Highly Overrated But Still Good

Excellent, smart action film.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

A classic of British cinema, director Charles Frend's "The Cruel Sea" documents five years in the lives of a motley group of British sailors. They're tasked with escorting Allied convoys during World War 2, but it's a seemingly impossible task; Germany's U-boat fleets prowl the seas and feast incessantly on British ships.Unlike most naval films of the era, "The Cruel Sea" is grim, depressing, gritty, pessimistic, suffused with futility and captures well the nuts and bolts banality of wartime. Occasionally the film's ship-board action gives way to several land-based, melodramatic subplots, which borrow heavily from the then burgeoning "kitchen sink" movement. Ealing Studio legend Jack Hawkins stars as the world-weary captain of a torpedo corvette.8/10 – Frend directed a number of British war films, but "The Cruel Sea" was his best. See too "Das Boot", "The Sand Pebbles", "The Last Detail", "Damn the Defiant", "Run Silent Run Deep" and "Sink the Bismarck!".

The Cruel Sea is undoubtedly a truly English film. There are no almighty heroes giving spirited speeches to stir their men. This is where The Cruel Sea's strength lies - as a wholly convincing vignette of naval warfare. The film spends much of its time depicting the monotony of the ship's duties (as a convoy vessel) and on the relationships developed between the ship's staff. This is not to say that it doesn't deliver - in a stark, honest way - on the threat and heat of battle. The viewer senses the danger surrounding the ship - stormy weather can be just as threatening as U-Boats closing in. The audience is given great sympathy for the situation the sailors are put into. Little is shown of life onshore (and in most of the onshore scenes the ships company are present, such as when an officer returns home to visit his wife on leave). Because of this, once we return to the ship, the viewer is forced to feel the same helplessness as the sailors must have felt in war. Like the sailors, the viewer knows nothing of the lives of their families back home, nor of the commanding decisions being made which influence the ships duties.Jack Hawkins puts forward, as ever, a memorable and thoughtful performance as the capable and dutiful ship's Captain. We sense his character struggling to remain stoic as he is forced to make life and death decisions in grim circumstances. All the ships officers put in solid performances, particularly as their characters develop - starting out as inexperienced recruits and being trained up to responsible officers as they get used to the way of life in the Navy and of the attitude needed to cope through war.The film touches on other areas. Comedy is offered in amusing turns of dialogue which wouldn't seem out of place in films made today. Equally, some time is given to romance, between an onshore Officer (played by Virginia McKenna) and a seaman on board. And of course, being a war film, there are a fair few explosions and plenty of tense, thrilling moments.The Cruel Sea uses its 2-hour running length brilliantly, giving just the right time to cover each aspect of war. None of the scenes overstay their welcome. A memorable and important part for me is the opening, especially with the voice-over of Jack Hawkins. It sets the tone of the film perfectly.This is by far one of the better war films I have seen. It is entertaining as you watch and thought-provoking afterwards. A must-watch if you liked Das Boot.

The Cruel Sea, produced in the depth of rationing and cuts, was the first adult-themed film I saw, being taken to it by an aunt when I was around ten. It was a re-showing, rare in those days – 1956 or so, and the chap on the till tried to stop my aunt bringing me in as it was an A, so I needed to be 15 or so. She said that the film was about 'his five dead uncles.' We were allowed in.My father was one of eight brothers, just three of whom survived the war. Of the five, one was killed in the bombing of Portsmouth, the other four torpedoed, two on the same day in two different RN ships. The Cruel Sea has, therefore, a deep meaning for me. My aunt, then a widow, her husband being killed in the first two months of WWII, cried during the film, the only overt sign of emotion I ever saw in her.None of my family rejoiced in the war, or mentioned bravery or heroes. One uncle who survived, despite volunteering for fuel tankers to get extra money, was on the Atlantic convoys. He slept on deck regardless of weather, too terrified of being caught below and burnt to death.He saw a vessel hit by a torpedo. It caught fire, silhouetting his ship against the flames. He said he still, 15/20 years later, felt guilty that all he did was pray that they wouldn't stop for survivors.The film encapsulates the attitude of those I met post war. There was nothing gung-ho about what they did. They were frightened, put upon, and crippled. They saw their friends being killed, burned and drowned. This film shows some of that. No trumpets for the sailors. They just returned to bombed out homes and a struggle to find loved ones.The cast do their bit wonderfully. They are tired, bitchy, irritated and irritating. They are frightened. They are people like you and me in extraordinary circumstances. What is remarkable is that they were, in the most sensible meaning of the term, heroes.My family were violently anti-war. Every one of my father's sisters lost a husband or boyfriend during the two world wars. Most were in the navy. One, aunty Enid, married in 1940, was parted the next day and within the year she got was a visit from the navy. This film shows part of the agony that families and individuals went through. Watch it an wonder what you would do in similar circumstances. Would you be the one who opted out for the lecture circuit? Who could blame you.A chilling film, especially if you realise that we've learnt nothing from the horror. We still go to war, we still sing patriotic songs, we still call those who kill foreigners heroes.I've become my aunt. I cried at times during the film and so should we all.

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.