My old dad regularly gives me pointers on films to seek out and this was his most recent recommendation. I must say for the record he's never given me a bad tip yet and with this dramatisation of Nicholas Monserrat's best selling novel, I have to tip my hat to him again.
Covering the exploits of the crew of HMS Compass Point, a convoy escort boat seeking to protect British freighters in the North Atlantic from the threat of German U-Boats, while the film certainly demonstrates in spades the famed, if often satirised British stiff upper lip against adversity, it doesn't otherwise shy away from a gritty, near documentary realism either.
The main character is experienced captain Jack Hawkins in the role that elevated him to major stardom. To him falls the task of whipping his inexperienced crew into shape and later on take the hard decisions, including the pivotal one where he sacrifices the lives of British sailors awaiting rescue in the sea to drop depth charges on a killer sub he believes is beneath them, but which in fact gets away. In fact in five years of operations, the Compass Rose only takes out two enemy subs which puts into some sort of context the monotony and drudgery coupled with dread and anxiety the shipmates must have experienced all that time.
There are numerous back stories involving the supporting cast, with a smattering of romance for a couple of the men balanced out by death and infidelity and others demonstrating the expected characteristics of camaraderie, courage and sacrifice. I would however have liked to have seen more of Stanley Baker's jumped-up first lieutenant who unfortunately disappears after the first quarter of the movie.
As some critic somewhere has adroitly pointed out, the numerous war movies made by British studios in the post war period perhaps equate to Hollywood's predilection for releasing westerns, in effect demonstrating different personifications of masculinity on both sides of the Atlantic. Yes there are moments which slightly overdo the British compunction for stoicism, such as when a C.O. "comforts" one of his female subordinates, when she tells him her boyfriend was on a stricken ship, with a brisk "Bad luck", but even that is counterbalanced by Hawkins tearful remembrance of his crucial decision which cost the lives of his own helpless countrymen.
Old-fashioned as it may often seem to today's viewer, this was still an admirable and enjoyable example of British war movie-making, efficiently directed and well-acted by all.
Covering the exploits of the crew of HMS Compass Point, a convoy escort boat seeking to protect British freighters in the North Atlantic from the threat of German U-Boats, while the film certainly demonstrates in spades the famed, if often satirised British stiff upper lip against adversity, it doesn't otherwise shy away from a gritty, near documentary realism either.
The main character is experienced captain Jack Hawkins in the role that elevated him to major stardom. To him falls the task of whipping his inexperienced crew into shape and later on take the hard decisions, including the pivotal one where he sacrifices the lives of British sailors awaiting rescue in the sea to drop depth charges on a killer sub he believes is beneath them, but which in fact gets away. In fact in five years of operations, the Compass Rose only takes out two enemy subs which puts into some sort of context the monotony and drudgery coupled with dread and anxiety the shipmates must have experienced all that time.
There are numerous back stories involving the supporting cast, with a smattering of romance for a couple of the men balanced out by death and infidelity and others demonstrating the expected characteristics of camaraderie, courage and sacrifice. I would however have liked to have seen more of Stanley Baker's jumped-up first lieutenant who unfortunately disappears after the first quarter of the movie.
As some critic somewhere has adroitly pointed out, the numerous war movies made by British studios in the post war period perhaps equate to Hollywood's predilection for releasing westerns, in effect demonstrating different personifications of masculinity on both sides of the Atlantic. Yes there are moments which slightly overdo the British compunction for stoicism, such as when a C.O. "comforts" one of his female subordinates, when she tells him her boyfriend was on a stricken ship, with a brisk "Bad luck", but even that is counterbalanced by Hawkins tearful remembrance of his crucial decision which cost the lives of his own helpless countrymen.
Old-fashioned as it may often seem to today's viewer, this was still an admirable and enjoyable example of British war movie-making, efficiently directed and well-acted by all.