Posted on 03/28/2014 9:50:24 PM PDT by rlmorel
Opening in the autumn of 1939 just as the Battle of the Atlantic begins, Lieutenant-Commander George Ericson, a British Merchant Navy and Royal Naval Reserve officer, is recalled to the Royal Navy and given command of HMS Compass Rose, a newly built Flower class corvette intended for convoy escort duties. His sub-lieutenants, Lockhart and Ferraby, are both newly commissioned and without experience at sea.
The new first lieutenant, James Bennett (Stanley Baker), is an abusive martinet. Despite these initial disadvantages, the ship's company gains hard experience and becomes an effective fighting unit. At first their worst enemy is the weather...
Dang, I hope I didn’t sound like I was carping about it, because I didn’t feel like I was.
I began watching the movie late a night or two before, and couldn’t finish it, and when I got through the first nighttime ocean scenes which weren’t very good (I thought) I very nearly didn’t watch the rest of the movie, even though the acting on the sets and the themes were very good.
But, I got home late from work last night, and decided to watch the rest of it. I sure am glad that I did. An excellent portrayal, IMO. There was a lot of naval detail in that movie that I thought would stand up to the dissection of anyone who has ever been on a warship.
Very well done!
Your description of those ships brought to mind one of the most moving and memorable parts of a book that I have ever read.
There was a book about the Chosin Reservoir campaign called “Cold as Hell”, and in the book the author describes when the transport ship (like one of those described) left San Francisco with thousands of Marines on board on a dark night.
The surrounding hills were dotted with lights that gave them a magical look, and the multitude of the people on the dock began singing “Goodnight Irene”, a popular song of the day. Everybody, even those on the ship joined in as the ship pulled away from the dock...
When you hear the song today, you can only imagine how achingly beautiful and poignantly sad that scene must have been. Many of those men never came back.
It was a different time.
It was a marvelous book-—I’ve read it several times over the years.
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I didn't think so........but if you feel the needs to make amends, send me a hundred dollars and you can purge yourself of the guilt........ :)
War and Remembrance, and it's accompanying TV Mini-Series, probably was the best overall chronicle of the horrors of The Holocaust.
Heh, I was born a Catholic, so I have a large reservoir of guilt to expunge!
I just watched “Winds of War” on Netflix for the first time last month.
Loved Robert Mitchum. Perfect for that role.
I’ll have to watch “War and Remembrance”.
War and Remembrance is awesome....but be warned, there are some incredibly brutal scenes, especially for a made-for-TV series.
I have always really enjoyed James Clavell’s stuff. I have read Tai Pan four or five times over the years, and Whirlwind as well. Heck, I just went to look at the list...I have read every one of his novels!
I hated it when I saw Shogun, then later had to hear him expand on it publicly. I can’t even look at it now, darn it. I heard he didn’t go public of his own accord, but a thing known cannot be un-known.
Thanks...
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Had seen (a long time ago) that "The Caine Mutiny" was supposed to be the 'Male' sequel to "Marjorie Morningstar as in the 'coming of age'.
'Caine' took a different 'tack' but still brought out the 'emergence' of Willie Keith as a "MAN".
Anyone who has every 'gotten underway' and was 'old enough' to appreciate the enormity of the situation will 'love' the remark(s):
Ship at sea
One person to another "That sure is a lot of ocean out there"
Response " Yes, but that is just the TOP"
Heh, that sounds like something a Bubblehead would say!
In the same store, my wife and I saw another sign that said:
"Marriage is like a game of cards. When you start out, all you need is two Hearts and a Diamond. By the time you're done, you wish you had a Club and a Spade."
We both fell out when we saw that, and had to buy it...:)
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Yeah, but I was just a 'Bubblehead' Aspirant....
My sinuses 'blew up' in the 105' free ascent in New London, ending a short 'wannabee' career in Submarines.
Just have to stick to my 'Gator' accolades.....
BTW...you should enjoy this....
Quotes and Tidbits Gathered Over Time
http://www.acsu.buffalo.edu/~black/quotes.html
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Quotes and Tidbits Gathered Over Time
Another Brit war movie I would like to see again is The Battle of the River Plate. The Achilles, one of the cruisers in the real fight, had been sold to India but they got hold of the ship to take it’s place in the movie.
USS Salem, now a museum ship, portrayed the Graf Spee.
I mostly watch foreign war movies now.
Probably the best war movie I’ve seen in years is the Russian movie “Brest Fortress.”
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