Greyhound (An Apple Original)
Alternate Title: Saving Public Booty
Plot: Allied warships fight against German U-boats in the Atlantic to protect civilian merchant ships carrying war supplies for Britain.
Tl;dr Review: If you’re a history buff, you’ll love it. If you’re not, still give it a shot.
When to Watch: War movies are always great to watch in the evening.
With Whom to Watch: It’s better to watch it alone unless your family members are history buffs. But it’s family friendly, that I can ensure.
Full Review: Greyhound is the movie that I’ve been waiting for in 2020. It delights me to say it didn’t disappoint me! Tom Hanks wrote the screenplay, and I must say he did a good job.
A little bit of history to help you understand the context of the movie (skip this paragraph if you’re not interested) — During the beginning of World War II, America couldn’t get involved in the fighting because of some non-aggression treaties they had with the axis powers. But they still wanted to support the allied forces. So, they coined the term “Lend-Lease” to lend war supplies to the allies. The supplies included food, oil, rubber, clothing, medicine, telephone cables, train engines; everything you need to carry on a war. Without these supplies, Europe (yes, including Britain) would’ve been flattened by Germany in a couple of years. America truly was the arsenal of democracy. And these supplies were carried by civilian merchant ships. So, German U-boats (submarines) started targeting these merchant ships so that they never reach Britain. Some 72,000 civilian merchant sailors died in that effort. Extra Credit got some wonderful videos on this resource side of the war on their YouTube channel.
As a movie, this one was really tight! There was no fat in the movie. No unnecessary romantic subplot, no unnecessary monologue, no nothing. It was continued action from the get go. And I cannot stress how much I love this approach! We get a bit of background on Tom Hanks’s character, but that’s about it. The gravity of the real life history is enough to keep you pulled in.
The music is commendable. It’s subtle but it really sets the atmosphere. If you watch the movie during a rainy afternoon like I did, you’ll understand what I’m saying. The cinematography isn’t flashy. It doesn’t try to do anything over the top. It set out to do one thing, and it hammered that down. It gets a bit claustrophobic sometimes, I admit. But it’s still great.
One thing that disappointed me a bit is that I was hoping to see how the merchant ships’ sailors handled facing German U-boats. I really wanted to see their story, even if for a little bit. They didn’t show anything on that apart from their ships getting blown by U-boats. Well, I guess down the line, someone else will make a movie showing the story from their perspective. I’ll wait till then.
Final Score: For History Buffs/10
