Run Silent, Run Deep
Reviewed by: Brett Willis
STAFF WRITER
| Moral Rating: | Better than Average |
| Moviemaking Quality: |
|
| Primary Audience: | Teens Adults |
| Genre: | War Action Drama Adaptation |
| Length: | 1 hr. 33 min. |
| Year of Release: | 1958 |
| USA Release: |
March 27, 1958 |
This film is based on the fictional novel Run Silent Run Deep by Commander Edward L. Beach.
At the request of director Robert Wise, the cast was trained by real submariners so they could authentically depict submariner duty, including being under attack.
The deskbound older commander taking the reins of what was to be the younger commander’s first ship, yet keeping the younger officer on as the Exec, was featured prominently in another Robert Wise film some 20 years later: “Star Trek: The Motion Picture”.
Although at the time of its release the movie was hailed as a fairly realistic portrayal of a submarine life and warfare in World War II, there was some controversy since both Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster were much older than real US Navy captains and lieutenants in wartime. During filming, Clark Gable was 56 years old, and Burt Lancaster was 44. According to some sources, the average age of War II sub commanders was their early 30s.
While it is true that Clark Gable and Burt Lancaster were too old for their characters, realistically all the actors were too old to play the crewmen.
What is the Biblical perspective on war? Answer
War in the Bible
Armies in the Bible
What is DEATH? and WHY does it exist? Answer in the Bible
What is the FINAL JUDGMENT? and WHAT do you need to know about it? Answer
What is ETERNAL LIFE? and what does the Bible say about it?
What is ETERNAL DEATH?
| Featuring |
Clark Gable Burt Lancaster Jack Warden Brad Dexter Don Rickles |
| Director |
Robert Wise |
| Producer |
Harold Hecht Hecht-Hill-Lancaster Productions |
| Distributor |
This WWII Pacific submarine drama, set in 1942 and ’43, is not based on a true story, but on a novel by Capt. Edward Beach, Pres. Eisenhower’s Navy aide. The U.S. Navy supplied the equipment to make the interior shots as authentic as possible. Most of the exterior shots are done with miniatures, but are quite realistic.
Cmdr. Richardson (Clark Gable), who’s been riding a desk at Pearl Harbor, persuades the Navy brass to give him command of the U.S.S. Nerka in an attempt to “get” a destroyer that’s outfoxed and sunk every U.S. sub sent into the Bungo Straits for the past year (including Richardson’s previous boat).
During the patrol there’s tension among the junior officers and the crew, and between Richardson and the XO, Lt. Bledsoe (Burt Lancaster); but Bledsoe won’t hear any talk of mutiny. Richardson has constructed an unusual plan of attack that he believes will give him an advantage. The cast also includes Jack Warden and Don Rickles.
Content: The acting and direction make this one of the better films of its genre. There are a few uses of d* and a*. There are some deaths on the American sub, and several ships are torpedoed. As in many war films of this type, there’s a very fine line between doing one’s duty (eliminating a dangerous enemy) and seeking personal vengeance. The enemy is not personalized and not portrayed as good or bad.
Like most films scripted from a novel, this one departs quite a bit from the original. In the novel, the primary target was not just a destroyer, but a particular Japanese officer known as “Bungo Pete;” Pete laid an even more ingenious trap for American subs than the one shown in the film; and the American captain intended to make sure not only that all of Pete’s vessels were sunk, but also that Pete was dead (no such thing in the film).
The service of burial at sea contains references to the certainty of the Resurrection, when “the sea shall give up its Rev. 20:13).
I recommended this film for war movie fans.
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