It's rare that I watch a movie, if it's based on a book, without reading the book first. That's one of the reasons I lag on movies by quite a bit. But looking up on C.S. Forester's 1955 book, The Good Shepard, I decided that its one novel I will skip. Those who loved the book, appear to be with some naval experience, and the others complained that the naval lingo totally put them off - Course change after course change - mundane activity for the everyday reader. So I took up to watch the movie without no hesitation on missing out on the book.
And the movie ? It was jam packed 90 minutes of action ( maybe it was too short by about 20 minutes to 30 minutes, given the amount of action), with Hanks as the captain on his first crossing of the Atlantic, via the dreaded "Black Pit", facing a pack of U-boats - The Grey Wolf, as it were. As was with The Terminal, The Bridge of Spies, or Sully, Hanks himself with those troubled looks, working at a stretch for 48 hours, till his souls bled, foregoing each meal served him makes the difference making it worth the while for viewer. The other cast has the shortest possible slots to make impressions, and they do somewhat with their continued grave looks, and the occasional look of despair, as to whether the old man can pull it off.
Hanks plays well the "God fearing" captain, and wrote the script, and I suspect the novel with so many naval instructions on course changes may have interested him - after all we're talking of a man who collects type writers for a hobby.
All in all, a good war thriller, if you want to spend 90 minutes of your time in 1942, with no baggage of political correctness, but the travails of the time to. But, for Hanks, just another day in office.
Rating - ***
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