1,200th Post: Western Approaches (1944)

 

            This is my 1,200^th post.  Since this is a special one,  I decided to review a special movie.  Since I started this blog, I have reviewed over 1,000 movies and still have dozens on my “to be watched” list.  I am constantly amazed at how many war movies there are.  You would think at this time there would be no war movie that would strike me as different.  But just recently I watched a movie about a gremlin on a bomber and another about plastic soldiers on a mission in Germany in WWII.  There are still unique war movies that I have not seen.  Like a movie that had no professional actors in it.

            “Western Approaches” is a docudrama dedicated to the Merchant Marine in the Battle of the Atlantic.  It was written, edited, and directed by Pat Jackson.  He made it for the Ministry of Information.  He used actual sailors. No professional actors were used.  It was filmed in the Irish Sea.  The lifeboat sequence took six months to film.  The film was a hit in Great Britain, but was not shown in America because the Hays Office banned it for “mild profanity”.  Americans first saw it in 1949 when it appeared on TV.   

            The movie begins with some men in a lifeboat.  They don’t seem to be worried and sing a song (the first of four).  Footage is shown of men loading ships.  The shipwrecked men discuss the rules of convoy sailing and advice on how to avoid what happened to them.  The movie intercuts from the lifeboat to a convoy.  After a couple of weeks, a merchant ship picks up their signal and sails to the rescue.  Unfortunately, a u-boat has spotted them and decides to stick around and wait for any rescue ship.  The movie now introduces another intercut thread as we see the inner workings of the submarine.  The men in the boat discover the lurking sub and try to warn the rescuers.  The intercutting between the lifeboat, the rescuing ship, and the u-boat is effective.  The meeting of the three makes for an exciting conclusion.  It is rare to see a gun duel between a cargo ship and a u-boat.  Enjoy!

            “Western Approaches” is a worthy addition to the Battle of the Atlantic movies.  The most recent is “Greyhound" which has the most famous actor in the world in it.  This movie is as far from that as possible.  It has no Hanks, and in fact is all amateurs.  It shows, but not in a distracting way.  The men don’t embarrass themselves.  They don’t get much chance to because the lifeboat experience is not hellacious.  They don’t seem to have a food or water problem, although the movie shows no supplies.  So the lifeboat experience is not realistic.  There is no dysfunction among the men which may be realistic for shipmates,  The movie is an homage to the Merchant Marine, but it does not do justice to the hardships of an Atlantic crossing.  The Western Approaches was a section of the ocean that was the most dangerous for u-boat attacks.  Not to mention the terrible weather that was bad enough when you were on a ship, much less in a lifeboat.  “Greyhound” focuses on a escort ship and they deserve recognition for the job they did in fighting wolfpacks of German u-boats.  It was a dangerous and frustrating job.  The movie does not cover the sheep they were herding other than showing some of them getting sunk.  “Western Approaches” shows the sheep.  Keep in mind that being in the Merchant Marine was voluntary and the men risked their lives on sitting ducks.  Many merchant ships were sunk even in protected convoys.  Going in the water was usually fatal, but even in a lifeboat your chances were low.  The movie does a good job of showing that rescuing a lifeboat could get your ship torpedoed.  Should a merchant ship risk it to rescue other merchantmen?

            “Western Approaches” is a forgotten gem.  In my opinion, it is better than its closest relative - “Action in the North Atlantic”.  That movie had the most famous actor of that time, Humphrey Bogart.  The amateurs in “Western Approaches” don’t hold a candle to Bogey, but the script they have to work from is superior.  It is also superior to the much more melodramatic Hitchcock movie “Lifeboat”.  You want dysfunction, watch that movie.  A cast of fine actors directed by one of greatest directors.  And yet, I’ll take a movie with no actors directed by a little known director.

GRADE  =  B