The Cruel Sea

Considering the epic scale of war, I think it's interesting that the stories that seem to resonate are the ones that are the most personal. They may focus on the bigger picture -- a battle, a mission, the home front -- but the success rides on the individual and their efforts at survival. Focusing on the personal but maintaining that picture of the bigger events at hand is a sub-genre of WWII films, the cat and mouse game of ships vs. submarines. The ships on the surface hunt while the subs sneak in for their attacks, like 1953's The Cruel Sea.

An experienced sailor in the Merchant Navy, Lt. Commander Ericson (Jack Hawkins) is called to active duty at the outbreak of WWII and given command of an escort ship assigned duty in the Atlantic. His ship -- the Compass Rose -- is given a relatively inexperienced crew with only a few veteran officers who've even been to sea. After a quick but mostly successful training period, the Compass Rose heads out for its duty, helping escort convoys all over the Atlantic, doing their best to stop the German U-boats that are wreaking havoc on Allied shipping. They find that war isn't an action-packed adventure, but instead long stretches of clear sailing broken up by the constant threat of attack from the German subs. It doesn't take long, and that fear begins to wear on even the strongest men.

Not a hugely well known WWII flick, this British-made production is nonetheless quite worthwhile. It has its flaws like any movie, but as I mentioned earlier, it works because it is an intensely personal story. This will sound obvious, but think about how big the ocean is. Actually think about it. Then place a relatively "large" ship on that water with a mission to protect other ships from raiding subs that have thousands of miles of open water to hide out in. A torpedo can tear your ship to shreds any second and from any direction. I don't even want to think about that feeling, knowing that death hangs in the air just waiting to strike. Director Charles Frend gets credit for creating that unbearable feeling of dread as the Compass Rose sails through the Atlantic.

A name synonymous with big epic films, Jack Hawkins was one of Britain's great actors. It's great to see him in a still-big film, but not quite the epics of Lawrence of Arabia, Bridge on the River Kwai and Zulu. He had a knack for playing the stiff upper-lip Brit, a man of honor and duty who doesn't let much rattle him, but this part is different. As he takes command of the Compass Rose, he finds out -- along with every member of his crew -- that the war is nothing like he imagined. There's no glory or heroes. You kill your enemy before he kills you. That's all. It's a dirty, filthy business. He wants to aid the war effort but also to get his crew through the war unscathed, knowing that one doesn't necessarily go hand in hand with the other. A father-son/maybe brotherly relationship develops with his first officer, Sub Lieutenant Lockhart (Donald Sinden), an inexperienced officer who picks things up quickly as the war escalates. They look to each for support in the most tense of situations, knowing that they can trust the other one.

If I could do anything to improve on the story even a little, it would have been to develop the other officers and crew a little more. We get to know a handful of other officers but never learn much about them other than a fairly vague "personality." The group includes Denholm Elliott as Lt. Morrell, the officer who's wife is a famous actress. The rest of the crew envies him, but Morrell's home life isn't as idyllic as they think, along with John Stratton, John Warner and Stanley Baker in a part that forces him to leave the story far too soon. One interesting -- if somewhat cliched -- storyline has one officer, Tallow (Bruce Seton), introducing one of the crew, Chief Watts (Liam Redmond), to his almost-spinster of a sister (Megs Jenkins). The background is kept to a minimum, holding us as a viewer at arm's length.

The best parts of 'Cruel' show the horrors of war, much of it happening off-screen. Several set pieces bring the movie up a notch, the best coming when Hawkins' Ericson must make a decision to go after a possibly fleeing submarine at the expense of sacrificing Allied sailors in the water from a nearby sunken ship. Seeing what happens wouldn't have been as effective as hearing the explosions in the water and seeing the facial reactions of the men on-board the Compass Rose. Hawkins does an amazing job at that scene, weighing the lives of a few versus the lives of hundreds and maybe thousands. Frend makes a wise choice in his story; we don't see the Germans in any form -- their ships, their planes, their men -- until the end of the movie. He isn't condemning them as savage foes, just an enemy that must be beaten, and I think that took some courage, especially in 1953 when WWII was still fresh in people's minds. The hunts for the German subs highlight the movie, showing the crew come to life at a chance to get into the action.

Because a war story wouldn't have been complete without some sort of forced, hammy love story, we do get a sub-plot with Sinden's Lockhart and Virginia McKenna's 2nd Officer Julie Hallam. I don't hate any and all love stories, just ones like these that do nothing to advance the story and are there for the purpose of being there. Lt. Morrell's wife and their story helps develop that character, but this relationship doesn't work. They can't all be winners, right? Other than that and some early pacing problems, I really enjoyed this movie. There is some great footage of these ships at sea -- calm water and pitching, violent water -- as well as some impressive stock footage from WWII. Hawkins leads a decent cast, his performance carrying the movie.

The Cruel Sea <---TCM trailer (1953): ***/****

Too Late the Hero

By 1970, the United States had been involved in the Vietnam War for going on five years. The American public had grown tired of a war that was producing no results and eating up American soldiers' lives by the thousands. As a country, we grew sick of authority and power figures, losing faith in the people we were supposed to trust. This distrust and frustration with the system came out in countless outlets, especially in films and even more so in war films, like 1970's Too Late the Hero.

From director Robert Aldrich comes this war movie that has been generally forgotten over the last 40-plus years.  Is there a chance it is too cynical, too dark, too anti-war?  It certainly could be any of those reasons, and while it is not a great anti-war movie, it certainly is a good one. Just three years earlier, Aldrich had directed the classic anti-war movie The Dirty Dozen, a mix of incredibly dark humor, anti-establishment sentiment and in general a disdain for anything related to the powers that be. With 'Hero,' he takes it up a notch. Think Dirty Dozen mixed with The Guns of Navarone and Play Dirty, and you've got this war flick.

A day away from a month's leave, American Navy officer Lt. Sam Lawson (Cliff Robertson) is instead assigned a dangerous mission in the southwest Pacific in 1942. He's sent to a small, seemingly inconsequential island in the New Hebrides to join a British outfit fighting Japanese forces on an island. Lawson's services as a translator -- he speaks Japanese working for intelligence -- are needed as he joins a small patrol trekking across the island to a Japanese base. Their mission? Knock out the radio so an American naval convoy can pass by the island safely and have Lawson transmit a message to Japanese headquarters so as to no alert the enemy of the coming attack. The men on the patrol are a mixed bunch including troublemaker and medic Pvt. Tosh Hearne (Michael Caine) and is commanded by a courageous if inept officer, Lt. Hornsby (Denholm Elliott). As they approach their objective though, a wild card emerges, news of a Japanese counterattack that intelligence is unaware of.

Is there a such thing as a war movie that is too opposed to war, too anti-war in its general sentiment?  That's always my issue with movies like this.  Think Platoon, All Quiet on the Western Front, Born on the 4th of July, Full Metal Jacket. All high quality, solid movies, but because they're not necessarily entertaining it can be hard to go back and revisit the films with multiple viewings. That's my problem at least. I bought Too Late the Hero seven years ago, watched it once and even though I enjoyed it, did not watch it again until this summer.  It can be a tad on the slow side -- meandering along at 134 minutes -- and stretches go by where not much happens. It is an incredibly dark film overall, making it hard to go along for the ride. None of this is intended to steer you away from the movie, but instead serve as fair warning heading in.

Where Aldrich's The Dirty Dozen had some redeeming characters, 'Hero' has none of them.  There are few positive qualities in any of them. Robertson's Lawson is basically trying to sit out the war in a rear echelon radio post and goes along only when there are no other options. He blatantly refuses to go along with an order on the mission, using a discrepancy to hide his cowardice. Caine's Tosh is a little better, but he is truly only looking out for himself. Screw the lives of others if his life is the necessary sacrifice. It is hinted that Elliott's Hornsby is gay, but it's not important overall. He's both brutally cold and stupidly inept in his command. Harry Andrews is the British commander ready to sacrifice his men as needed, and in a cameo Henry Fonda basically blackmails Lawson into going on the mission. The patrol includes Ian Bannen, Percy Herbert, Ronald Fraser, and Lance Percival among other interchangeable characters there to be fodder for the Japanese.

Setting the movie apart from so many other anti-war films that are content in delivering their 'War is hell!' message is a script from Aldrich that revels in being unique, in going where many war films don't want to go. It is genuinely unique. As the survivors of the patrol race back through the jungle to the relative safety of their own base, the Japanese are in hot pursuit with some psychological warfare prepared. A Japanese major, Yamaguchi (Ken Takakura), uses loud speakers and an amplification system to address the men he's pursuing, offering them terms of surrender with an ever-shrinking deadline. The Japanese aren't the bloodthirsty savages here for the most part, and as is the case with Takakura's Yamaguchi, he's just a soldier trying to do his duty. The booming voice through the jungle is a nice touch though, an enemy that cannot be seen and only be heard.

The best though by far is the finale so OBVIOUS SPOILERS from here on in. SPOILERS STOP READING SPOILERS Needing to deliver the news of the coming Japanese attack, only two survivors make it back -- Tosh and Lawson.  The only problem? The only way back to the base is an open stretch of land, a veritable no man's land. The Japanese have it covered, and any attempt to cross the vast openness is basically a suicide mission. Tosh and Lawson attempt it, running like madmen in a zig-zag pattern in an attempt to make it hard to pick them off.  Aldrich shoots this adrenaline-pumping sequence from a distance, making sure we can't see which man is which. I won't spoil the ending as to who makes it -- or do both make it? Hhhmmm, interesting -- but it is a whopper of an ending and another unique touch, something I'd never seen before in a war movie. Watch it HERE with more OBVIOUS SPOILERS.

This certainly isn't a perfect war movie, but as far as anti-war movies go it's hard to beat. Maybe some of the reasoning I've come up with is because it hasn't been fondly remembered since its 1970 release. It is a bit of a hidden gem.  An appropriate if not so subtle message tries too hard at times, but the idea is there. Throw in some great performances from a deep cast -- especially Robertson and Caine -- and it is definitely worth a watch.

Too Late the Hero <---trailer (1970): ***/****