If you want to recommend one of the most admirable "pure" war movies in recent years, then the naval battle film "Greyhound" starring Tom Hanks is the first to be promoted, which was released in July 2020.
How would you describe this movie? My own feeling is that "there is no urine point in the whole process, except for the first few minutes of children's love, there is no trace of waste, and it is still not exhausted after watching"!
The overall picture of the film is dominated by a cool gray-blue tone, except for the "warm scene" at the beginning of which our captain Ernest Klaus (played by Tom Hanks) meets his girlfriend, the whole film is in a depressing, suffocating atmosphere (of course, that warm scene is also depressing for Klaus, and his girlfriend broke up with him).
Unlike the naval battle movies we've seen before, here the sea is "black", the crew is "impetuous", the cabin is "cold", the lights are "dim", the atmosphere is "suffocated", death is "silent", and the war is "tragic"!
Maybe this is my personal feeling, generally when I watch a more "taste-friendly" movie or TV series, I often substitute myself into the plot of the protagonist. Just like when I watched "Kangxi Dynasty" starring Chen Daoming, I felt that I was an emperor, and when I watched "The Name of the People", I directly imagined my identity as a provincial and ministerial officer, and in this movie, I followed Tom Hanks through the Atlantic Ocean completely, feeling nervous and depressed, stimulated and excited during the period.
Frank Ratche, an expert on military history at the National Museum of American History, once said:
The Battle of the Atlantic was never a "fascinating" battle, it was cold, gray, monotonous and tragic.
Germany's U-boats and "wolf pack tactics" are world-famous, and during World War II, this underwater force sank a total of 2,779 Allied ships of all types, most of which were merchant ships, with a total tonnage of more than 14 million tons, which is about 70% of the Allied shipping losses in the entire war. The year with the worst losses was 1942, when about 6 million tons of merchant ships and warships were sent to the bottom of the sea by U-boats.
According to statistics, the attack of the U-boat caused the death of about 80,000 Allied sailors, merchant marines and pilots! Of course, the price paid by the U-boats themselves is also quite heavy, Germany has a total of about 1100 U-boats to fight, but by the end of the war this number is less than 300, about 800 were sunk by the Allies, and about 70% of the more than 41,000 officers and men of the submarine force were buried on the seabed. The high loss rate of this unit can definitely be called the most dangerous class during World War II, and there is no one, and even the battle loss rate of bomber crew members cannot be compared (generally speaking, the loss rate of bomber pilots in World War II is not low)!
The movie "Greyhound" tells the story of four escort destroyers and several U-boats of an Allied transport fleet during the Battle of the Atlantic Ocean, "love and fight"!
It should be noted, however, that the story told in the film is not based on a single true event, it is based on the C. Lee S. Forrest's novel The Good Shepherd is based on scattered true events.
The film is set in the darkest year of the Allied convoy, in 1942, when Ernest Klaus, the newly promoted commander-in-chief of the convoy, first led his fleet to escort convoys through the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, known as the "Black Pit.".
In the first few days of sailing, because of the protection of shore-based anti-submarine aircraft, the fleet basically did not encounter any obstacles, but with the advancement of the route, the shore-based anti-submarine aircraft had reached the limit of its combat radius and could not continue to provide air escort for the fleet. So for the remaining five days or more, the only defensive force the entire fleet could rely on was the four destroyers under Klaus's command.
It should be pointed out here that the extreme escort radius of the PBY "Catalina" air patrol air patrol aircraft (which took a lot of effort to find the model of the aircraft) appearing over the opening fleet is about 2030 kilometers, and after this distance, the aircraft must return, and the anti-submarine aircraft sent by the British at the end of the film seems to be this type of aircraft.
Before 1943, the most direct and effective way to deal with U-boats was to fight against air anti-submarine, air patrol aircraft/anti-submarine aircraft and the sonar on the destroyer as long as it was located to the position of the U-boat, then it would undoubtedly die, so in the case of air escort, German U-boats basically did not dare to appear, which is why the film should take the five days of the fleet losing air escort as the main narrative point.
In the absence of air guards, Klaus not only has to fight enemies that are basically "invisible" to the naked eye, he must also fight with himself, after all, the first time he leads a team to attack, he will have some doubts about his own ability. Especially in the face of the first U-boat, because Klaus completely relied on radar and sonar information to adjust the position of the battleship many times without success, many crew members have doubts about its ability, and if you watch the film carefully, you will find that when Klaus gives the order again, the helmsman and the other crew members have at least five seconds of hesitation, which is not a sign of "trust".
So in the first battle Klaus must sink the submarine to establish his own prestige, but the ending is still good, after a depth charge attack, the U boat's oil stains and sonar's submarine bottom signal to Klaus to regain confidence!
"Greyhound" basically does not have the fierce picture of "flesh and blood, cannon fire" in the previous war films, some are just the waves after the explosion of the depth bomb, the whales roaring through the whole film, the endless black sea, and the transport fleet like several pieces of "duckweed" and the radio communication full of provocative words of German submariners, but it is such a scene that brings people infinite reverie that makes you feel the feeling of oppression on the dangerous and ubiquitous battlefield!
There is also a scene in the film in which two destroyers attack a wounded floating U-boat, and the submarine is too close to the battleship to prevent the gun from hitting the target. This is actually a real scene in history, except that it did not take place in 1942, but on November 1, 1943, the Borie destroyer, commanded by Charles Hutchins, then considered the youngest destroyer captain of the U.S. Navy, was against the German submarine U-405.
At that time, the German submarine U-405 was injured by Borie's depth bomb attack and could not dive, the two sides engaged in a fierce exchange of fire on the water, and even collided during the battle, and the sailors of the German submarines all poured onto the deck and attacked the American destroyers with all available weapons. The American warships showed no sign of weakness, and even the cooks joined the battle with rifles. In the words of one of the crew members of the time, the proximity of the two sides was: I could even see the polar bear badge worn on the chest of the German soldier on the submarine.
The two sides engaged in a face-to-face confrontation for about an hour, and eventually the destroyer was superior, sinking the submarine with its own 4-inch gun, but the Borie was also sunk the next day due to an impact with the submarine.
In addition to the meticulous portrayal of the battle scenes, the film has more or less added a little "humanistic" atmosphere. Like Cleveland, the black cook who would serve hot food to the captain as long as he was in the battle gap, I didn't understand why I portrayed such an "old mother" character at first. But only later in the pre-war film gives the soldiers who transport ammunition a picture alone, you understand that this black cook soldier participated in the battle while completing his job, and was always on duty, and finally the Grayhound was hit by a U boat and the soldiers killed after the main gun was Cleveland, who should not have been here.
At the beginning of the film, Klaus gets up from his cabin to freshen up, and after five days he returns to the long-lost bed, and finally curls up on the sheet and can finally sleep peacefully, which means that the captain has not rested for several days without air escort.
In short, I personally think that Tom Hanks is a masterpiece (in the case of a few films I have seen so far)! "Greyhound" this movie can definitely be called a masterpiece in naval battles, I have watched it at least four times, each time I feel very enjoyable, five-star recommendation!