a5c7b9f00b The captain of a submarine sunk by the Japanese during WWII is finally given a chance to skipper another sub after a year of working a desk job. His singleminded determination for revenge against the destroyer that sunk his previous vessel puts his new crew in unneccessary danger. A U.S. sub commander, obsessed with sinking a certain Japanese ship, butts heads with his first officer and crew. I happen to love this film genre. When done well, it reaches a high level of tension and suspense. My dad, a WW2 USN vet, introduced me to this film on TV when I was a kid. He was an aviator who actually flew in PBY&#39;s that hunted enemy subs but all men in the Navy had great respect and admiration for the Silent Service. Submariners were an elite bunch. It was dangerous and the subs of the WW2 era were tiny, at least in comparison to modern nuclear subs. They huntedlone wolves and if sunk, the chances of survival was slim.<br/><br/>RSRD stars 2 of the great leading men of the era, GableCaptain PJ Richardson and Lancasterhis XO, Jim Bledsoe. At 57 Gable was way too old to be believablea sub skipperwas Lancaster, who was in his mid-40&#39;s, although he was in excellent shape and looked 10 years younger. Gable looked every day of 57 and more, this was one of his last films. Hollywood loves to sanitize war by having older men doing jobs that were generally covered by teenagers and guys in their 20&#39;s. But if you can buy into the plausibility of a guy of Gable&#39;s age being a sub commander, he does an excellent joba man obsessed with hunting down the ship that sank his previous command. As the Nerka&#39;s XO Lancaster has to do a delicate balancing act. He and most of the crew are questioning their Skippers motives and believe he is willing to sacrifice them in order to settle his personal vendetta. Buta loyal Navy officer the notion of taking over command is verboten, until the commander is incapacitated and then he realizes,commander that he must also take on the dangerous task of sinking the enemy. <br/><br/>RSRD has all the elements we love in sub movies. The depth charge attack, the silent running scenes, listening to Tokyo Rose on the radio, the elation of sinking the enemy ships and the dramatic burial at sea. Robert Wise does a great job of capturing both the camaraderie and the excruciating tension of men living in close quarters never knowing if this may be their last day. Wise doesn&#39;t spend much time on back story, this is a tight 93 minutes without any wasted scenes. Familiar faces suchJack Warden and Brad Dexter have good parts and a young Don Rickles provides a bit of comic relief, he incorporates a bit of the schtick that became the basis of his stand up persona. <br/><br/>&quot;Clear the decks, lookouts below. DIVE, DIVE!!&quot; Terrific movie and great film genre! Torpedos full ahead! This classic is probably the best example on screen of the everyday life and working on a submarine. Commander Richardson(Clark Gable)waits a year after losing his ship to get command again of a submarine to stalk the Japanese destroyer that haunts his every dream. He will have to battle with his first officer Lt. Bledsoe(Burt Lancaster)who vied for this same command. The crew is also balkish to Richardson and his obsessive drills to make that one big kill. This is superb WWII sub action.<br/><br/>Supporting cast includes: Jack Warden, Brad Dexter, Don Rickles, Joe Maross and Rudy Bond. Kudos to acclaimed director Robert Wise and to Franz Waxman for the original score and the photography of Russell Harlan.
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