Watch for the scene in which both crews - that of the German U-boat on the bottom and of the US destroyer on the surface awaiting the U-boat's next move - are instructed to be silent. The writers, director and cameraman say so much with almost no dialogue. The camera wanders amongst each crew and juxtaposes individuals who fill their downtime according to their intellect beyond their duties. On the U-boat, the second in command and the experienced exec play chess whilst the young, fanatical new exec is engrossed in reading "Mein Kampf". In the destroyer, one of the young swabbies studiously reads "The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire" whilst one of the chief execs smiles in an almost childlike way to himself as he reads a "Little Orphan Annie" comic. The audience is allowed to draw its own conclusions and I too will not spoil things by elaborating upon what conclusions I drew from the sequence. What I will say is that the sequence is a brilliant way in which a break between action scenes can be made interesting without rants or emotional over indulgence.
Review of The Enemy Below
