La tigre del mare

I am a fan of submarine books and movies. Most of the movies are crap. I happened to stumble on this movie on UCSD-TV (San Diego) last night and was instantly enthralled. So much more realistic (IMHO) than the typical (American) submarine movie. Compare to "Destination Tokyo" (which I like), for instance. In that movie everything is bright and shiny and relatively uncramped. In WDaD I was thinking "whoa, Das Boot but British". Yeah, it's not perfect but I (like a previous reviewer) was impressed by the portrayal of the difficult submerged attack on the "Brandenburg".

So is this where the old "shoot a bunch of junk out of a torpedo tube so they'll think we're sunk" ploy actually originated?

Anyhoo, on my (short) list of good WWII submarine movies, I would have to put this in the top 5.

This movie is all about reality, submarine warfare in WW2 was not a clean precise science. There were no computers giving exact enemy details, there was no precise instrumentation to 100% control the sub. Not all the crew went to fight with a song in their heart, and a smile on their dial.

People with expectations of seeing a "pretty war" in this movie will be grossly disappointed, .............. GOOD, they deserve to be disappointed, they deserve to have reality shoved into their face.

War is not clean, exact, fought by people about to break into song. It is endured by scared, cold/burnt, hungry, desperate people willing to do anything to survive.

"We Dive at Dawn" is a fine example portraying a desperate situation needing desperate actions.

Whilst I enjoy submarine action films, I wasn't expecting much from one created in the midst of WW2. Nevertheless, this must be one of the best wartime films actually created mid-conflict I have viewed, once the initial rather predictable scenes regarding being called to action are cast to one side. The film managed to convey the tension of life aboard a submarine at this time, with the weakest parts those based outside of the submarine. John Mills' face shows great communication when presented with difficult decisions and made the film work, whilst not going so far as being unbelievable. A very good effort in what must have been tricky film making times.

Looking back from the safety of 2005 it is difficult to conceive of the difficulties that must have ensued in making decent films in Britian at the height of WW II. Of course they are going to be patriotic, flag-waving type of affairs but within the constraints of the time there were some fine stories, excellent acting and first rate directing.

We Dive At Dawn is not one of the absolute best of this genre but it is very good. Any film involving John Mills would have a problem being bad. And there is also the marvellous Eric Portman.

Sir John's recent death, happily after a long, long life, brings home the journeyman qualities of so many modern actors. He was equally at home, and equally convincing, as a private soldier, airman or naval rating, or as a senior officer. It is difficult to think that many of today's crop, who seem to speak with their own regional accents both on and off duty, are anything like as versatile, and very few are anywhere near as good.

As to the film, it is a rattling good yarn, with glimpses of the family life and problems of some of the crew. I recently watched it again on afternoon television and was still entertained royally.

I had to smile at an American reviewer having difficulty with English accents. We British have to put up with all sorts of American accents in films all the time.

Any film about WWII made during WWII by a British production company has no latter-day peer in my opinion, respectfully. The confluence of so many things near and dear to my heart are in At Dawn We Dive: as a descendant of Admiral Horatio Nelson and student of all aspects of World War Two and particularly naval warfare, I favor depictions of subs and action in the North Atlantic and especially those which include the German side of things. For those unacquainted with target priorities, an attack on an enemy warship is the greatest event that a submarine can hope to encounter and such a rare opportunity would develop surprisingly similarly to what we see here. The pacing is deliberate and typical of the works coming out of the Ealing, Rank and British-Gaumont studios back in the day: frankly I prefer its quieter, more cerebral approach for its humanity and realism that engages far better than any over-produced Hollywood movie ever could. This reminds me of Powell and Pressburger's The 49th Parallel thanks to the powerfully persuasive Eric Portman, a favorite of mine. John Mills receives second billing and a smaller font in the titles, so this is clearly meant to be Mr. Portman's film but the whole cast shines. As for the title sequence, am I the only one who is utterly charmed by Gainsborough Production's lovely pre-CGI Gainsborough Girl?