La grande speranza

This Italian movie is only incidentally about life aboard a submarine during the Second World War. It is no epic adventure like the more famous DAS BOOT or RUN SILENT, RUN DEEP. Rather it is a quiet reflective anti-war film about the dilemmas of good human beings trapped by the exigencies and ironies of war. The captain of this submarine, played with stature by Renato Baldini, is a good man, whose sense of humanity is tested to the limit. He rescues from drowning a group of mostly British sailors (including a woman, played by Lois Maxwell). He then, in very Italian fashion, invites them aboard until he can deposit them in the neutral port of Santa Maria in the Azores. The same thing happens with a group of Danish sailors. This time there is no room on board and the survivors must remain perilously on deck and perhaps die if the captain needs to submerge to attack another target. The nicest scene in the movie is the Christmas party on board complete with makeshift Christmas tree, decorations, carols, the exchange of good cheer and words of friendship between rescuers and `captives.' It all comes to a stark halt when the Danish ship is spotted and must be destroyed. The tree, the decorations get cast aside. Without sermonizing, this movie makes its point very effectively, and for that reason is worth seeing. The original title means `The Great Hope.' Its US title was `Submarine Attack.' This is a telling change, in that a `great hope' for peace doesn't sell tickets. The violence implied in the phrase `submarine attack' has more audience clout. Oh, well. The US release was dubbed, rather badly, into English and the synchronization, whenever there is any singing, is fairly dreadful. Nino Rota, who provided the music for many great Fellini films and Coppola's The Godfather movies, scored this one too.