‘Greyhound’ (2020)
‘‘What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or in the holy name of liberty or democracy?”
― Mahatma Gandhi
I watched Tom Hanks latest film after a recommendation given to me by my daughter. She thoroughly enjoyed it and commented that she had learnt something of the history of the ‘Battle of the Atlantic’. I undoubtedly concur with her on that but for me the film raised issues with the way the ‘enemy’ is portrayed by filmmakers and in this case by the writer of the script, Tom Hanks.
I have seen many war films in my time. The best and the greatest have not chosen to glorify war or glorify one side over the other or to ignore the heroism of the many or to focus upon the singular individual as the heroic almost mythic character, but have balanced these potentially conflicting themes with the reality that war means death and existential destruction for those fighting in it and those who are victims of it. That surely is the only rational reason to make a war film. That war is as close to hell on earth, as a human can get.
However ‘Greyhound’ (2020) is a reversion to a very old type. It reminds me of many of the brilliant black and white British films I watched on TV when I was growing up: ‘In Which We Serve’ (1942) and ‘The Cruel Sea’…
