I'm lining up a selection of classic British films for a monthly film class next year and am having trouble choosing between In Which We Serve or The Cruel Sea.
I don't want to show two WW2 naval dramas, and can't decide which one to pick.
The audience will be retired and semi-retired folk here in Melbourne, Australia. (It's a University of the Third Age class.) I would love to hear which of these two classics people would recommend over the other!
The Cruel Sea IMO.
"Oh dear. How sad. Never mind!"
TCS on points.
Went the Day Well? Would be on my "essential" list too.
Marlon, Claudia and Dimby the cats 1989-2005, 2007 and 2010.
If you want an excellent and expertly produced example of how the war was sold to the British, IN WHICH WE SERVE. If you want a more honest examination of the harsher and more psychologically punishing aspects of war, THE CRUEL SEA.
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The Cruel Sea. A far more realistic depiction of the service; of ordinary men coping with terror, boredom, and, not least, their many and varied personal relationships; and it shows the waging of war, and its many consequences, much more honestly -- how everyone becomes, in some way, its victim.
In Which We Serve is propaganda, and nothing wrong with that -- it was made during the war, vs. safely in the postwar period, so can't be faulted for what it is as a reflection of when it was made. There are many fine "propaganda" films made during the war (49th Parallel for one). All the same, it's artificial, stilted, and intended to build morale rather than show people and events with the more brutal realism fitting such a theme. And its personal relationships are depicted almost laughably. Has any family dymanic ever been drawn with less emotion than that between Noel Coward and Celia Johnson? Their intimacy is like a businessman's lunch ended with a tepid handshake.
Maybe “The Cruel Sea” wins because it is less glamorous? The corvettes, which are small, slow and lightly armed, roll terribly and ship water. Their work is tedious, escorting merchant convoys in the inhospitable North Atlantic and attempting to sink enemy submarines. We are not shown the home life of the captain but, from what we see of the man, does anyone imagine it mirrors the moneyed sophistication of Noel Coward’s skipper?
shareWell said, Charlot47, and exactly right.
shareI would say IN WHICH WE SERVE,both films are products of their time but THE CRUEL SEA was written by a bitter right of centre writer who had fallen out of love with his home country.
The Cruel Sea has some great scenes but it is too cynical,it would better fit a class on post war British cinema.
The fact is that people's service in the Kings armed forces in World War 11 were often the highlight of their lives and not everybody looked back on the wartime era and the post war social and political situation as a bad time.
IN WHICH WE SERVE is also a much better made film with great acting,it gets across the message that the Royal Navy is something to be proud off and that the people in it and their families back home had a tough time.
So you vote for IWWS because you disagree with the opinions and politics of the other writer???
from a 2016 perspective I thought TCS was so much better than IWWS ... which I found to be an outdated puff piece. More so TCS has a strong antiwar message and that is a god thing thing.
Montserrat was Left- wing before the war.
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