpowder on board was the real cause of the tragedy. Meyer was considered disloyal until a congressional hearing forced the Navy to revise its findings.

Well scripted and kudos to director Mikael Salomon. This true life drama packs a punch. Special effects were a bit gruesome, but very essential focal point for the story.

Also in the cast are: Andrew MacVicar, James Bulliard and Jamie Harrold.