The Bedford Incident (1965)

A Masterpiece!

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

this was billed as a C4 afternoon movie - a hard nosed cold war captain, now patrolling the oceans for Russians, with a crew that works to its captains every word, all working 100%, with no relapse something is going to go wrong, picked up by poitiers journalist and the doc, the journalist can see what is going to happen, the old German U boat captain with Eric portman doing his best to tell his friend to stop this game or will end in tragedy, this it does, and in a mistake by the weapons officer this game of chess is ultimately won....Its a superb film from shepperton studios, one of their many best, its one of them films that once you have watched it, you will want to see it again, a superb piece of work by the actors, and all the other people involved....I wont forget Finlanders face when he realises this game is over....

I served for six years as a destroyer sonarman in the early to late 70's hunting the Great Steel Whales and actually found seven confirmed Soviet subs in a time when most ping-jockeys like me never found any. My list of confirmed subs were 2 Foxtrot-class diesel boats, 1 November SSN, 2 Echo II SSGNs, 1 Victor I SSN and 1 Yankee SSBN. I just watched this film on TCM for the first time in many years and was struck by how realistic and relevant it still is. As one reviewer pointed out, the film echoes a true incident involving a US Diesel sub trapped in Soviet territorial waters in 1958 that is also spotlighted in the book, "Blind Man's Bluff". My watch station was similar to Wally Cox's character standing sonar watches and my battle station was firing the Underwater Weapons Battery like James McArthur's character. So I'm VERY familiar with both the attraction AND danger of the Ultimate Hunt of the Leviathan.Many comparisons have been made of this film to Moby Dick and Widmark's Capt. Finlander to Ahab, including how Finlander, like Ahab, inspired his crew to go along with his doomed hunt. For me, I compare Finlander to Robert Mitchum's Destroyer captain in "The Enemy Below". Both are tough, tenacious captains who drive their crews to the limit of endurance in pursuit of their submerged adversaries. Both have compelling reasons for engaging in that behavior. The difference is Finlander's ultimate obsession with the hunt dooms him and his ship like Ahab, while Mitchum's captain is ultimately redeemed by his rescue of his enemies' lives even while his ship is destroyed in destroying the submarine.The other compelling character for me is the former U-boat Captain who corrects Poitier's reporter that it was Admiral Doenitz's Navy, not Hitler's. This I find especially relevant since Doenitz actually had Admiral Lockwood, commander of the US submarine force in the Pacific during WW2, testify in his defense during Doenitz's war crimes trial since Lockwood used the exact same strategy to defeat Japan that Doenitz used against the Allies. To me, he also presages Jurgen Prochnow's U-Boat captain in "Das Boot".Add in a great supporting cast that includes Martin Balsam and a young Donald Sutherland as one of the Corpsmen working under Balsam, the use of a Farragut-class DLG model and special effects that recreate the North Atlantic coast of Greenland quite effectively for it's time, and the constant drumbeat of the sonar transmission and echo that serves to heighten the tension even more and you have a great yarn. I've know many sub sailors who've had to endure being lashed with that sonar for hours to days at a time and told me how maddening that can get.Strangely enough, I ran into one of the crewmen from one of the Foxtrot subs I found and tracked over 20 years later when he towed my car home from Burbank Airport to Pasadena. At that time, they had just brought another Foxtrot sub called the Scorpion and had her on display next to the Queen Mary in Long Beach. I asked him if he'd ever been down there to go aboard for old times sake. his answer was No because he LIVED it for three years and had his bellyfull of it THEN.

Having served on a US Nuclear Cruiser in the late 80's and 90's, I can attest to the Captain Queeg personality. Richard Widmark as the captain brought back some interesting memories for me. As to the movie, my wife was not especially interested to seeing "just another war movie". But after she saw the end of this movie and the look on her face was priceless. One of the best endings to a movie that I have ever seen. I was stunned and my feelings were still deeply affected hours after watching. Sydney and Richard's portrayal of their characters really immersed you into the the feelings of that time in our history. A very well done movie. It is in my top 50 DVD's that I have.

Unlike Cpt Kirk and Star Trek where everything almost always works out in the end in the tradition of Greek comedy the Bedford Incident is a Greek tragedy. It has a horrific and disappointing conclusion that is meant to teach a lesson about situations which can lead to disaster. From that standpoint it is a case study from which we can learn how to avoid similar circumstances and therefore reach a different outcome.The movie also contains elements of the classic "Moby Dick" in that the Captain is "obsessive" in his approach to his mission. Obsession and the inability to be flexible can leads to rigid actions and possible danger.3. The reporter, Munceford did not agree with Captain Finlander and although the Captain listened to his advisors, he did not always follow their advise. There are some great "lines" in the movie worth thinking about. Especially the mistake (miscommunication) that lead to the actual missile firing. Similar miscommunication between pilots and navigators or co-pilots have brought down aircraft and lead to other accidents.