USS Greyhound : La Bataille de l'Atlantique

Greyhound

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Greyhound-720P

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source: Greyhound

I never knew that the Germans have used submarines as "Tanks on the water surface" and fight Destroyers with the tiny machine gun. And so did noone in the whole world. One star for Mr. Hanks, and one star for the 17.5 Dolby surround roundandround noisy fuss 90% of time. Suggestion: Watch "Das Boot" for the real thing

Loved the authenticity and general faithfulness to the technical side of naval warfare. For me, this is a great movie, I love seeing small little details in how the captain commands his vessel, and every crewman doing their job, and quick glances to the CiC trying to keep track of enemy vessels. The movie didn't need to show the crewman following the captain around and repeating every word that Sonar/Radar reports, but it does so and adds a very nice detail that I found to be great, and also helped build the stress and tension everyone was under. My only complaint is that the movie could have been longer. I could definately have watched a 3 hour version of this that took it slower in the style of Das Boot. Other than that, I recommend this movie for anyone that loves the more technical parts of warfare and especially naval vessels.

The biggest problem with this film was Tom Hanks. He is a good actor but over rated and his performance here was terrible. Mind you the screenplay (he wrote)was pretty thin and he did not have that much to do anyway. He kept asking for things from his cabin and I expected him to eventually be sitting in a bath chair smoking a pipe reading Kipling. Which would have been good for the crew as he was an idiot. Mind you not as stupid as the Germans whose tactics seemed to be surface next to the Greyhound in broad daylight and shoot it out. At the end a British Captain after receiving Hanks report said 'unbelievable' and it was. The British Movie The Cruel Sea (1953) had a believable portrayal of the Atlantic War and the effect it had on those who kept watch and fought and died there. It was superbly acted and totally believable. Greyhound was a joke of a film. Not as bad as the laughable U571 but a joke all the same. Perhaps with a none star name and less money spent on explosions and more on an actual script and it might have been half decent.

Funny... reading the other reviews is what encouraged me to write mine. Most of the low scoring reviews complain about poor character development or thin plot lines. We've had 80 years of movies giving us lots of historical detail, real or imaginary characters development and simple or convoluted plot lines from the World War II era. This movie didn't really need a lot of that to tell the story it was trying to tell. If you're paying attention, you can see the characters develop as the story is told. You can see the scared people gather their courage, the dedicated and loyal people that "take one for the team," and the dedicated captain who will change out of his service shoes bloodied from days of constant wear into the slippers that his girl friend gave him as a gift. There are plenty of movies that have tried to give you complex stories with multiple plot lines and lots of character development only to fail and perhaps try to make it up in the form of some action scenes. This movie was never about that. The action is first and foremost what drives it, and you learn about the characters through the course of the events of the action. This movie was great for Apple TV+ but, it probably would not have been as great for a theatrical release.

This movie may not be for everyone, but as a Navy veteran who has stood watch in CIC this movie is very realistic. I loved that there wasn't a lot of back story. It was more about how lonely and arduous the job of a Navy captain is. Must watch!