This movie is an excellent submarine movie that combines exciting and generally believable action along with a decent back-story. John Wayne is the second in command on a sub and he's become reacquainted with his ex-wife, Patricia Neal. His trying to win her back and his difficulties with expressing himself is handled more credibly than most Wayne characters, as he is vulnerable and more 3-dimensional than his usual self. As for the action itself, the movie spends a lot of time on a lesser-known aspect of US sub warfare--the fact that our torpedoes at the beginning of the war were often duds. And the subplot involving the death of the commander is interesting as well. About the only down-side is that, at times, the sub does rather extraordinary things that no sub ever did--such as sinking 3 ships in mere minutes--including a sub, destroyer and an aircraft carrier! With victories like that, we could have won the war in just a few weeks. BUT, considering this is counter-balanced with dud torpedoes and the destruction of a fellow sub, this is a little more realistic than the standard fare.
PS--a cute part of the film is when the crew is watching the movie DESTINATION TOKYO (with Cary Grant). One of the crewmen comments that this is a great movie but it was awfully short on realism. Ha.
PS--a cute part of the film is when the crew is watching the movie DESTINATION TOKYO (with Cary Grant). One of the crewmen comments that this is a great movie but it was awfully short on realism. Ha.