USS Greyhound : La Bataille de l'Atlantique

I served on a destroyer during the Korean War. This movie really captured the excitement of being on the bridge during convoy duty.

This is a movie about the procedure of command. This is an innately more complex task than the more common episodic approach that buries the procedural reality under a mask of plot and character. But this film pulls it off, largely by not shying away from the task.

Guess what? Naval warfare, especially the sort of highly asymmetric warfare shown here, doesn't really revolve around the captain demanding more speed while the engineer says she canna take it. If you're looking for a movie that's truly respectful of the labours and sacrifices made in the Battle of the Atlantic, then this is a fitting tribute.

Don't expect a character movie, don't expect to spend time below decks exploring the usual stereotypes. This movie is seen through the eyes of the captain, and the captain alone. I can think of very few other films that dare to depict the loneliness of command quite so clearly. There's little time for thought, there's no time to process or even truly grasp the horrors that they encounter (something which forms one of the roots of PTSD). What there is is the fight.

The fight is relentless and deeply technical. We've become used to fight scenes carrying a few bits of technical gibberish followed by some visceral and personalised action. There's no gibberish in this film, and the latter consists of the captain cutting his feet on broken glass. The movie, like the mind of the captain, is consumed with the intricate technical and personal demands required to hunt down a submarine at that time. That was clearly the aim here, and the movie has succeeded admirably at showing that particular aspect of this type of warfare. This is not a common way to stage a war movie, but it's worth doing well on a few occasions, and this movie achieves its goal.

The reviews show that many come looking for something more conventional, and end up missing the point, which is a shame.

I will keep this short, I enjoyed the movie, the action and atmosphere was gripping. My only issue was the historically inaccurate scene at the end of the film when you see a troop ship with several thousand men cheering the Greyhound and its captain as they break off screening the convoy. No troop ship would ever sail in a convoy. Troop ships were usually passenger liners which could travel at 25-30 knots. This speed meant that u-boats usually could not target them, most troop ships travelled solo. A convoy could only travel at the speed of its slowest ship which sometimes was only 8-10 knots. The allies would never risk a troop ship under those conditions.

Having served in the Cold War on both a destroyer and on a submarine, I found this story contrasting the tensions between both worlds. The action is shown from the bridge, CIC, and decks of the Greyhound, which BTW is the slang term for destroyers and those who serve on them. Hanks subtly conveys the ache of leaving a loved one behind and her presence with him during the battle. He and his crew feel the presence of the subs stalking the surface ships and the deaths of sailors both above and below the icy water. There is no perfect rendering of combat in film, but the repeated commands and protocols between naval personnel and vessels are accurate enough to convey a sense of proper urgency to the story. Compressing roughly 48 tense hours into a ~2 hour film doesn't give much time to absorb all that's happening, and that's the point. Training and subsequent reactions shape the story in the faces of the bridge crew as they watch the captain and follow his orders which he does not explain. This is about relationships between combatants, among the ships in the convoy, and between U.S. and British allies. This film, The Enemy Below, and Das Boot make a reasonable trilogy for a weekend marathon. Enjoy this story from either a technical or a relational view as you see fit.

Spectacle? Dramatization? No. This movie allowed me to experience ww2 naval combat without the bombast of the usual action movie. It felt realistic with a decent amount of suspense, a glimpse through the eyes of the captain.