Thursday, 21 August 2014

Cruel Sea


Also Known As:
Unknown
Year:
1953
Country:
United Kingdom…
Predominant Genre:
War
Director:
Charles Frend…
Best Performance:
None
Premiss:
Adventures of a convoy escort ship and its officers.
Theme:
Compassion
Loneliness
Personal change
White culture
Similar (in Plot, Theme or Style) to:
Unknown
Review Format:
DVD

Superb war drama presenting the sea itself as the enemy rather more than the Germans. Elliptical, yet each dramatic vignette serves its emotional purpose perfectly: Creating a cinematic gestalt as each part interlocks - like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.

The peculiar brilliance of British cinema, at its best, is the way in which emotions are shown, yet not shown. This stiff upper-lip reveals the horrors of war far more credibly than any visual explicitness because it is the way in which people under pressure deal with the stress in order to keep total, war-losing collapse, at bay.

The tension between the emotions the actors portray - and what they give the very clear impression of hiding - makes this movie far more moving than any attempts at Oscar-winning histrionics. And impeccable casting ensures no one strikes a false emotional note in this emotionally-mature film.

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Science:



No science is immune to the infection of politics and the corruption of power.



Jacob Bronowski… (1908 - 74), British scientist, author. Encounter (London, July 1971).


Sleep of Reason:



The dream of reason produces monsters. Imagination deserted by reason creates impossible, useless thoughts. United with reason, imagination is the mother of all art and the source of all its beauty.



Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes… (1746-1828), Spanish painter. Caption to Caprichos, number 43, a series of eighty etchings completed in 1798, satirical and grotesque in form.


Humans & Aliens:



I am human and let nothing human be alien to me.



Terence… (circa 190-159 BC), Roman dramatist. Chremes, in The Self-Tormentor [Heauton Timorumenos], act 1, scene 1.


Führerprinzip:



One leader, one people, signifies one master and millions of slaves… There is no organ of conciliation or mediation interposed between the leader and the people, nothing in fact but the apparatus - in other words, the party - which is the emanation of the leader and the tool of his will to oppress. In this way the first and sole principle of this degraded form of mysticism is born, the Führerprinzip, which restores idolatry and a debased deity to the world of nihilism.