Nimitz, retour vers l'enfer

1980. Aircraft carrier USS Nimitz is on a routine voyage off the coast of Hawaii when she travels through a strange storm. Upon clearing the storm she encounters some strange occurrences, all of which suggest she has travelled back in time in 1941. Moreover, it is 6 December 1941 and the Nimitz is in a position to prevent the disastrous outcome of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

I has low expectations for this film. The whole idea just seemed silly and merely a vehicle for that schoolboy fantasy of modern jet fighters taking on WW2 planes. However, it is far better than that.

Writers and director set the scene well. We see the everyday operation of an aircraft carrier, the different parts and people in the organisation and, of course, the machinery of war. Makes for interesting viewing, so much so that even if there was no plot the video footage could be used as a documentary.

The plot development is handled well too, to the point that the whole time-travel concept even becomes plausible. It is handled quite well, even touching on the implications of changing history.

After this great set up, the conclusion is a bit disappointing, being fairly low-key as the movie sort of fizzles out. The changing history scenario isn't fully explored and you feel that the writers missed a few opportunities to create a powerful ending.

Still, quite entertaining, especially if you like to see military aircraft in action and the workings of an aircraft carrier.

In 1980, the assistant of the Department of Defense Warren Lasky (Martin Sheen) is assigned by his mysterious chief Richard Tideman to visit the aircraft carrier USS Nimtz commanded by Capt. Matthew Yelland (Kirk Douglas) as an observer of the routines. Lasky finds that Wing Commander Richard T. Owens (James Farentino) has a great knowledge of history.

Out of the blue, the vessel faces a weird storm and they find that they have traveled back in time to the eve of the attack of Pearl Harbor on 06 December 1941. When the two Japanese Zeros attack the motorboat of Senator Samuel Chapman (Charles Durning), the crew of the Nimitz rescues the senator and his assistant Laurel Scott (Katharine Ross). But sooner Lasky learns that the senator had disappeared on that day and Capt. Matthew Yelland is planning to attack the Japanese. Will these actions create a time paradox?

Today I have seen "The Final Countdown" maybe for the fifth or sixth time, and it is impressive how this good film has not aged after more than thirty years. The story has time paradox but is engaging supported by a magnificent cast. The DVD released on Brazil by New Line distributor is excellent, with audio Dolby 5.1 and DTS 6.1 and a documentary with the unit production manager Lloyd Kaufaman (Troma) in the Extras. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Nimitz - De Volta ao Inferno" ("Nimitz – Back to Hell")

I saw this film way back in college with my close classmates & friends in the aeronautical engineering field. Mind you that most of us love airplanes and during that time where plastic modellers. The excitement of watching this movie prove to be awesome for most of us during that time. We watch it again twice in a span of three weeks that it was shown in the theaters. In the later years, I saw it again in Laser Disc format and it still amaze me that time that I rented that title almost 10 times. The scenes of the carrier operations was the most fascinating scenes that I repeat viewing that specific part several times. As I discover in your web that it has been released this year in DVD format, I'll be waiting for it in the store to come out here in the Philippines. It is still one great movie that I will never forget. Remember Pearl Harbor as we remember Bataan and Corregidor, as brave Americans and Filipinos fought bravely in World War II.

Making a military movie without official cooperation can be difficult. If the story doesn't require major air or naval assets, a script disapproved of by the top brass can be convincingly brought to the screen. Two examples - both true stories that the Pentagon didn't want to support - are "Men of Honor" reflecting the epidemic racism of the not-that-long-ago Navy and "Sgt. Bilko," a film portraying what some noncoms do to earn extra income (trust me, it's a true story: a real Sgt. Bilko worked (officially but not actually) for me when I was an Army officer.

But when you need lots of planes and ships, you gotta have official help. And few movies have gotten more assistance than the producer, director and cast of "The Final Countdown," now available on DVD,a sci-fi recruiting spectacular that features - on loan at taxpayer expense - the huge carrier U.S.S. Nimitz complete with crew. Now that's cooperation!

Kirk Douglas skippers the supercarrier which is on Pacific Fleet maneuvers. On board as some sort of efficiency consultant is a young Martin Sheen, not yet ready for the West Wing. A mysterious and never explained weather phenomenon grips the mighty floating air base and to the unfolding amazement of captain, officers and crew dawns the realization that the Nimitz in sailing not that far from Pearl Harbor on 6 December 1941.

Meanwhile a U.S. senator, played by one of Hollywood's deservedly decorated war heroes, Charles Durning, is enjoying his yacht, also near Pearl, while dictating to his lovely secretary, Katharine Ross. A brace of Japanese Zeroes sink the yacht, killing two passengers which then prompts the carrier C.O. to order trailing F-14 Tomcats to "splash" the "enemy." Durning and Ross are rescued. Without a word, this talented actor's face does a comical double-take when introduced to the ship's executive officer who just happens to be black (in 1941 a black navy man could only serve as a steward in the officers mess. That was it. Period.)

The dilemma facing Douglas, of course, is a classic time-travel conundrum. To interfere with the course of history (the carrier's air wing can make instant teriyaki of the six Japanese carriers) or to let events take their known and disastrous course.

A chaste incipient romance between the nearly drowned damsel and the carrier's Commander Air Group competes with the white knuckle decision-making struggle of the C.O.

So much for the plot. What is on offer here is a demonstration of every aircraft type, fixed-wing and rotary, deployed on the vessel as well as demonstrations of shipboard activities ranging from retrieving a damaged jet to going to General Quarters to...you name it. The technical advisers knew they had a film crew pliant to every suggestion. The result is a genuinely exciting show- a great warship going through its paces. And, unlike "Tora Tora Tora" it doesn't appear that any genuine sailors were harmed in the making of the movie.

There's one big problem. A science fiction story is usually utterly improbable, indeed impossible, but its internal logic is vital: it must be consistent. Spielberg understands that very well. Watch the first couple of minutes when Sheen is greeted by his employer's lackey and the last minutes when he debarks from the Nimitz. Something is very, very off-kilter. Could the CEO of a great military-industrial conglomerate have used top secret technology to send the carrier back to 1941 for...

So what. This is a beautifully filmed adventure story, not a great film. The cast probably relished taking over the carrier for a while and the real captain, never shown, surely wished that the Navy hadn't banned hard spirits from our ships in World War I. But all emerge unscathed in a genuinely entertaining romp through time.

8/10

I saw this in the theater when it first came out. I was stationed onboard the USS Enterprise (CVN-65) while it was being overhauled at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Wa. I loved every minute of this film.

I know that this will sound trite and maudlin, but I remember going up on the flightdeck one morning after working the night shift, shortly after I saw this film. The USS Bonhomme Richard was at the pier near us- painted with zinc, all closed up, its gunmounts covered, doorways sealed-up, bridge windows shuttered, its flightdeck silent save for the screeching of seagulls. Looking at that old wooden-decked warhorse through the rain and mist, I felt a new appreciation for it and the other vessels in mothballs.

I felt as if I were looking through time itself.