Sink the Bismarck!
Directed by Lewis Gilbert
Written by Edmund H. North from a book by C.S. Forrester
1960/UK/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
First viewing/YouTube
[box] Edward R. Murrow: This is London, Ed Murrow reporting. This island, which is no stranger to bad tiding, received news today that HMS Hood largest warship in the British fleet and pride of the British navy, has been sunk by the German battleship Bismarck. From the Hood’s compliment of 1500 men, there were three survivors.[/box]
This WWII sea battle epic could have been so much more compelling than it was.
This true story was changed by inserting the fictional character of Captain Shepard (Kenneth More) in place of the actual line officer in charge of the effort to sink the Bismark. The Bismarck was the pride of Germany’s fleet. Her builders and officers believed her to be unsinkable. As the movie begins, she is seen to be preparing to break out into the North Atlantic to wreak havoc on British supply lines.
The story details the long and perilous effort to put the Bismarck out of commission. Between battles, we follow the saga of Captain Shepard, who has become cold and all-business since the death of his wife in the Blitz. Aide Anne Davis (Dana Wynter) offers him unwanted sympathy. But the captain is forced to care again when his RAF pilot son in dragged into the battle.
The real drama in this movie comes from the troubles of Captain Shepard whereas the actual naval campaign should have been more than enough excitement for one film. We get a lot of special effects but no real tension. The film was OK but never really grabbed me.
Trailer
Lots of ironical links here…..The day of the battleship had passed though most didn’t know it. The modern Bismark was bought to heel by torpedo attacks from a carrier borne biplane that was pretty much obsolete at this stage. The British used the same biplane to batter the Italian fleet at harbour at Taranto. (The Japanese may have noted that attack while setting up the Pearl Harbour attack where they sank battleships but missed the carriers allowing the US to finagle a policy of aggression in 1942 despite Pearl). The Germans constructed a sister battleship to Bismark, Tirpitz, eventually destroyed by air attack.
The Japanese, like the Germans, also poured scarce assets into 2 super battleships – Yamato and Musahi, both of which were lost to air attack – there was to be third ship but its design was changed to a carrier.
All 4 vessels had little real impact on the course of the war, their day was done.
(getting back to film) Though sunk, Yamato has lived on in the Japanese psyche and, reraised and refitted as an outer space battleship (no, there’s no typo here LOL), became the prime defensive and offensive weapon against alien attack in a scad of highly successful and influential anime series and movies in the 70’s & 80’s. That collection was rebooted as a live action feature in Space Battleship Yamato (2010) and has also been remade as animated features starting in 2012 and ongoing as I type this.
The tragic last voyage of the Yamato was filmed as the high budget (for Japan) movie Otoko-tachi no Yamato (2005).
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0451845/
Interesting stuff! I’m sure you could have made a better movie of it than Sink the Bismark!
Thanks for the complement, all 4 ships have fascinating backstories, all tragically wasted. Bismark was the only one to actually have a genuine fighting career. The British chased Tirpitz all over the place as the Germans tried to frantically hide her away in Norway and a classic movie involving one of the more well known attempts to sink her that I’d forgotten and that you may know of. See Above Us the Waves (1955) – IMDb
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047797/?ref_=tttr_tr_tt
And to continue the theme of Maritime disaster (and songs that you may not have heard but that IMHO are dashed good) a real life sinking on the Great Lakes. This one is just too good for words, grabs me every time I hear it.
I had forgotten The Edmund Fitzgerald. Love that song! I’ll have to keep an eye out for Above Us the Waves. I tend to like anything with John Mills.