I love this movie so much

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

I admit on this particular story I'm not so au fait with they exact facts, so I am just reviewing this film based on what it is. A Truly wonderful timeless classic film. I am a big fan of Raul Walsh whom directed this film, in this film he has created another masterpiece. A 19th Century Captain of a British Fleet, the film is taken from the books of C. F. Forester. Gregory Peck is just amazing in his role of Captain Horatio Hornblower, Hornblower is a simple honest man who believes in his duty and honour. The scenery and film score add to the quality of this film, there are some superb wonderful truly romantic scenes with Lady Barbara Wellesley and also superbly acted by Virginia Mayo. This is just another great time classic film with a truly majestic director.

Until the mega million dollar production of Pirates of the Caribbean, good high seas adventure were all made in the '40s to '60s. Out of all of them, this one stands out as one of the best. Gregory Peck stars as the capt. Horatio Hornblower. His acting is superb in this movie. Of all the years I've watched sea adventures, this one still stands out as one of the best. The influence of this movie is far reaching as Gene Roddenberry took part of his Star Trek idea from this movie. In the book "The Making of Star Trek" (by Stephen E. Whitfield and Gene Roddenberry (Jul 1, 1970)), Roddenberry mentions about the concept of Star Trek in the early days was to create an adventure like Capt. Horatio Hornblower in space. Even the horn theme that this movie has sound's a bit like the one used in Star Trek TOS.Capt. Horatio confounds the Mexican tyrant, French navy, and steals a Dutch ship to make it back to his home port. All with esprit like never seen in other movies.Certainly one of the best if not the very best sea adventure movie ever produced.

This movie was far better than I expected for it's time, given they had no access to cgi and had to rely on ship models and shots of existing tall masters to recreate the naval battles. I loved it from start to finish, how can you go wrong with Gregory Peck at the helm! He was an awesome actor at 35 too! I wish they would re-do the hornblower movies with modern technology.The naval battle scenes are excellent, and demonstrate the correct sailing tactics near flawlessly. The outcomes are realistic, for example after sailing into an enemy port and blowing up 4 enemy ships at anchor, it is shown just how suicide this would have been as the fort quickly destroys them as they try to escape.The damage these old ships took when in battle is shown well, the only thing not properly shown, likely due to censorship rules at the time, is the blood. This makes the movie enjoyable for the girlfriend though, and the nice thread of a love story through the movie keeps her entertained while I watch the kewl ship battles.

This film could have been even greater had they spent more time with the escape of Horatio and his men from enemy France.The first part of the film was often tedious. Some momentum builds with the battle scenes. They really appeared to be quite authentic.Surprisingly, to me, Gregory Peck lacked the stamina for the part of Horatio Hornblower. It is only when the picture progresses that he really takes command of the title role. Virginia Mayo,as his love interest, first appears as if she is a dance hall queen. How surprising it is when Hornblower returns home to find out that he is widowed with a baby boy. There was never any hint whatsoever that he had been married while he cavorted with Mayo on board the ship.Too bad that Errol Flynn was regarded as too old for the part by 1951. While Peck wanted Margaret Leighton for his leading lady, she would have been entirely too regal. Susan Hayward, or Jean Crain should have been brought in. How about Deborah Kerr? After all, she was British.