The Battle of the River Plate

A former teacher of mine who had previously served in the navy was a fan of this film and made a passionate speech once in school about the underlying themes of the film which was about understanding and respecting your enemies.

The admirable filmmaking partnership Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger turn their attention to The Battle of the River Plate 10 years after the end of the second world war with an entertaining reconstruction of three smaller warships against the German Pocket Battleship 'Graf Spee' skippered by a seemingly honourable Captain Langsdorf (Peter Finch) although in opening scenes it looks like the Graf Spee has sunk a British vessel inside Portuguese territorial waters.

There is a lot of cat and mouse as the British commanders anticipate Langsdorf's next moves, in between the lull you have diplomatic manoeuvrings between the Allies and Nazis against the Uruguayan government. In the climax you have a live American broadcast from a cafe/bar in the harbour with Christopher Lee playing a South American bar owner.

Powell and Pressburger shy away from the jingoism and histrionics that plagued a lot of post war films, I guess they did their bit for the war effort during the war itself with films like Colonel Blimp and as always were ahead of their time even when making a post war film looking back at the start of the war.

There is little about the personal lives of the seamen, we do not see them reminiscing about the loved ones waiting for them back home. Its all about strategy and getting the job done with a few scenes of comic relief.

The film is very well photographed and they had the cooperation of the Royal Navy that supplied naval ships for the film. However they could had done with some model work as their were some jarring scenes with the studio shots that do not stand up too well these days.