The Sinking of the Laconia (2011)

Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

The first must-see film of the year.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Nobody talks like this. The characterisation is flat with no clear motivations. Why does the British officer feel so betrayed by the German woman? 'You lied to me' - he's known her for about one day, and she didn't want to give herself away, obviously... The plot plods from one quasi-intellectual soliloquy to another. The whole thing is pretentious playwright preaching which detracts from the sad true incident it is based on.

This documentary - drama was a great thing to show to the main public. The idea of being noble and humane in the midst of a war is quite unusual and it should have been stressed out more in order to make humans aware in such a way. This kind of situations are extraordinary, and they happen only occasionally, under special circumstances. I hope more movies would be made in such honorable manners to encourage people of this planet to be just like this or better. The media has this power, and I wish it was used more in this way! Thank you for making this movie, I'd rate it min. 7,5 if I was asked. And all this nationality preferences and it's discredits are just what the war is all about, I sincerely hope we soon become what we pretend to be. Big respect for the captain and I hope we aspire to such deeds!

Just happen to watch this movie about 2 months ago. I really enjoyed it, I didn't think for one second it was anti American. In the movie the scene people are referring to they were given direct orders to bomb, they reported what they saw. But in general I thought it was a great TV movie. People take stuff so serious. Just relax and take in the show. I'm starting to really enjoy international movies, to me just more depth. It's nice to see at war time what went on behind the scenes in other countries. Germany could have easily said screw those people but they showed compassion. Just think the world was at War, they stopped what they were doing and helped the enemy.

I will not focus on the qualities of this movie -- just on its unfair anti-American sentiment. It is done in the better tradition of the European cinema. However, I cannot but underrate it for its anti- American sentiments. It shows the Americans trigger-happy backward country bumpkins at the backdrop of the sophisticated moral issues the German skipper of the U-Boat and his British counter parts struggle with. The movie successfully shows the human suffering at war. Yet it seems to me quite preachy at times (the words of the skipper of the Laconia before it sinks, for example.) It is blowing out of proportion the supposedly kind act by the Nazi U-Boat captain. The flat, one- sided portrayal of the Americans came not to show that war can produce stupid mistakes but to juxtapose the Germans and British against the Americans. Let us not forget that this one act of kindness by a German U-boat captain has to be measured against the tons of reckless torpedoing of passenger ships by German submarines during the blockade of the UK in WW2. It was also unrealistic how the US bomber approached the U-boat dropped five bombs then all of a sudden, without sinking the submarine, the chief pilot said "Mission accomplished" and they flew back (supposedly low on fuel). Not sure how true to the historical fact this is but it is proper to remind the British and German directors that regardless of all the Nazi-British comradery shown in the film the actual goal of the 3rd Reich was to subject all nations to its ideological and military superiority. This does become clear to an extent in the film but the attempt to water down the historical role of the various parties in the war diminishes the film's potential.