Cibo per squali

Other than a mention about the mission of the Indianapolis in Spielberg's "Jaws", many people have never heard of the sacrifice made by the men who delivered the atom bomb, before it's final, inevitable destination in Hiroshima. The horrors of war are of course often portrayed in film, but man vs. nature is a rarer occurrence in war movie history. The scapegoat portrayal of Keech's character should remind us all that being in command is quite often more of a burden, than an honour. War history buffs should check out this flick, as it is well worth your while.

A true story worth telling, this movie suffers heavily from contrived dialog which was obviously written by someone unfamilar with the Navy. It's a classic example of writers who have learned most of what they think they know about their subject matter from watching previous movies which were just as likely written by still other writers who learned from watching still earlier movies, ad infinitum. The use of an Iowa-class battleship to portray an obsolescent pre-war heavy cruiser less than one-third its size didn't help, either.

One technical point: speaking as a former submariner and current submarine museum director, speed was always generally regarded a significant defense to submarine attack, and given the technology available at the time it was just plain bad luck as much as anything else that the Japanese were actually able to hit the INDIANAPOLIS. Note also that the submarine had to fire a total of six torpedoes to achieve two hits.

One last point: speaking as the survivor of a vicious wild-animal attack, I can attest that the fear of it is infinitely worse than its physical reality, and I could easily come up with a long list of worse ways to go - surely one would suffer worse from dehydration and exposure, to say nothing of what the medical profession is capable of doing to you once you get to a hospital.

***SPOILER ALERT *** Incidentally, McVay never recovered from the sinking. He committed suicide in 1968. In 2000 the United States Congress passed and the President signed a formal resolution exonerating him from blame for the sinking.

The movie starts with a 15-year reunion of the men who served on the U.S.S. Indianapolis. Actually, many of the men are not there, and you will find out why when you watch. But the hero of this ship is Captain Charles McVay, and those who served under him cheer as he enters the room.

During World War II, the Indianapolis had an important mission. The sailors wonder why that box is so heavily guarded. There is lots of speculation; some claim it is special toilet paper for MacArthur. Down below, a high-ranking officer is informing McVay of something he seems to already know but won't confirm. That box contains the most deadly weapon ever developed. Those of us who know the outcome of World War II know exactly what that means.

There seems to be some disagreement on how best to avoid an attack by a Japanese sub. One sailor tells his superiors they are wrong in not trying to deceive the Japanese. Perhaps they should have listened to him, but he is sternly reminded who is in charge.

The Japanese are shown getting ready to attack, and perhaps the outcome of the war would have been somewhat different if they had succeeded. At this point, the sub commander doesn't believe an attack can succeed.

But the second time ...

In all the chaos, it's hard to believe anyone would have known what to do. Capt. McVay's attitude seems to be that abandoning ship would be the coward's way out. We know he survives to see the 15-year reunion. Eventually, it is clear there is only one course of action.

One would think the men would be rescued quickly, but there are procedures to keep the Japanese from knowing too much, and that may have contributed to a delay. So the men have more of an adventure than we might have expected.

This movie shows both sides of what it means to fight in a war. Stacy Keach gives a very strong performance as a leader who is tough but friendly and well-liked. How could anyone believe he was anything but a hero? But if you watch you'll find out some think he was not. There are plenty of courageous and even heroic actions, particularly those of the ship's doctor played by Richard Thomas. And then there are the men who need a leader to keep them from following their selfish desires. There are also cowards; you can't call them anything else. But would we do any better in such a situation?

Compared to "Saving Private Ryan", this would be a fireworks show on the Fourth of July gone awry followed by a dangerous kids' adventure at sea. It's hard to watch--this is war--but not graphic.

The Japanese seem cold and unfeeling, as one might expect. That's the image we have of them. But Hashimoto, who gave the order to fire on the Indianapolis, is shown to be human after all. He had a duty, and he succeeded. Not every time, but eventually. One scene with him later in the movie is pretty amazing.

This is certainly worth seeing.

I'm glad a movie was made about the sinking of the USS Indianapolis but as usual, Hollywood has to screw it all up and use fictional characters, with the exception of Captain McVay, and fictional incidents. For instance, Richard Thomas's character was called Lieutenant Steven Scott but was based on Dr. Lewis Haynes. Why can't Hollywood just tell the story as it really happened and use real names like they did with Capt. McVay is beyond me.

I saw this movie first before reading the book "In Harms Way" which really gave you insight as to what happened and the negligence on the Navy's part. The Navy failed to give Cpt. McVay the intelligence it had that Japanese subs were in fact lurking along the Peddie route he was taking. A US destroyer had been sunk in the vicinity a week earlier. This is information Navy Commodore James Carter knew about but did not give Capt. McVay, even as the two met prior to the Indy setting sail.

Secondly, Capt. McVay had requested a destroyer escort for his route to Leyte since the Indy did not have any sonar gear and destroyers did, but he did not get one.

When the Indy was struck by 2 torpedoes, several messages of being struck by torpedoes and her sinking and coordinates were in fact picked up by 3 different radio stations on Leyte. Several tugs were dispatched but 7 hours into a 21 hour trip, the tugs were recalled when Commodore Gillette, acting commander of the Phillipine Sea Frontier, learned they had been dispatched without his permission. No explanation was ever given to his reasoning. It also appears that at the time. it was the Navy's protocol to dismiss any messages that couldn't be confirmed as pranks. Commodore never followed up to see if the Indy had arrived as scheduled.

The whole thing was a travesty and a pattern of a Navy that always wants to fix the blame on everyone but itself, just like they did with the USS Iowa explosion. Of all the ships the Navy lost, why was Cpt. McVay the only Captain who was court-martial ed? Of course, Admiral Nimitz and Admiral Spruance were against a court martial and suggested a letter of reprimand however Admiral King, Chief of Naval Operations wanted a court martial and pressed Naval Secretary James Forrestal for one and he agreed. How ironic that Admiral King was the man pressing for a court martial when it was Admiral Kings incompetence that cost the lives of many merchant seamen along the east coast of this country in 1942 by refusing to deal with the growing U-Boat menace and only did so when the shipping companies were going to refuse to sail unless they received Naval escorts.

But Adm. King got his wish and Cpt. McVay was court martial ed and convicted on a charge of failure to zig zag despite a U.S. sub captain and expert on submarine warfare testifying that zig zagging made no difference in his ability to sink a target. Even the Japanese commander of the sub which sank the Indy was brought into testify and also stated he still would've sunk the Indy whether it was zig zagging or not.

This was not the Navy's finest hour though had it not been for a stroke of luck by Lt. Chuck Gwinn, piloting a PV-1. The plane had a loran navigation system but the antenna had broken off. A crewman had tried to make repairs in flight and Lt. Gwinn had gone back to help him. As he was making his way back, he happened to look out the window at the right time and saw the men in the water below otherwise it's most likely that every man in the water would've perished to the elements. Of course this was downplayed in the movie which shows Gwinn's character slipping just kicking back and looking at the side window though it did show what in reality, was a very tricky and one way landing.

This film is nicely filmed, though probably purposefully has the feel and look (and dialog) of a movie made in the 50s or 60s. Since the beginning and end are set in the 60s, I suspect that it was done on purpose. Scenes on the Indianapolis are fairly well done. The acting is a little stiff throughout, which is mostly due to a rather dry, stiff dialog and unimaginative script. They do manage to get the viewer steamed up at the Navy at the Court Marshall of Captain McVay. The film leaves a bit to be desired, but the saddest part of the tale is that the horror is true and teh abhorent behavior of the US Navy was unforgivable, even as of 1991. I have no idea whether the record or memory of McVay has been cleared since, but it certainly should be. The film makes a strong statement about the horrible costs of war.