The Sinking of the Laconia

This movie is based on true events surrounding the attack in 1942 of the large merchant / war vessel Laconnia - carrying over 2,000 people - by a german submarine and the subsequent events thereafter. Those exact events caused this "incident" to gain worldwide attention during the Nuremberg trials, because of the USA trying to bury their own inhumane acts. I personally was astonished to see what exactly happened in the end.

This movie - which totals almost 3 hours and is split in 2 'episodes' - kept me 'entertained' for the total duration. It very well shows the two sides of war, where the distinction between enemy and friend can become very blurry.

Overall, I score this movie 7.6/10, which makes a very well deserved IMDb rating of 8 stars.

In my opinion as a combat vet, this was a brilliant insight into the contradictions of war. There is brutality; there is compassion; there are heroes and there are cowards. Every war reveals humanity's best and even more its worst.

As for the movie, it was a powerful, well acted, portrayal of a real event of World War II. As much as I hate Hitler's Nazis, there were still men and women who managed to remain human. The faults of the English, who used a ship to transport both the privileged (esp. The women and children) and the Italian POWS, was not only reckless but inhumane.

I thank the British and German filmmakers, actors and production crews would told this story with award-winning skill and talent.

I thought it was a great show. Especially the German-Submarine-part was well done and reminded strongly on the great TV-show "Das Boot" From time to time I even wondered if they re-used the original "Das Boot" stage from Munich, Germany. I only need to complain that everything went too fast at the beginning. The first part could have been been told more deeply and even be extended into one more episode. I would have loved to see more about the life at the Laconia and the Submarine before the sinking. On the other side: The part of the cowardly father with his two children was a total waste of time and added nothing to the story. Great acting especially from Ken Duken who almost acted convincing like Jürgen Prochnow in "Das Boot". I liked also very much the role of Andrew Buchan and Thomas Kretschmann.

Over time many movies have pictured how the German Navy and Army conducted themselves in WWII. I don't write Nazies, because that is a political party and in general the Germans fought for their country. That being said, all sides of the war had their share of murders. If you think the allies never did anything wrong, you are very naive.

The submarine part of the German navy was led by Donitz and banned any political propaganda from the sub pens and submarines.

Its very known that if British and German submarines would meet, they would greet each other and part, due to respect for each others profession.

The movie itself shows the balance between being humane and full fill your obligations as a submariner.

Just happen to watch this movie about 2 months ago. I really enjoyed it, I didn't think for one second it was anti American. In the movie the scene people are referring to they were given direct orders to bomb, they reported what they saw. But in general I thought it was a great TV movie. People take stuff so serious. Just relax and take in the show. I'm starting to really enjoy international movies, to me just more depth. It's nice to see at war time what went on behind the scenes in other countries. Germany could have easily said screw those people but they showed compassion. Just think the world was at War, they stopped what they were doing and helped the enemy.