Best naval battle in a movie

[Tonitrus]

The Enemy Below got discarded because I thought I had way too many submarine movies.

Also, the only guy I know that has served in the Navy always said that "Mister Roberts" is his favorite movie depicting life in the Navy. But I have never seen it.

Mister Roberts is good...but I don't remember any battles?.  Same with the Caine Mutiny (technically has a "battle", but not really...and only to serve a greater non-battle plot point).

[Sheilbh]

Incidentally, the British Film Institute created a top ten list:

https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/10-great-battle-sea-films

(Only one film from the 70s, though, Tora! Tora! Tora! )

Of those The Cruel Sea, In Which We Serve and The Battle of the River Plate are the absolute classic, 1940s-50s, Sunday afternoon naval war films.

Apparently The Cruel Sea is still very popular in the Royal Navy and they still have Cruel Sea nights (with drinking games) on ships

[Syt]

I think I saw Battle of the River Plate (German title: Panzerschiff Graf Spee) on TV once or thrice when I was a kid.

What Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger don't reveal, however, is that Captain Hans Langsdorff (Peter Finch) would shoot himself just days after scuttling his ship after being trapped in Montevideo harbour and bidding a fond farewell to former prisoner, Captain Patrick Dove (Bernard Lee).

According to German wiki, the German version has this mentioned at the end of the movie by an off screen narrator:

"Für ihren Kommandanten, Hans Langsdorff, gab es nur eines: Die Seemannsehre gebot ihm, das Ende seines Schiffes nicht zu überleben. Während der Gegner heimwärts lief, hallte im Quartier des Marinearsenals in Buenos Aires der Schuss, der dem Leben dieses von Freund und Feind hochgeachteten Mannes ein Ende setzte. Dieses Mannes, der ein Seemann war – und ein Gentleman."

"For their commander, Hans Langsdorff, there was only one thing: sailor's honor dictated that he not survive the end of his ship. While the enemy was heading home, a shot rang out in the naval arsenal quarters in Buenos Aires, ending the life of this man, highly respected by friends and foes alike. This man who was a sailor - and a gentleman."

[Sheilbh]

Both of these polls have made me realise my consumption of war films is basically entirely Sunday/bank holiday afternoon war films on TV - so almost all mid-century British films that I assume the BBC just always has the license too

[Syt]

For me in the 80s/90s, on holidays/Sundays it was more stuff like Dr Zhivago, Ben Hur, Spartacus, Lawrence of Arabia, El Cid, The Commandments, The Robe, .... Probably not a small reason I got interested in history

War movies were mostly on in the evenings, with few exceptions.

[Jacob]

I've been having a hankering to watch some of those classic war films again - Guns of Navarone and so on - but I'm not sure what the best source is. Any suggestions?

[Barrister]

I've been having a hankering to watch some of those classic war films again - Guns of Navarone and so on - but I'm not sure what the best source is. Any suggestions?

That's a frustrating thing about this streaming age we're in - nobody seems to bother to license classic movies.

Googling Guns of Navarone - it looks like you can rent it on Apple or Prime, but can't find anywhere else.

I suspect that because they're so old they're probably easier to find on file sharing services (the rights holders being less interested in enforcing their rights), but honestly I don't know how to use those.

[celedhring]

We do have a great local streaming service for classic movies. They have Navarone indeed.

But I never understood how, say, HBO Max, doesn't have all the million classic Warner movies.

[viper37]

So you can talk about Master & Commander at your heart's content.

I'm including XXth century wars in this one, because I couldn't come up with that many great examples. Let's define "naval battle" as having naval vessels on each side deploying armament or other assets to attempt to sink or seize control of each other. So stuff like Pearl Harbor is in (because the target was the Pacific fleet), D-Day is out (ships only on one side).

I admit ship movies are a bit of a blind spot for me outside of the famous ones, so I'm probably missing many good examples and I probably have way too many submarine movies. However, I *refuse* to list Bay's Pearl Harbor or Emmerich's Midway.

My votes are for Master & Commander (duh), Das Boot (duh), and Captain Blood - namely for being one of my favorite pirate movies as a kid. I just rewatched the scene and it still rocks in that Old Hollywood swashbuckling way. Although I should probably vote Cruel Sea as my third because it's amazing.

Pirates of the Carribean has some great scene.

[OttoVonBismarck]

My vote is for M&C, great Hollywood rendition of the Age of Sail, and kind of a weird project in that I am surprised it got greenlit with the budget it did, and sadly a film like that would never get funded in the current entertainment industry for a big budget release. (It could maybe get funded as a lower budget, overly-long Netflix series.)

[celedhring]

My vote is for M&C, great Hollywood rendition of the Age of Sail, and kind of a weird project in that I am surprised it got greenlit with the budget it did, and sadly a film like that would never get funded in the current entertainment industry for a big budget release. (It could maybe get funded as a lower budget, overly-long Netflix series.)

It was a combo of huge star (Crowe had just won an Oscar and was at the peak of his stardom) and a very respected director (Peter Weir was fresh off Truman Show). This still happens (see tee Scorsese and Di Caprio projects).

[Valmy]

Pirates of the Carribean has some great scene.

They are but they are also ridiculous by design.

[viper37]

Pirates of the Carribean has some great scene.

They are but they are also ridiculous by design.

That is what makes their charm, imho.

I did not apprecitate Master and Commander in the theaters.  Maybe I should give it a second try.  Too much British anti-Napoleon rethoric, like they were facing Hitler.

[Barrister]

Pirates of the Carribean has some great scene.

They are but they are also ridiculous by design.

That is what makes their charm, imho.

I did not apprecitate Master and Commander in the theaters.  Maybe I should give it a second try.  Too much British anti-Napoleon rethoric, like they were facing Hitler.

So there were 20 Aubrey and Maturin novels.  The movie picks up scenes and elements from several different books, but the primary story is from book 10.

If you ever wondered why a French frigate would be wandering around the Pacific wonder no further - in the original novel the enemy frigate is the USS Norfolk.

I guess the studio figured a French opponent would be more marketable than an American one. 

[viper37]

I guess the studio figured a French opponent would be more marketable than an American one. 

Ah.  Now I understand.