Greyhound 2020 trailer 1 - Tom Hanks in a Movie about a Destroyer fighting subs

[ArizonaTank]

Saw it this evening with the wife. We enjoyed it, and it is certainly worth seeing.

The editing does seem rather tight, and the movie clips right along. The action is almost non-stop, and that fact is basically a plot device. Every time Tom Hanks tries to get a bite to eat, the enemy attacks and Tom just never gets to the food. I would have been good with a slightly slower pace.

The movie has some things that felt true. The vast distance that the convoy was stretched out over. The feeling of helplessness as the German wolfpack attacked from several directions at once, while ships in the convoy started to get hit. The rudimentary sonar and tracking tools the destroyers used to find their targets.

There were a few "hollywoodisms" however. These detracted somewhat...the Germans taunting Tom Hanks over the radio several times for example. U-boats that spent too much time surfaced. One even gets into a gun battle with the destroyer. Also, the editing made U-boat attacks seem like a video game almost...fast paced and hot blooded. In reality, a U-boat attack was slow and methodical.

Overall it was pretty entertaining.

[-budd-]

Just finished it. Got to concur with AT on the movie, worth watching and moves along at a fast clip, not much downtime in this movie. The taunting was cheesy, and the uboats getting so close to the destroyers so the guns don't depress enough to be able to fire was a little far fetched.  The movie did make me want to read a good book on the battle of the Atlantic, any suggestions?

[Lotti Fuehrscheim]

The movie did make me want to read a good book on the battle of the Atlantic, any suggestions?

As a schoolboy, I found "The Cruel Sea" in my parents bookshelves. I was very impressed by it. I think it still paints a very valid picture of the theatre.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cruel_Sea_(novel)

[Tripoli]

Just finished it. Got to concur with AT on the movie, worth watching and moves along at a fast clip, not much downtime in this movie. The taunting was cheesy, and the uboats getting so close to the destroyers so the guns don't depress enough to be able to fire was a little far fetched.  The movie did make me want to read a good book on the battle of the Atlantic, any suggestions?

Sailing close enough to get under the guns of an opposing vessel was not unknown in WWII.  There are several examples of submarines attempting to do so, but usually they were crippled and unable to submerge.  Plus, getting that close to an escort generally meant the submarine was vulnerable to ramming.  It also happened with surface ships, for instance at First Guadalcanal, the  USS O'Bannon, and (for a short period of time) the USS Laffey were close enough to the IJN Hiei that the Japanese battlecruiser was unable to depress its armament. (In fact, USS Laffey was so close that two of its torpedoes hit the Hiei, but failed to arm because of the short run.)

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I recently read A Game of Birds and Wolves.  It's a pretty good general overview of the battle.

https://www.amazon.com/Game-Birds-Wolves-Ingenious-Secret/dp/0316492094

[Destraex]

Great movie. Loved it. Got it free with the wifes new phone's 1yr apple tv free offer.
Everything in it could have happened. The large painted conning towers struck me as the main thing that was overtly untrue. They could have just zoomed in on the smaller more realistic icons to show you which sub was which. But then iirc the symbols were unit symbols rather than individual sub symbols. I guess they had to ID them for the audience somehow.

Everything else was exaggerated to make the movie fit into the time we had for a feature film, but could have happened. Although I don't know of any historical instances of subs actually finding the allied frequency and talking to them. Anybody know if this happened or if it was in the book?

P.S. A mate of mine said he found all the detail from the calcs and headings etc, the data stuff hard to follow. So we were lucky that got into the movie. Because I really appreciate that stuff and know the general public will just be like "huh". What did they just do?

[RedArgo]

I watched it tonight with the wife and we really liked it.  Probably watch it again tomorrow with one of my boys.  It was very similar to the book which I also enjoyed.

Like all these kids on the Greyhound, at 18 my dad was on a DE as a radioman in the pacific in 44 and 45 escorting convoys mostly until they got hit by a kamikaze at Okinawa.  I just can't imagine myself at 18 being able to do that.  I think I'd freak out.

[Sir Slash]

My Father also was on a DE at Okinawa on the Radar Picket Line. He had several close calls with Kamikazes. And the big typhoon they sailed through to Okinawa.  :hide:

[RedArgo]

Small world, my dad was on the USS Witter DE-636, hit while on radar picket.  After getting repaired they were schedule to be converted to a fast landing craft of some sort for the invasion of Japan.  He said he was sure the A bombs saved his life.

[JasonPratt]

I would think Blair's Hunters/Hunted duology is the classic work of the Battle of the Atlantic (and Nazi sub ops more generally).

I found a very nice coffee-table style hardback on the Battle of the Atlantic (specifically) in my Mom's Uncle's history book stash last year, though I don't quite know what I did with it since then. Certainly didn't get rid of it. I was impressed with the information crammed into it; very dense and not only by weight! If I find it again, I'll call it out.

[JasonPratt]

Tom Hanks joins the Hardcore History podcast to geek about the history of wolf-pack hunting. (...annnnnd a bunch of other historical things.)

Hanks joins at about 2:30.

Actual topic starts around 28:15, but preliminaries are interesting.

[Destraex]

Sounds good. I will give it a watch. Although I find Dan's history podcast a little hard to take because he love exaggeration. Loves to try to turn the whole thing into a dramatic scene a little like a hollywood movie.