The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

if you look closely and are somewhat familiar with the silhouette of a WW II German submarine you will notice the wrong conning tower. This conning tower is of a RN submarine to which an aft gun platform has been added. In jargon the German sailors called it "Wintergarden". To make this sub more closely resemble a U-boat, the bow net saw was added. In all it's not a bad movie, especially with Peter O'Toole as the main character. I like the way have cast the German Kapitaen Leutnant as the sub's captain. As in reality, those sub captains were all quite young, most in their early or mid twenties. As the crews were even younger, the captain was called DER ALTE.

This movie hooked me when I first saw it on television back in the late 1970s. It was made at a time when action/suspense movies did not rely on melodrama, super-human characters, or stunts and special effects that defy the laws of physics; rather, the story follows real people (played by actors who can actually act) in dramatic conflict. The ending is not Hollywood: it is tragic, melancholic, satisfying, and lasting. Peter O'Toole is, as always, pitch-perfect playing an Irishman in the British merchant marine during World War II. Reminiscent of Terrence Malik, director Peter Yates evokes both the calm, tropical beauty of the movie's setting on the Orinoco river delta in Venezuela, and the reflexive violence and weariness of men who have lived at war for half a decade. Muphy's War is one of those rare action/suspense movies driven by characters, realism, not just plot and explosions.This is one of my all-time favorite World War II movies.

I first saw this film in the mid-to-late 1970's when it aired on television. Before the VCR made movies readily available, my older brother and I always made a point to catch this movie whenever it aired - such a great combination of scenery, machinery, revenge; all with very realistic acting, sets, and dialog. Everything in this film has a great patina to it. As submarine-related movies go, I'd put this one right up there with "Das Boot" for realism in terms of the sub footage, and as someone else posted here, the sound on the flying sequences is great! There's one scene in the movie involving a machine shop, a Victrola, and a big band-era song played over and over. A few years ago I became obsessed with trying to find a copy of this song (which I learned was titled "My Hat's on the Side of my Head"). I managed to find a copy, and actually enjoy playing it over and over when I'm out in my garage working on my car, lawn mower, etc. Having grown up on a farm doing repairs on equipment for years, I have to say this may be the only film I can think of that has any memorable scenes dealing with mechanic-type work.

In scanning through these reviews, I'm very pleased to see that this movie is well liked by many people.I saw it first around the time it came out and even though I was only eleven or twelve, many things about this movie left an impression on me: the sunny, tropical locations, the excellent cast and the impeccable performances.The very last scene where Murphy is literally consumed by his own revenge is at least as memorable and disturbing as the last scene in The Planet of the Apes (60's version) and drives home the whole point of the movie as perfectly as I've ever seen it done.See it! You won't be disappointed.