jimcarroll-00309

Story is NOT about PT-218; it's about the Liberty Ship SS Lawton B. Evans. Characters only mildly engaging; multiple errors in time-of-day, such as a boat launching from the ship on a commando raid at night and the next scene shows them running along the beach in full daylight. Was OK watching it on DVD from the library because I'm a history geek; glad I didn't spend money at the theater to see it.

I saw the film this past weekend at the Julien Dubuque International Film Festival (JDIFF). I was a volunteer at the festival and I saw it only because I had to substitute for the original film host. My first clue that this might be something special came when the we had to move the showing from the original room to another venue twice as large, and still had to turn people away. The final showing on Sunday was moved to our largest theater.

The actor who played Jack was clearly channeling the spirit of Clint Eastwood. From the first moment where he fished this beaten and broken girl from his lake, he gives her no "warm fuzzies" -- if she wants to live, she has to work to live. At the same time, he comes to learn that he still has a lot to learn, symbolized in the scene where he tosses her an MRE. She tries to rip it open, but can't. She hands it back to him, asking how to open it; he takes it, tries himself, then looks down at it and says "D*mned if I know." One of those small simple scenes that reveal how the character is growing.

Definitely one to see when a regular distributor picks it up, or if it becomes available on Amazon..