mwardf Almost 60 years on this film retains its quality. If you haven't seen it for many years or read the book I strongly recommend you revisit them; they both stand the test of time extremely well. If you haven't seen the film and/or read the book I suggest you do so - you won't regret it. The film suffers a little from the decisions that are necessarily made in order to fit a long book to the time constraints imposed by a film although for its time it is quite long. There are several vignettes of individuals that are excluded completely. The character of Ferraby is neglected to a certain degree for it is he that Monserrat hangs much of the elements of horror in the story on. However overall the adaptation is sound and the film is lucid and extremely effective in its accurate portrayal of the longest and bloodiest battle of the second world war.

tieman64 A classic of British cinema, director Charles Frend's "The Cruel Sea" documents five years in the lives of a motley group of British sailors. They're tasked with escorting Allied convoys during World War 2, but it's a seemingly impossible task; Germany's U-boat fleets prowl the seas and feast incessantly on British ships.Unlike most naval films of the era, "The Cruel Sea" is grim, depressing, gritty, pessimistic, suffused with futility and captures well the nuts and bolts banality of wartime. Occasionally the film's ship-board action gives way to several land-based, melodramatic subplots, which borrow heavily from the then burgeoning "kitchen sink" movement. Ealing Studio legend Jack Hawkins stars as the world-weary captain of a torpedo corvette.8/10 – Frend directed a number of British war films, but "The Cruel Sea" was his best. See too "Das Boot", "The Sand Pebbles", "The Last Detail", "Damn the Defiant", "Run Silent Run Deep" and "Sink the Bismarck!".

writers_reign Whenever I come to review a film I read first any other reviews unless, as in this case, there are several pages and then I read only the first page. Having just done that very thing it seems that all the reviews were written by people who had an extra knowledge of the subject, i.e. ex-naval personnel and/or those with relatives - fathers, brothers, cousins, possibly even husbands - who had served or are still serving in either the Royal navy or the Mercantile Marine. In other words people who were closer to the subject than someone like me, an impartial and dispassionate observer. I remember seeing this film on television years ago but retaining little memory of it. Seeing it again I found it competently made, well photographed, acted and directed, but was unable to detect any quality that would eclipse Noel Coward's definitive In Which We Serve. With that in mind it was perhaps unfortunate that someone involved - maybe the original novelist, Nicholas Monsarrat, maybe the scriptwriter, Eric Ambler - had seen fit to steal from Coward the situation of two shipmates connected to someone on shore who subsequently dies in an air raid. Coward wrote two chums whose wives shared the same house; here the only difference is that one of the shipmates is about to marry the sister of the other. It's watchable but, I feel, overpraised.

MartinHafer The best thing about this WWII naval picture is that it is so ordinary. What I mean by this is that there is no bigger-than-life Hollywood style hero who is invincible, but a collection of normal men showing great heroism collectively--sort of a tribute to the unsung heroes of the war. It's set aboard a convoy escort ship's captain and crew--through their tense moments, trials, successes and failures. In other words, its a WHOLE portrait of the war as seen through these sailors' eyes--the good, the bad and the mundane.The second best thing is the lovely look and feel--with great acting and direction. Jack Hawkins was, as always, wonderful but all the actors playing the crew did so well--and it's a tribute to the production and direction--this didn't just happen by chance.In many ways, this film plays a lot like the great British film "In Which We Serve"--though unlike "In Which", "The Cruel Sea" was made after the war. Both films together would make a wonderful night of movie viewing. Solid and exceptional.