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Three favorite seafaring movies

Top 3, huh? Could be tough to narrow down.

1. Top spot goes to Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. Peter Weir is an absolute master of his craft, and it's hard to find a better period naval piece that's as entertaining as this film.

2. Perhaps not a popular pick, but I'm partial to White Squall. It was Ridley Scott a decade before he started to suck and an interesting "based on a true story" kind of tale about building comaraderie out at sea.

3. This is a tough one. Could be Das Boot, All is Lost, even Down Periscope (a much underappreciated comedy), but the one I keep going back to most often these days Noryang: Deadly Sea. It's the third film of an anthology about Admrial Yi Sunsin of Korea. The battle is epic, the history is more on point than its other predecessors, and its a good story about the fragility of wartime collaboration.

Dishonorable Mention/Guilty Pleasure: Battleship. They might as well have called it USS Iowa vs. Aliens. Dumber than a Michael Bay film, but just try to tell me it doesn't sound like fun.
 
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Na Daeyong's Apprentice said:
Top 3, huh? Could be tough to narrow down.

1. Top spot goes to Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. Peter Weir is an absolute master of his craft, and it's hard to find a better period naval piece that's as entertaining as this film.

2. Perhaps not a popular pick, but I'm partial to White Squall. It was Ridley Scott a decade before he started to suck and an interesting "based on a true story" kind of tale about building comaraderie out at sea.

3. This is a tough one. Could be Das Boot, All is Lost, even Down Periscope (a much underappreciated comedy), but the one I keep going back to most often these days Noryang: Deadly Sea. It's the third film of an anthology about Admrial Yi Sunsin of Korea. The battle is epic, the history is more on point than its other predecessors, and its a good story about the fragility of wartime collaboration.

Dishonorable Mention/Guilty Pleasure: Battleship. They might as well have called it USS Iowa vs. Aliens. Dumber than a Michael Bay film, but just try to tell me it doesn't sound like fun.
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Some more movies to dd to my watch list.
 
Master and Commander is a classic example of cherry picking. The series of 21 books is well worth reading. If one takes the time and trouble, it is, in my opinion, better than the Hornblower series,which is simply terrific. The author of the books takes his time and gets it right. There are other characters including highly interesting females that make it excellent and much more interesting than what is presented in the film. The books ought to be presented in a TV series. NETFLIX could get it right.
 
I remember seeing the River Platte Movie back when it came out. The great thing about for viewers is they used sctual warships. I believe that a US Navy cruiser played the part of the Graf Spey.

Roger
 
The best war movies were made in the 1950s, 1960s, and early 70s because they blended command level actions with what was happening on "the ground" (men acting out their orders). They also injected adventure, totally lacking today. Much better screenwriting and character development then as well.
 
tball4217 said:
well they make more reliable submarines then england can.. so there is that on their end.

And nuclear technology is not that hard,, even russia got it right now and then.
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I heard somewhere that a guest Soviet nuclear submarine visited USA sometime in the 1970s. The USA naval officers taking a tour of the boat found out later they had been exposed to dangerous levels of radiation and were pissed. Leaky reactor.
 
I am surprised no movie company ever made an adventure film about the trapping of SMS Konigsberg in East Africa by the British. The story is full of suspense, grit, nearly unsolvable problems, and determination on both sides. While stranded, the ingenious Germans used their ship's shop to build gun carriages for their naval guns, one of which i saw at South Africa's parliament building in 2010, see pic below. The Germans made land artillery of these guns and got them offloaded before their ship was bombarded to pieces. They were used on land against the British for the rest of the war.

Byron Farwell wrote up this absorbing story in his book about the war in East Africa

Here is a summary of the incident...
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"The reference to a "cornered" German ship in East Africa during World War I likely points to the SMS Königsberg, which was trapped in the Rufiji River delta. After sinking the British cruiser HMS Pegasus in Zanzibar harbor, the Königsberg retreated into the delta to hide and repair, where it was cornered by British warships. British monitors, the HMS Severn and HMS Mersey, eventually bombarded and destroyed the Königsberg in July 1915, forcing its crew to scuttle the ship."

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A major reason why I like Away All Boats is the Captain’s sailboat. The Captain, who is suffering from PTSD after losing a previous command during the Guadalcanal Campaign orders the ship’s carpenter to build him a sailboat. He sails this boat at fleet anchorages to relax between invasions.

The boat is built from plans in a Rudder Magazine and the movie producers use a Thistle Class sailboat. My father and I built a Thistle Class sailboat during my high school years and I sailed it for 10 years. I sold it when accepting a job in a landlocked location.

It would have been impossible for the ship’s carpenter to build that particular boat as wooden Thistles featured moulded plywood hulls. These were made by laying up layers of thin mahogany over a form; the layup then cured under pressure in an autoclave. In my case we bought a kit; the starting point being the moulded shell.

Anyhow, these wooden Thistles, still competitive racing against their fiberglass sisters, are beautiful boats as the movie shows.

Roger
 
Kurt Konrath said:
I love rewatching all the old B&W WWII based navy movies, Away All Boats is a favorite, and I like the ending where Captain says "children help your mother" and the Exec figures it out.
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Roger Pellett said:
A major reason why I like Away All Boats is the Captain’s sailboat.
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Time to watch this movie again, it must be 60 years since I last watched it. Thanks for bringing this one to light gentlemen.
Allan
 
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