The Sinking of the Laconia

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 couldn't disagree more with the other review already posted.

I found it a very convincing piece of drama, especially the u-boat scenes were reminiscent of the other great u-boat drama "Das Boot" with the camaraderie on the sub.

The acting, especially from Ken Duken as Hartenstein, was subtle and excellent.There were some brilliantly acted, moving scenes with Brian Cox, Andrew Buchan and Franka Potente. There are some slightly comic scenes that add a bit of life as it is to the drama.

Alan Bleasdale took his story from research in many survivors stories and created his view of the Sinking of the Laconia. It was much more true to the real histories than the majority of war- dramas I know(even " Das Boot" took liberties).

I don't care for the exact badges and stripes on the navy uniforms.Those are minor details(visible only for experts) that don't detract the average viewer from the story.

But careful: this review is for the UK-version of the film only . The German TV-version is different(edit,music, language)!!!

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.

A movie, certainly too much pro-Italy-Germany but very interesting and in some scenes well executed. The Americans as well as the Russians made big mistakes due to their bad preparation and the Polish have always been a shame, unable to defend themselves, not intelligent, not good men.

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.