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Although Orson Welles, Patrick Wymark, and Sir Winston Churchill merit top billing for this fine documentary, not to be forgotten is the writer of the screenplay, Victor Wolfson. Mr. Wolfson also played a major role in selecting the documentary footage that is so skillfully woven through this film. In the art of movies and television it's easy to forget - as my father used to say - that without a writer to deliver a good screenplay you have nothing. In THE FINEST HOURS, the voice-over narrative is concise and dramatic. The language of the screenplay enhances but never gets in the way; it works seamlessly with the film's often stunning and rare visuals, and achieves an excellent harmony with the words of Churchill himself. The film is a fast-moving, dramatic, economical but complete overview of Churchill's marvelous life and times.

This is a white-friendly, feel good film that will bore you unless you're a football addict. And even then you may wonder why it came up on the Academy Award radar screen at all. Except that Bullock is a big money-maker and it serves the industry to praise her. She hits one note in this film and keeps hitting that note. Again and again she hits that one single note, and when you've had enough she hits it some more. Pretty soon she's SO boring. Ultimately she just wears you down. Help! A goose with a good, strong honk could have played that role. I suppose it's sort of fun to watch rich, privileged white people successfully bulldoze their way to the head of the line while poor non-whites have to wait their turn. Oh yes, and we're clearly supposed to rejoice that Bullock's character patronizes a big needy black person, and is short tempered with her racist Republican luncheon companions.