Life aboard a naval vessel during World War II proves difficult for its inexperienced crew in this Oscar nominated British drama. The film principally pivots around the ship's captain, played by Jack Hawkins, and the hard decisions he has to make, however, the film is jam-packed with subplots and various supporting characters take centre light throughout. To this end, the film is structured in a highly episodic manner that sometimes proves distancing as the film feels like a bunch of loosely related stories clustered together rather than a cohesive whole. The sporadic nature of the voice-over narration is distracting too. That said, all the subplots offer potent side tales, the best of which has a very young Denholm Elliott as a sharp-tongued officer who is gradually revealed to have severe marital problems back home. The film's best acting moments are had by Hawkins though as he stares out to sea and tries to convince himself that all the horrors he is enduring are just normal in war. As one can probably surmise from the title, the sea itself is quite an important 'character' here too; there might be a war raging on, however, the unpredictable sea is capable of interrupting and changing the course of events, or as Hawkins himself says "the only villain is the sea". Quite simply put, this is a vastly different sort of war film to the average Hollywood product out there. The film is unexpectedly philosophical (about the nature of war as well as the sea) and there is refreshingly far more time spent on the characters mulling over the horrors of war than just experiencing them.
Review of The Cruel Sea
