Boring

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

Life aboard a naval vessel during World War II proves difficult for its inexperienced crew in this Oscar nominated British drama. The film principally pivots around the ship's captain, played by Jack Hawkins, and the hard decisions he has to make, however, the film is jam-packed with subplots and various supporting characters take centre light throughout. To this end, the film is structured in a highly episodic manner that sometimes proves distancing as the film feels like a bunch of loosely related stories clustered together rather than a cohesive whole. The sporadic nature of the voice-over narration is distracting too. That said, all the subplots offer potent side tales, the best of which has a very young Denholm Elliott as a sharp-tongued officer who is gradually revealed to have severe marital problems back home. The film's best acting moments are had by Hawkins though as he stares out to sea and tries to convince himself that all the horrors he is enduring are just normal in war. As one can probably surmise from the title, the sea itself is quite an important 'character' here too; there might be a war raging on, however, the unpredictable sea is capable of interrupting and changing the course of events, or as Hawkins himself says "the only villain is the sea". Quite simply put, this is a vastly different sort of war film to the average Hollywood product out there. The film is unexpectedly philosophical (about the nature of war as well as the sea) and there is refreshingly far more time spent on the characters mulling over the horrors of war than just experiencing them.

It's no easy task to translate a 400-page novel into a two-hour movie. It is inevitable that there are going to be things glossed over or left out. That being said, however, "The Cruel Sea" is probably one of the greatest movies about WW-II ever produced, as well as possibly the finest best movie ever made about ships and seamen. Essentially the film follows the events surrounding two naval officers through the course of the Battle of the Atlantic. One is an experienced Merchant Marine officer (Jack Hawkins) who has been called up for Navy duty when his reserve commission is activated at the beginning of World War II. The other is a young "90-Day-Wonder" reserve officer (Donald Sinden), who finds himself forced to mature as he copes with sea- duty and combat. Neither is quite the same man at the end of the film that he started out as at the beginning. Although this film made Jack Hawkins a major star, Sinden gives a particularly good performance as we see him subtly growing up over the course of the film. The story itself is one of day-to-day toil, interspersed with episodes of sudden terror, which is probably pretty much how it really was. Above all it is the realism that comes through in this film. Nothing is glamorized and nothing is over-dramatized. In fact, the film makers did such an effective job that it is almost as though one were watching a documentary, rather than a movie based upon a novel. "The heroines are the ships", says Lt. Cmdr. Ericson at the beginning of the film, and that is certainly true here. No CGI special effects were employed, nor was this movie filmed on a back-lot set. The viewers are seeing the real thing. HMS Coreopsis (Compass Rose) was commissioned in 1940 and, while she never did sink a U-boat, she really did escort convoys and rescue large numbers of shipwrecked seamen, exactly as depicted in film. In 1943 she was transferred to the Greek Navy. One of the last original Flower-class Corvettes still in existence at that time, Coreopsis was made available to the filmmakers only because the Greeks returned her to Britain in 1952 for scrapping. Filming "The Cruel Sea" was literally the last thing she ever did before going to the ship-breakers. HMS Portchester Castle (Saltash Castle) was commissioned in 1943, and she really did sink two U- boats. Perusing the reviews written about this film on this site, it is interesting to note that, among those who have actually served in the Navy, or worked at sea as seamen, this film rates at the very top. Under the circumstances, one can't get a higher recommendation that than.

There's a lovely detail in this film that seems to have been largely overlooked. When the Compass Rose is sunk, we see a rating pulling a fellow crew member onto a life-raft with the words, "Alright mate, I've gotcha". Later in the film the same words are used a survivor of a recently-sunk U Boat is hauled on board the Compass Rose's successor. This is the kind of detail that makes The Cruel Sea such an exceptional book and film. It also deals with the issue of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD}, formerly known as shell-shock, well before the syndrome had achieved an acronym. The film adaptation of Nicholas Monsarrat's novel must surely be considered one of the more faithful transitions from book to screen.

I was forced to watch this movie for the first time over 20 years ago as part of a college class. It was a comparative literature course where we first read a war novel then followed it with the movie based on the novel we just read.To be fair, it only felt forced for the first few minutes. One really gets a warm feeling for the men serving in the Sisyphean role of protecting ship convoys during WWII. We see them at work, play and in battle. We meet the women who love them and we get a sense of how the British experienced the war; how much more desperate it was and how like a siege it was at home for our heroes on leave. Since that time, seemingly forever ago, I have sought out The Cruel Sea when and wherever it was showing.There are two reasons for this; first, the movie is quite faithful to the original text, Monserrat's wonderful novel. Secondly, because of this, you will find it easy to identify with and care about the men aboard HMS Compass Rose. Captain Ericson's tears are ours. I don't know if it was possible for Jack Hawkins to make a bad movie, but just look at what he did with truly great material! Stanley Baker was at his disagreeable best here, along with Donald Sinden and a terribly young Denholm Elliott.This movie makes an emphatic case for those who, like David O. Selznick, believe in being faithful to the original material when making movies. Films like this make it very hard for those on Hitchcock's side of the debate. There is real artistry here and I marvel at how not just the story, but Monserrat's plot devices are effectively portrayed on film. See if you don't agree when you view this, yourself. If you enjoy movies of this genre and haven't seen this one, take heed; strong message follows: Sit down to this one and be prepared for one of the finest of its kind, in any era.