Masterful Cinema

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

"Action in the North Atlantic" was never intended as anything but a home-front morale builder and needs to be viewed through that lens (as the message is laid on pretty thick, especially at the end). The film follows Massey's captain and Bogart's first mate and their crew as they survive being torpedoed in an oiler transporting fuel (for 'planes and tanks') to England and then play cat and mouse with a U-boat in a brand-new liberty ship while sailing in a convoy taking military hardware to Murmansk. Needless to say, the Germans are kitten-killers who laugh while ramming lifeboats while the Americans are a bunch of regular guys fighting for a noble cause. As always in these type of movies, someone voices anti-war sentiments and is either shut up (in this case by Bogie's fist) or, having been shown the light, signs up for a hitch. Considering the entire film was shot in studio and there is a limited amount of stock footage used, the movie is visually impressive. The scenes of the sinking submarines are particularly well done – you'd feel sorry for the submariners if they weren't Nazi kitten-killers. There are a number of scenes similar to The Enemy Below (1957) including tricking a U-boat into surfacing by pretending to be on fire (which makes more sense in this film, in which the 'burning' boat is a freighter and not a destroyer). Typical for movies of this era, the 'humour' has not aged well, especially the "brassy-dame showing up looking for her no-good husband/boyfriend" shtick. Overall: pretty good for what it is – a WW2 action film, but excellent from the perspective of understanding the role of movies in morale-building and propaganda during the second wold war. Also, it is nice to see a tribute to the 'Merchant Marine', which did as much to secure victory as did the combat branches of the Allied forces.

. . . which is not surprising, since during the past 200 years the only major wars the U.S. actually has won were the two featuring the "Union Label" (namely, the Civil War and WWII), while the haters of the Declaration of Independence have not only succeeded in making all the other conflicts "right to work" wars, but have loused them up into at best, "stalemates," or, at worse, outright losses. This movie highlights one half of the Union movement's two-prong assault on the Axis powers (which had easily conquered all the non-Union countries, such as Spain, Poland, China, the Philippines, and Russia). ACTION IN THE NORTH ATLANT!C screenwriter and good Union man Alvah Bessie wrote some strong Union dialog for the Merchant Marine Unionized heroes who kept the war supplies coming, in turn keeping England and Free France from collapsing, even prior to Pearl Harbor. Though the Republican money moguls who have replaced Jefferson's slogan "one man, one vote" with their own of "one dollar, one vote" immediately stripped Bessie of his writing credit and threw him into federal gulag prison, the true lines he wrote for ACTION IN THE NORTH ATLANT!C's heroes remain enshrined in this film for all eternity (at least until the Corporate hacks turn Orwell's 1984 into reality and successfully delete all human history and science which is not supportive of their ability to make more money). The other, equally vital, prong of the Union drive which won WWII was people such as my grandma, who switched from making valves for trumpets to making the bomb sight which allowed the Enola Gay to target Hiroshima. Other Union workers made the tanks, jeeps, planes, ships, and ammunition which stamped the Union label in the faces of Hitler and Hirohito. America will rise again, once unions include not just Humphrey Bogart, LeBron James, Cecil Fielder, and Brad Pitt, but at least 75% of the U.S. work force. Hopefully, this will come to pass in time to win the next World War!

My grandfather fought in the U.S. Merchant Marine and lost half a finger while at it, so I perked up when I saw that this film focused on these oft-forgot veterans of WWII. There sure aren't many films about them. In fact, they weren't even given the right to be buried as war veterans until 1988, when President Reagan signed the bill.And happily, it's a solid, interesting film. It doesn't shy away from showing how vulnerable these ships were, how many casualties they could take. Real attention is paid to individual members of the crew. Each one comes from a different walk of life, and they have their own views on the war and whether or not they want to be here. Raymond Massey does a fine job as the experienced, honourable captain, and Bogart takes a break from his dark, cynical characters to play the friendly and wise first-mate. He's still Bogart, of course -- a number of his lines have some of the trademark eloquent wit that he was given in his previous movies (such as Casablanca and The Maltese Falcon). He's worldly-wise, but not grim or disillusioned. He's a bit of a womaniser, but perhaps is not as loose as he pretends to be. He's firm and doesn't believe in nonsense, but has none of the hard cruelty or anger that comes out in his noir or "insane" role (i.e. Treasure of the Sierra Madre). He's as likable and dependable as ever. The other performances range from blandly adequate to quite good, with Alan Hale being as wonderfully likable and friendly as ever as the curmudgeonly comic relief. (love a good alliteration there, heh) The film is quite long, surprisingly. It takes its time to do scenes right, and give things weight. Only one element of the story was rushed, that being Bogart's romance. It doesn't last long, and is rather superfluous anyway. But the film never dragged too much. It could have been trimmed in some areas, but does not suffer badly for it.The special effects are quite impressive, actually. They must have used models for the ship and submarine battles, but darn if they don't look good. There is one shot in particular, near the end: a boat is ramming a surfaced submarine, and the impact is filmed from underwater. It is absolutely convincing, and very dramatic.And yes, it is a patriotic film, though not a fake or overbearing one. These men knew what they were fighting for, and in the movie they talk about it quite a bit. At one point, Bogart expresses the main reason why the experienced merchant mariners keep voluntarily returning to their ships instead of taking constant leave to be with their families. The essence of it is this: "We've spent a lot of time around Nazi ports, and we've seen what they're doing." Keep in mind, this movie was made in 1943, before the full horrors of the Holocaust were known. The Allies didn't know all that was happening yet, but they knew enough to be sure that it had to be stopped.This is not an extraordinary classic, but it is a very fine film, and a good one.

Three cheers for "AITNA" because it salutes guys who are not saluted in war films, our Merchant Marines. Yes, of course we Americans pay homage to the brave peoples of Great Britain and Soviet Russia who respectively wore Hitler down and then chopped him to pieces however let us not forget that without ordnance and supplies of every type from us,both nations would not have been able to pull off their miracles.I suppose "AITNA" can be considered a movie about revenge, specifically about a certain German U-boat which did Bogart, Massey and the rest, dirt at the outset of the film however it goes deeper. It's more about the perseverance, determination and aptness of a free nation, us,to weather the storms and Nazi U-boat dangers during our runs to England and Murmansk, Russia.There are 109 acting credits assigned to this film, five of which are such Warner Brothers stars such as Humphrey Bogart, Raymond Massey, Alan Hale, Dane Clark and Sam Levene. The story line was most interesting indeed, the battle scenes were graphic and I found all 126 minutes to be of high quality and riveting viewing.