Below

Below
by David Twohy

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DVD Reviews of Below

DVD Review: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Summary: 4 Stars

So wrote Coleridge of the Ancient Mariner who; for his sin of killing the Albatross, the `pious bird of good omen', was doomed to sail a ship haunted by its dead crew until his penance was done and his sins expunged.

And for the officers of the USS Tiger Shark on war patrol in the eastern Atlantic their sins were many. On a pitch black night the officers on duty sight a target which, from their recognition manuals, is identified as a German submarine tender. They stalk her silently and using a bow shot put a torpedo into her hull that sinks her with one hit. The crew listens to the sounds of the ship breaking up and to confirm their sinking they surface for visual identification. Four officers go on deck and to their horror discover that the ship is in fact a British hospital ship (sin 1). The Captain, realising the error, tries to save survivors but the two officers who initiated the attack also realise that they will face a board of enquiry with a probable court martial and their careers will be ruined. In a moment of panic they try to stop the Captain and during the altercation the Captain goes overboard and is lost at sea (sin 2). With the Executive Officer (Bryce) now in command the boat submerges and leaves the struggling survivors to their fate (sin 3). And, as every affectionado of the haunted house film genre knows, they're not going to get away with it!

But there is an ironic twist of fate.

A patrolling British Catalina sights the survivors and sends a distress message which is relayed to the nearest rescue vessel - the thrice-cursed USS Tiger Shark. She searches and locates a single lifeboat with three people onboard but, as they manoeuvre to pick them up, an enemy destroyer is sighted bearing down on them. It goes without saying that the Germans are not in a good mood.

Thus is the stage set for a really nice piece of cross-genre film work. A WWII submarine movie of the `Run Silent, Run Deep' kind, combined with the haunted house scenario seems an unlikely marriage, but the director manages to pull it off with finesse.

What is impressive about David Twohy's directorial style is his economy of scenes as he takes the audience on his journey: simply, elegantly and spookily. Take the scene just mentioned - a destroyer is thundering towards the sub while they have to stop and pick up survivors. Twohy doesn't even bother to show this scene played out, it starts with the Captain ordering flank speed, the next scene is the survivors coming through the hatchway - that's it, no superfluous storytelling, no extra bits, just wham! end of scene. The director knows his audience and that they will understand what has happened and because he has bigger and scarier fish to fry, why dwell on an inconsequential event.

Twohy has managed to create some elegant iconograhy. Watch for: the sub being depthcharged and the one drum which falls quietly and gracefully onto its target, tumbling slowly end over end along the length of the sub, bouncing over hatches and railings until it falls over the side. With each tumble, the camera follows it along inside the pressure hull as the submariners, waiting for the detonation, listen in silent agony to each clang of the canister as it dances along the deck. Watch for: the grappling hooks as they scour through the water to rake the subs hull. There is something very deeply sinister about the German tormentors above, all that is known about them is that they are unseen, unforgiving and unrelenting. Watch for: the incident in the battery room, a scene handled with silent shock. Watch for: the rumour that a female survivor is onboard the submarine and see how it travels down the length of the boat. Really pretty stuff.

The script manages to get an even balance of action, ghostly apparitions and hand wringing nervousness without laboring too hard. Action sequences sound authentic with the crew seeming to know how to run a submarine and the props all look genuine. Additionally there are some nice plot moments: what is the meaning of the book that falls open on the deck; why is there a blank page in the boats' log; why does the phonograph play a certain song? Special effects are great stuff with the CG work of particular note (check out the Catalina in the opening sequences). The actors work well to get the story underway and maintain the inertia in the plot, with special credit going to Mr Bryce, the default Captain, who realises his ultimate fate and what must be done to rid the boat of his Albatross.

The story concept needs a bit of explanation since at first glance it looks like a giant plot hole. Were hospital ships ever sunk during wartime? In fact they were and one of the most famous examples was the Britannic, sister ship of the Titanic. Lost in the Aegean Sea in WW I it was believed sunk by a German U-Boat, although it was probably mined rather than torpedoed. One of the Britannic's survivors, a nurse, was actually a survivor of the Titanic (if I were this lady, after the Titanic bit I would never have gone near water again - not even to clean my teeth). I must admit that misidentification of a hospital ship at night seems weird since, under the Geneva Convention, they were granted immunity from attack by being painted white overall with green stripes, red crosses and were brilliantly illuminated at night with a row of green lights around the hull. But this is a minor quibble.

In total, the movie is worth a look if the genre appeals. Nice photography, good script, excellent direction and a bizarre story - what else could you ask for.

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