Morning Departure
by Roy Ward Baker
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DVD details
Actor: Andrew Crawford, John Mills, Michael Brennan, Nigel Patrick, Peter HammondDirector: Roy Ward Baker
Brand: Sony
Cinematographer: Desmond Dickinson
Editor: Alan Osbiston
Producer: Jay Lewis
Writer: Kenneth Woollard
Writer: W.E. Fairchild
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 97 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-05-13
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: United Artists
DVD Reviews of Morning Departure
DVD Review: Not The Hunt For Red October
Summary: 4 Stars
I had not heard of this movie until I saw it on Amazon.com and decided to check it out. i'm glad I did.
This is an outstanding film about a topic that most navies worldwide don't really want to discuss and that is the loss of a submarine. Usually when it happens, it is the catastrophic loss of the boat and all hands ala KURSK, SCORPION, THRESHER etc or recent memory.
This film takes place in the early 1950s and is sandwiched in between two real world submarine disasters suffered by the Royal Navy which was the loss of HM S/Ms TRUCULANT and AFFRAY. The loss of TRUCULENT is addressed in the opening of the movie and the emotional impact it must have had is handled well.
The boat in the movie is out on a routine day run when it encounters an influence mine. It doesn't hit it but is close enough to detonate it with the resultant flooding of most of the boat and its settling on the bottom. She isn't too deep so her people have a chance of escape.
One man, who would have been in the part of the boat that was flooded has been given emergency leave to visit his wife and new son. His good fortune is addressed by one of the survivors - not with envy but as a matter of fact and good fortune.
Eventually the boat is located by surface units and the captain begins the escape routine. Four men at a time can exit the boat. Four leave by the forward escape hatch and a second four go out through the control room. The plan is for the remainder to leave by flooding the remainder of the boat and escaping. However the plan meets a grim fate when it is discovered that the reminaing escape equipment has been damaged in the sinking and is not useable. The last four men have to wait for rescue to come to them.
The salvage ship arrives and shortly makes contact with the four men in the boat. Air lines are attached and it seems that all is well for a quick recovery. Then again, fate intervenes in the form of bad weather which renders the operation of raising the boat difficult and then as it gets worse, it becomes impossible to hold the boat in position so it is released back to the bottom and the salvage ship heads for port to await better weather. Everyone is aware, both above and below the surface that this wait is fatal to the men in the boat and that once resumed the operation will become a salvage operation and not a resuce operation.
John Mills heads a steller cast of characters including a young Richard Attenborough. The scenes and setting are excellent and even the underwater simulations of the boat are well done. However I think one aspect of the film needs be addressed.
At the start of the film there are scenes of domestic life for Mills and Attenborough while the character of the first lieutenant is busy with his rather large social calender. Yet when the boat goes down the coverage is all of the salvage operation and nothing is seen of the women left behind until the last scenes when letters are being left for one of the wives. I know this is a part of navy's submarine life that the wives don't sign up for but I think it would have been important for the wives to be depicted accurately. In this case the two wives shown become widows. Again, not a positive morale building moment but one that should have been addressed.
I speak from experince in the matter of families and submarines as my father, by a quirk of fate and changing operational schedules, missed riding the US submarine THRESHER on her last dive. I saw first hand the reactions of families loosing husbands and sons in the boat. I remember driving onto the base at Groton and seeing one of the cars of the men who was lost with his civilian clothes still hanging on a hook in the back of the car. It was a very trying time for not just those who lost people in the boats but for the men and families of those in other boats. It was a very real demonstration of the hazards of the sea and those who go down to the sea in snhips. Watching this film rekindled those moments in my own mind.
This is a fine film but because of the lack of coverage of the families as the disaster unfolds, I down graded it. Others might not but I think it is a critical part that has been left out.
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Description of Morning Departure
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