Review of Greyhound (2020) by Libertine79 — 27 Jul 2020

Good bordering great is how I would sum up Greyhound. The movie has its shortcomings but overall the positives greatly outweigh the negatives. First off, unlike a lot of modern day movies Greyhound doesnt try to include an overly personal interest story at its core but rather it just displays the struggle of merchant convoys in the atlantic during a pivotal time during ww2, the battle of the atlantic.

Its gripping from the day we first see Hanks on the ship and doesnt let you go until they are being sent off again without going over the top and leave little breathing space. Submarine warfare was one of technical devices, a game of cat and mouse(and luck) and this movie does a great job in displaying that.

Its not about a single hero heroic soldier taking on the evil nazis. and thats another thing, other than those stupid radio broadcasts from the german sub, this movie luckily doesnt go down the "evil" nazi route.

Theyre also just soldiers doing their duty. The visuals are great without only a few blemishes to tarnish the good picture but those I can just overlook. Where the movie does lack is the realism in the way the german subs behave.

Given that this is set after the entry of the US in WW2 germans were no longer using their deck guns let alone when a destroyer was in gun range. A german sub would never ever surface inside a convoy unless they had to due to damage, subs didnt fight destroyers or escorts, they ran from them.

The list goes on and on. Funny enough, the destroyer part of things does seem quite accurate. But this will not a major gripe for most movie goers I assume as the topic is somewhat specialized and the average in a cinema wont know a lot about submarine tactics.

Overall, its no Band of Brothers, the Pacific, Saving private Ryan etc, but its a good movie nonetheless.