Very Cool!!!

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

For better or worse, THE FROGMEN is a straightforward wartime thriller from our American cousins. As with most WW2 movies, it's based on true stories. The heroes are a bunch of underwater explosives experts whose job is to sail close to Japanese fortifications, jump into the water, set bombs and timers, and then escape before everything blows up.It's not a subject matter I had much knowledge of despite being a war buff, so this film interested me. It's a well made little picture with some good actors butting heads and a series of action sequences which are well shot and resolutely suspenseful. The film seems to gather momentum as it progresses and the situations become more life and death, the stakes raising every second.Richard Widmark and Dana Andrews, both looking youthful, are well cast as the officer and his second in command who spend most of the screen time. Robert Wagner is listed in support but don't bother trying to spot him. While I imagine THE FROGMEN will be become a fairly forgettable film as time passes since I saw it, it's hard to say that it puts a foot wrong regardless.

Lloyd Bacon directs this World War II drama with Richard Widmark in the lead role as Lt. Commander John Lawrence, who must earn the respect of a group of underwater demolition divers. The strict hard nosed Lawrence is replacing a popular senior officer that was very close to his men. He does manage to tighten up the already tight, but independently brave underwater warriors.Exceptional photography with a well rounded cast to support Widmark. Also featured are veterans and fresh faces like: Gary Merrill, Jeffrey Hunter, Dana Andrews, JackWarden, Robert Wagner, James Gregory and Harvey Lembeck.

My dad used to tell us stories about the film every time it came on - he was in UDT Platoon 2 on TDY from Korea and got to spend part of his rotation for R&R doing the film with his team. They did all the underwater work, the scenes with the landing craft picking up the team from the water, and they set the satchel charges for the shot when they blow up the beach obstacles prior to the landing.He also used to to tell stories about Dana Andrews and his drinking during the filming, but that is another story. It is a good movie and, from Dad's and the UDT's perspective, had some BS in it - but relatively accurate overall.In Korea, his team was assigned to swim in from off-shore and go inland to blow up installations, bridges, etc. overrun by the North Koreans/Chinese. They had to swim their stuff in from miles offshore, hump the explosives inland (armed with a knife and a pistol - Dad said he used a .38 because he couldn't hit much of anything over 30 yards away with a .45), blow up the objective then make it back out. Of course, things were even MORE primitive for the combat swimmers of WWII!

Pity 'The Frogmen' isn't yet on DVD. It features the techniques developed and applied by WWII's U.S. Navy UDT (Underwater Demolition Teams), many of which techniques formed the basis for the methods employed by today's SEAL teams - and the UDT's did their bit with rebreather rigs that weren't nearly as sophisticated or reliable as today's high-tech SCUBA and rebreather gear. The UDT's were pioneers on the cutting edge of their mission, an edge the likes of which will not likely be seen again.A standard plot is redeemed by fine performances from all, and by exciting action sequences that have not dated as much as one might suspect they would have by 2003.