Wolf Call - Minaccia in alto mare

The sub (sub) genre of action movies is a small one, but there have been a couple of good hits. Crimson Tide and The Hunt for Red October may be the only couple of good ones off the top of my head in the last 30 years.

This French language film popped up on Netflix, and I'm glad I watched it. The film follows a sub crew as they confront a realistic crisis of Russian aggression and terrorism. The main character, Chanteraide (François Civil) is a sub listener, and there are tense moments as he must figure out if the sound he hears is a far off whale, or a torpedo coming for the kill. The cast is filled out with a host of French actors, many of who I recognized from other films.

The film is more a suspense than an action film, more Red October, and less Crimson Tide in that sense, but there are some very good action scenes. The plot is not unique, but very well executed, and sets up some very well done moral dilemmas, again similar to Crimson Tide.

These moral dilemmas end up being the best part of the film but unfortunately could have been an even larger part of the film, a rare missed opportunity in the film.

Although it fails to achieve in several areas, it still sets itself apart from the average drone of current action films. Although I am tempteted to give it an 8, 7/10 is the review. Don't deep six this one!

There's a lot of reviews here making points such as "could not happen".

Ok sure, there's some unrealistic stuff going on.

But there's also a lot of original and thoughtful scenes that are explored. There's a lot of ideas here that feel completely fresh.

The idea that a French submarine, once committed to a nuclear strike, will not receive any orders to abort, is a weak one. Unfortunately a large part of the movie hinges around this concept. The second half of the movie does feel a little silly at times because of this.

I liked the sonar guy as the hero.

If you're into military thrillers, movies like Failsafe, you might like this. It has plenty of twists, good pacing, and a unlikely hero, a flawed sonar man who loves his country and is very good at his job.

The movie is not free of tactical and strategic logic holes, but the pacing, progression of events, f/x, live shots at sea, military action dialogue, and story keep you locked in. For English only viewers, the English dub is excellent.

I did watch the dubbed version, and it was very well done. This movie has exceedingly high production values, with very modern and realistic materials. The acting is excellent, and the pacing is good overall. There is an overriding ambience of tragedy to the story which reiterates the opening epilogue of the movie: "There are three kinds of people; those who are alive, those who are dead, and those who go to sea." (Aristotle.) This is more a thinking person's action movie. Good viewing.

This movie depicts a topical and realistic situation, with the codes of most major big-budget movie. The cast is well chosen and overall does a good job of portraying what many would expect the French navy to be like. But in my opinion, the most successful trait of the movie is its storyline, stemming from contemporary stakes, which I've rarely seen in military/tactical movies, which instead tend to focus on past historical events or on more far-fetched futuristic scenarios. I think that's the reason the story is so compelling, and why I personally found the movie so immersive.