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Joined: 1/11/2008 From: Brussels, Belgium Status: offline
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ORIGINAL: warspite1 SPOILER ALERT FOR GREYHOUND I watched Greyhound. I was expecting a lot from it – being a fan of Tom Hanks since Volunteers and Splash! – and really enjoying Band of Brothers. It didn’t quite live up to expectations, but I would say I enjoyed it and was glad I saw it. The positives outweighed the negatives definitely. Positives - The greyness of the Atlantic was well borne out - The action scenes were generally good (although they overplayed the close encounters on the surface which did happen but were hardly standard German tactics) - The death of Cleveland was a shocker – a very likeable character - Stephen Graham appears to be an honorary American now - CGI was pretty good (unlike so many aircraft portrayals) – the Fletcher-class and the Flower-class corvette, looked to be sufficiently accurate - Good to see the RN and the RCN were included as well as reference to merchant sailors from other allied nations (through the Greek merchant) Negatives - Of all the names they could have used (Harry was pretty cool) why did they call a British destroyer Eagle?? No!!!!!! - The movement inside the ship didn’t seem to match what the destroyer was doing, battling against the waves, and the sailors should have been battling the elements more – cold, wet and being thrown about - Elisabeth Shue’s part really wasn’t worth turning up for. I mean give her a bit more to do or just decide to do away with her “character” altogether. A waste of 5 minutes or whatever she was on for. - The taunting of the crew by the U-boat commanders….. mmm that was the only bit that really grated. Just no. As far as I know there was no incidence of this and it was all a bit hammy. I just finished watching the movie, and I must confess I was pleasantly surprised, as I had kept my expectations low enough, given Hollywood’s track record... and seeing a Fletcher in April 42 was a bad omen at start. I agree on most of Warspite’s comments, albeit I think the Eagle was a Polish destroyer, not British. And as a non-American, I salute the effort to mention the other co-belligerents, and not a lone token. The taunting by radio is the only thing which really irritated me. The inclusion of Elisabeth Shue was not too invasive, it conferred some human dimension, and served as plot exposition regarding Cdr Krause’s career and first command. I liked the fact the POV was attached to the eponymous ship (and even more on Hanks’ character), but I felt the movie a bit too short, with the action sequences too fast, but there’s been worse on the big screen. But 10-20 minutes more would have allowed to make the tension rise higher between actions. It would have made a perfect counter-point to Das Boot or the numerous other submarine movies. I’ve read the book a long time ago, and I didn’t feel the inner turmoil of Krause or the mood of the crew as well as it ought to. But a movie rarely conveys the same feelings as a good book. Overall, I’m not disappointed. And it made me think of the Hibiki (I might have to dig the forum to recover that, to read it again).
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