Tom Hanks' new convoy war movie: Greyhound

[Onkel Neal]

Since AppleTV won't work on my 2020 Sony TV, I went ahead and signed up using the free trial and watched Greyhound on my PC. It would have been far more rewarding on the big screen or my 85" TV, but I just finished reading The Good Shepard and I wanted to see how they compare.

The book: very good, virtually a manual on sub hunting and detection. The protagonist Captain Krause is a 1950's man, tough and all business. He has doubts and uncertainty but he keeps them to himself. The book does a good job of illustrating how every second matters, how the captain is responsible for not only his ship but the whole convoy and the lives of the men on the other 40 or so ships. Krause has some reflections on his failed marriage but is not a bitter, hard-drinking crybaby trope. He has his duty and that's what matters. He's a man like men used to be. He sustains his watch for over 50 hours, making numerous decisions that prove crucial for the mission of getting the convoy across the Mid-Atlantic gap. I highly recommend this book.

The film follows the tone and structure of the book closely. It begins and within 3 minutes the action starts. A wolfpack is detected on radar and with his limited resources Captain Krause has to decide which contacts to pursue and how much of the convoy to leave unprotected. Tom Hanks plays Krause with very little surface emotion but is successful in convey some of the neophyte convoy leader's underlying emotions. Tom Hanks, ladies and gentlemen. I found the subtextual gay undercurrent between the captain and the sassy mess steward interesting. Few of the other characters are more than faces, cogs in the machine which makes perfect sense in the context of this film.

The U-boats behave realistically. They come to the surface when out of view of the convoy to take advantage of their superior surface speed and maneuverability. The scene in the trailer where the U-boat is slugging it out on the surface is valid, for reasons the movie suggests. There's a bit of Hollywood in some scenes, such as the outsized conning tower logos and seeing four U-boats surface within 100m of each other, done no doubt for dramatic effect. And possibly some scenes were constructed to have the U-boats and convoy appear in the same shots. I found not having lookouts on the bridge odd.

Overall the elements of U-boat warfare of accurate and engrossing. Uncertain radar pips, technical issues, sonar limitations, pillenwerfers, confusion, friendly fire, and simply the physical aspects of escorts, merchants, and U-boats are all very satisfyingly portrayed.

One glaring exception is the intercepted radio transmissions the Greyhound picks up from a taunting U-boat commander. Now sure, there may have been some insane U-boat captains who would use the radio to give away their position solely to taunt the enemy but to howl like a wolf? That's cartoon crazy but fits in with 2020 movie audiences, so ok, whatever.

The movie is structured a lot like the Mad Max movie Fury Road, relentless, hurtling forward. The sound effects and scoring underpin the action. There's a special U-boat sound that seems evil and dastardly every time a boat appears thrusting through the waves.

I would definitely recommend seeing Greyhound, if you can get Apple TV to cooperate with your large screen TV, it's a tense and exciting movie that mostly gets the details spot on.

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U-boat between burning ship and Tom Hanks



U-boat on the surface really close to enemy ships


Desperate grey wolf in a fight with an escort

[bobdoane]

I agree with Onkel Neal’s review of “Greyhound” as a piece of very entertaining fiction. It was a very good movie. However, I would like to point out some inaccuracies/inconsistencies that mildly disturbed me while watching.
1). Fletcher class destroyers did serve in the Atlantic albeit in very small numbers. But very few did convoy duty. They basically served as fleet/heavy warship escorts. The probable ship referenced in C. S. Forester’s excellent book would be a smaller DD, such as a Bagley or Gleaves class ship.
2). The “Greyhound” (as depicted) was armed with quad mount 40 mm Oerlikon aa guns athwart the after funnel. These mounts were added specifically to combat the kamikaze threat in the Pacific and did not appear until the late summer or early fall of 1944. However, the time frame for the book and the movie appears to be late 1942 to early 1943 (obvious winter weather). By late 1943 there were far more escorts, including D. E.s and escort carriers, and the u-boat menace was waning. Many historians state that the u-boat war had been won by late’43 (I’m not sure I agree, but it was far more dangerous to be a u-boat sailor by then). This is an anachronism and since the ship is a CGI construct really should have been caught and corrected.
3). Early in the film Krause orders a speed of 30 knots, which is very unlikely given the sea state depicted. The ship’s screws would have spent 20 to 30% of their time out of the water. This is almost excusable but then when he wants to begin the sonar search, he orders a speed of 22 knots. Even if the sea state had been calm, this would have been way too fast to get reliable return echoes on the sonar sets of the time. The best probable speed would be about 12 knots.
These glitches did not invalidate a very good film but it does mean the “details” weren’t quite there. I noticed some other questionable items, such as the German torpedo grazing the side (bilge keel?) of the ship without exploding. But I’m not an expert on the “touchiness” of German torpedo exploders.
My opinion is that the flaws of this film should have been caught by a competent technical/historical adviser. But the film is no less entertaining because of them. In actuality, I feel there were far fewer technical/historical issues than most other “great” Hollywood war films I have seen and as an amateur historian, I’ve seen most of them.
By the way, Forester spent quite a bit of time on U. S. and U. K. ships (merchant and warships) during the war doing research for his writing. His writing has always been very highly critically acclaimed and was especially popular right after the war. “The Good Shepherd” was serialized in “Life” magazine in the early ‘50s I think, but I’m not sure exactly when.
Thanks very much for the review.

[Aktungbby]

bobdoane!

[Jimbuna]

Welcome to SubSim bobdoane

Great first post

[bobdoane]

Thanks. I've been a reader for years, but this is the first time I felt I had something I could contribute. I really enjoy this site and visit daily. Keep up the great work.

[mapuc]

I must say I was..can't find the word...when I read bobdoane analyse of the movie versus reality.

As I have mentioned earlier in this thread...people want action not historical correctness.. and this is what Hollywood give.

Those of you who has knowledge in ASW and ASUW around WWII have to disengage it and just enjoy the action in the movie

Markus

[Onkel Neal]

Originally Posted by bobdoane

Early in the film Krause orders a speed of 30 knots, which is very unlikely given the sea state depicted. The ship’s screws would have spent 20 to 30% of their time out of the water. This is almost excusable but then when he wants to begin the sonar search, he orders a speed of 22 knots. Even if the sea state had been calm, this would have been way too fast to get reliable return echoes on the sonar sets of the time. The best probable speed would be about 12 knots.

Yeah, I caught that too. I was puzzled, because in the book it does list 12 knots as the fastest active sonar speed. Wonder why they changed that for the movie...?

[Macgregor the Hammer]

My first impressions of the 'Greyhound' trailer is a little too much CGI. I'm probably going to have to wait for the DVD or one of the movie channels to see it.

New movie ideas:
One of the David Poyer novels
The Bedford Incident with a serious haircut.
One of the 'Destroyermen' series by Taylor Anderson.
Run Silent, Run Deep that tracks the book better. The movie was a Gable-Lancaster vehicle.
One of P. T. Deutermann novels.
A well written movie about O'Kane or Morton

The 'Untouchables':
Das Boot
The enemy below
Destination Tokyo

Just a thought

[mapuc]

The Bedford Incident with Richard Widmark and Sidney Poitier was released in 1965. It was one of the first war movie/cold war movie I saw

Or you already knew it has been filmed ?

Markus

[Pri3n47]

The movie is really pleasurable to watch, constant action, etc... That's why I like it, but it's totally unrealistic in my opinion. Which u-boat commander would behave like this in real life!? He wouldn't survive too long

[Jimbuna]

Had an afternoon to myself so watched it again and I'll readily admit the more I see it the more I like it.

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

To each there own I suppose.

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

Had an afternoon to myself so watched it again and I'll readily admit the more I see it the more I like it.

To each their own I suppose. As I pointed out in my meager critique post (#151): I go to movies to be entertained-and was; and Das Boot and The Enemy Below need not worry...really, only the radio harassment by kaleuns was most flawed...they should have used an Axis Sally or Lord Haw Haw for that
Implausible scenario. I'll watch it again I'm sure.

[FireDragon76]

Good movie, but obviously dramatized. An elegy to the War in the Atlantic for the Playstation Generation.


I think Tom Hank's age really helped him in this role and didn't really detract (people now days just look younger), but I think his best work was in depicting Mr. Roger's. His acting here is just perfunctory.