Historical accuracy: 7
Acting: 6
Camera work: 7
Editing: 7
Budget: 7
Story: 4
Theme: 6
Pure entertainment factor: 6
Video quality: 7
Special effects: 9
Pacing: 5
Suspension of disbelief: 8
Non-cringe factor: 7
Lack of flashbacks: 10
I really wanted to like it more than I did. I watch a lot ot British WW2 movies currently and this is one about a true story so you'd figure it would be better than the fictional stories. Yet this is not. It's not bad as such, it's just that it doesn't really make for a great movie. The story itself is way too empty and short. This should have been a 1 hour mini movie at most. This is a real story of 10 mini subs getting transported to Norway, then diving the rest of the way themselves to place mines under Tirpitz. 3 subs get close to the ship. 2 leave the explosive bombs under the ship and here all 3 subs sink while the crew from 2 subs is captured. Not sure what actually happened to the crew, but I assume they were not captured? Also, the movie only shows a few men and only 3 or so subs. So we actually get a wrong depiction of the scope of the mission. I think the story not being on par could be overlooked more if the movie was a 1 to 1 recreation.
We follow the men as they train and just talk about random stuff. They actually don't really talk about family, military, war, medals, wage, cards, music, movies. It's mostly just empty talk and a few mentions of dating and such. The dialogue is frankly way below par for these sort of movies set post WW2 with the men who did the missions advising them directly and often even writing or acting in the movies too. Sure it's realistic enough much of the time, but they talk about nothing so there is not much to screw up anyhow. We get very few technical details or details about their lives. And this is one of the 26 or so attacks on the ship. This one at least damaged the ship, but it did get repaired and was sunk with an airplane bombing years later where the Germans messed up and didn't intersect the British planes. A mistake that finally doomed the ship. And a full movie really should have been about more than the failed mission with divers and then another semi-success with bigger subs. At least it could have created a plot around this one mission. Maybe we see the family at home or some women the men are dating. They promise to return. At the end we see them return post the war. Just a tiny story like this. Or a mom finally meeting her son after the war. That would be a potent and strong story to at least make me feel something. We are just in the subs and the dialogue, while being true to real war I assume, is on the nose with them only talking about what the subs do. And since we don't get many shots from outside the subs we are just in a small room in black and white. It gets dull pretty fast. The camera work doesn't even try to make it interesting. We just see a camera filming straight on and men talking about what the sub does.
The diver scenes are glorious and better than what you will find in any modern movies not filmed using real WW2 gear. But even these scenes were often just placed in with no plot making us emotionally connected to the divers. You didn't even know how nervous they were. There were just too many men and zero family life. And with so many men not a single character got a storyline. No 2 characters even created a storyline together. Of course this is a curious and important enough movie for the sake of history alone, but even here it doesn't really give a ton of info. It reminds me of John Ford's and John Wayne's They Were Expendable (1945) that used real WW2 boats and a giant budget to show us the war in the Philippines. It too kinda went nowhere. But at least there there was dating, some action, plenty of sets, and more real WW2 gear. It too was a missed opportunity to drag us into the war. But with big enough sets you at least see the war.
I think a more character and story focused movie like Sink the Bismarck! (1960) was way more engaging. The fictional, but very realistic The Cruel Sea (1953) also did character studies fine enough though nothing great. The Dam Busters (1955) was really fun! We Dive at Dawn (1943) was decent fun if you like fiction too. I could name 10 more movies using real WW2 sets, ships, boats that were more engaging story wise. This one is just right about okay. For a tiny set airplane raid movie I would recommend Twelve O'Clock High (1949). These are mostly small set and cheap WW2 movies made during or right after WW2. I could mention 10 more and of course bigger budget movies are often better. But these feel similar in size. Just tiny stories focusing on one mission. With a small set of characters.
I really wanted to like it more than I did. I watch a lot ot British WW2 movies currently and this is one about a true story so you'd figure it would be better than the fictional stories. Yet this is not. It's not bad as such, it's just that it doesn't really make for a great movie. The story itself is way too empty and short. This should have been a 1 hour mini movie at most. This is a real story of 10 mini subs getting transported to Norway, then diving the rest of the way themselves to place mines under Tirpitz. 3 subs get close to the ship. 2 leave the explosive bombs under the ship and here all 3 subs sink while the crew from 2 subs is captured. Not sure what actually happened to the crew, but I assume they were not captured? Also, the movie only shows a few men and only 3 or so subs. So we actually get a wrong depiction of the scope of the mission. I think the story not being on par could be overlooked more if the movie was a 1 to 1 recreation.
We follow the men as they train and just talk about random stuff. They actually don't really talk about family, military, war, medals, wage, cards, music, movies. It's mostly just empty talk and a few mentions of dating and such. The dialogue is frankly way below par for these sort of movies set post WW2 with the men who did the missions advising them directly and often even writing or acting in the movies too. Sure it's realistic enough much of the time, but they talk about nothing so there is not much to screw up anyhow. We get very few technical details or details about their lives. And this is one of the 26 or so attacks on the ship. This one at least damaged the ship, but it did get repaired and was sunk with an airplane bombing years later where the Germans messed up and didn't intersect the British planes. A mistake that finally doomed the ship. And a full movie really should have been about more than the failed mission with divers and then another semi-success with bigger subs. At least it could have created a plot around this one mission. Maybe we see the family at home or some women the men are dating. They promise to return. At the end we see them return post the war. Just a tiny story like this. Or a mom finally meeting her son after the war. That would be a potent and strong story to at least make me feel something. We are just in the subs and the dialogue, while being true to real war I assume, is on the nose with them only talking about what the subs do. And since we don't get many shots from outside the subs we are just in a small room in black and white. It gets dull pretty fast. The camera work doesn't even try to make it interesting. We just see a camera filming straight on and men talking about what the sub does.
The diver scenes are glorious and better than what you will find in any modern movies not filmed using real WW2 gear. But even these scenes were often just placed in with no plot making us emotionally connected to the divers. You didn't even know how nervous they were. There were just too many men and zero family life. And with so many men not a single character got a storyline. No 2 characters even created a storyline together. Of course this is a curious and important enough movie for the sake of history alone, but even here it doesn't really give a ton of info. It reminds me of John Ford's and John Wayne's They Were Expendable (1945) that used real WW2 boats and a giant budget to show us the war in the Philippines. It too kinda went nowhere. But at least there there was dating, some action, plenty of sets, and more real WW2 gear. It too was a missed opportunity to drag us into the war. But with big enough sets you at least see the war.
I think a more character and story focused movie like Sink the Bismarck! (1960) was way more engaging. The fictional, but very realistic The Cruel Sea (1953) also did character studies fine enough though nothing great. The Dam Busters (1955) was really fun! We Dive at Dawn (1943) was decent fun if you like fiction too. I could name 10 more movies using real WW2 sets, ships, boats that were more engaging story wise. This one is just right about okay. For a tiny set airplane raid movie I would recommend Twelve O'Clock High (1949). These are mostly small set and cheap WW2 movies made during or right after WW2. I could mention 10 more and of course bigger budget movies are often better. But these feel similar in size. Just tiny stories focusing on one mission. With a small set of characters.