THE CRUEL SEA On Blu-ray From Kino

 

THE CRUEL SEA is a 1953 WWII film from England's famed Ealing Studios, based on a novel by Nicholas Monsarrat, with a screenplay by Eric Ambler and direction by Charles Frend. 

The movie details the wartime experiences of one Captain Ericson (Jack Hawkins). Ericson was a merchant ship captain before the war broke out, and he now finds himself in the British Royal Navy, in charge of a corvette named the Compass Rose. The ship is assigned to convoy escort duties, and as Ericson and his inexperienced crew get to know one another, they also learn how to deal with the frustrations and the ever present danger of sailing in the rough seas of the North Atlantic. As the war goes on Ericson forms a strong bond with his First Officer Lockhart (Donald Sinden), and the two men face all sorts of daunting experiences before they can finally go home. 

I had never seen THE CRUEL SEA before, but I was very much aware of its reputation as one of those great British WWII films that take a more realistic and nuanced approach to the conflict. There are no John Wayne-Errol Flynn types in this film--Captain Ericson is a competent and resolute commander, but he's also a human being, a man with fears and emotions just like everyone else. The crew is made up of various types and personalities, but they all come off as real people instead of contrived characters. The men serving aboard Compass Rose are not larger-than-life fighting machines, they're just trying to do their jobs to the best of their ability while hoping they survive the war. There are no over-the-top speeches about battling tyranny or flashy action sequences. 

The narrative style of THE CRUEL SEA is much different than American WWII films. The incidents in this movie have a sort of randomness to them, just like in real life. There's suspenseful sequences, but there's also plenty of scenes showing how monotonous life onboard a convoy escort ship can be, despite the fact that the vessel can be blown out of the water at any time without warning. The German U-Boats that Ericson battles against are almost never encountered. 

Jack Hawkins is excellent as Captain Ericson, and he's backed by a fine cast of British acting talent, including Donald Sinden, Denholm Elliott, and Stanley Baker in a small role. Charles Frend moves the story along in an efficient, understated manner, but he whips the tension up during the important moments, and like Terence Fisher, he knows how to get maximum impact from a close-up. 

Kino's Region A Blu-ray of THE CRUEL SEA presents the film uncut, with a 1.37:1 aspect ratio. The black and white visuals are not outstanding looking, but overall the print is very good. 

The disc's extras include an interview with actor Donald Sinden, which lasts around 30 minutes (it appears to have been recorded sometime in the early 2000s). He talks about his experiences during the production of THE CRUEL SEA. A new audio commentary by Simon Abrams is included. It's an unevenly paced talk, and Abrams spends a lot of time reading entire passages from the novel the movie is based on. There are also a few trailers from other war movies released on home video by Kino, including one for THE CRUEL SEA. 

This film impressed me a great deal, but I expected it would, considering the studio behind it and the people involved in it. THE CRUEL SEA deserves to be on the list of great movies about World War II.