“ Oscar-worthy Tom Hanks
performance Greyhound- a World War II destroyer –
where he must steer it to the limits of its functional possibility to survive
the battle against Nazi submarines.”
It’s early WWII
action in the North Atlantic, with Tom Hanks tackling the role of Captain Ernest Krause, a
Navy career officer. On his first wartime mission as
commander of the USS Keeling (call sign: Greyhound), Captain must lead a convoy
of 37 Allied ships carrying soldiers and supplies across the Atlantic. For five
days, the ships must make it past a treacherous stretch of water (ominously
named the Black Pit) on their own, as it is beyond the range of air support.
Hiding beneath the waters are German submarines waiting to torpedo this supply line
between the United States and Europe. Hanks is shit out of luck on a ship out
of luck.His vessel: the USS
Keeling, a Fletcher-class destroyer with the codename Greyhound. Krause’s
mission is escorting and protecting an Allied convoy of 37 troop and supply
ships that must dodge a wolf pack of German U-boats to reach its destination in
Liverpool. That requires crossing the notoriously dangerous “Black Pit,” a
stretch of ocean so remote that it can’t be protected by air cover for these
two days of travel time. Directed with diligence but little flair by Aaron
Schneider, this tension-on-the-high-seas drama covers those 50 desperate hours.
Hanks, who also wrote the screenplay,
loves this kindof authentic military adventure. Here’s the thing: Greyhound isn’t factual. It was dreamed up
by C.S. Forester for his 1955 novel, The Good Shepherd. But
the Battle of the Atlantic, which ran from 1939 till the Nazi defeat in 1945?
That was real as hell. All of which is admirable, as far as it goes from the
movie’s noble intentions, but from the
stodgy manner in which they play out. Set in February of 1942, the film feels
like it could have been made that same year. Hanks, portraying a man of
faith on the verge of losing faith in himself, is the one element in the film
that raises the bar.
As German subs start picking off his ships — the outwardly exciting scenes of mortar fire and torpedo ducking are hobbled by some crudely obvious CGI — Krause feels the weight of his inexperience. On the radio, the voice of a German officer (Thomas Kretschmann) spews out threats (“You vill die toda-ayyy”). But if Krause is rattled, he purposely doesn’t show it. Through subtle shifts in posture and vocal inflection, Hanks reveals the emotional toll his insecurities are taking on his command and his own increasingly fragile ego.
The set built on a decommissioned WWII-era destroyer gives a sense of authenticity to the claustrophobic drama that unfolds on the Greyhound. There is as much heart-stopping tension in listening to sonar pulses inside the ship as watching the torpedoes head towards it. The live-action aboard the ship however doesn't always blend with the CGI battle sequences with seamless precision, taking away some of their hair-trigger intensity.
The submarines go deep but the characters stay flat afloat —
and Greyhound does not quite serve the Dunkirk-like
immersive war experience to not be bothered by it. An out-of-nowhere flashback
sequence reveals his girlfriend rebuffed his marriage proposal but awaits his
safe return. Graham and Rob Morgan (as messmate Cleveland) pop in and out, but
their minuscule roles do not allow their talents to truly shine through. If the
crew members other than Krause feel voiceless, the Nazis are faceless, embodied
only by the taunting voice of "Grey Wolf," the leader of the U-boat
wolf pack. You cannot help but imagine a Nazi with an eye-patch, the
caricaturish antagonist for our hero to outwit.
With a 90-minute runtime, there is not
of course a lot of room for multiple characters to have internal and external
conflicts. So Schneider sticks to the shallows of the spectacle of war, rather
than plumb any real dramatic depths.
Anyway its exceptional breathtaking experience to watch movie.
- J@ck's REviEW : Full UNJOY
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