THE BEDFORD INCIDENT
US, 1965, 105 minutes, Black and White.
Richard Widmark, Sidney Poitier, Martin Balsam, Eric Portman, James Macarthur.
Directed by James B, Harris.
The Bedford Incident looks like a navy action-suspense story most of the time, but it has a swift, alarming ending which fits it into the nuclear scare category of films from 1962 to 1965 which include Panic in Year Zero, These are the Damned, Failsafe, Dr. Strangelove and Seven Days in May. The Bedford Incident is more straightforward than these and makes an important but plain point - that the responsibility for decisions which involve men's lives can never be put into the hands of single-minded fanatics. Tense, automatic and unquestioning discipline without balanced humane living of life makes a man a machine that can accidentally misfire. Richard Widmark portrays the dangerous Captain well. Sidney Poitier has really little to do as a journalist aboard the Bedford. Martin Balsam adds another effective character role to his repertory.
A minor, but sufficiently effective, film.
1. Was this a realistic film or was it far fetched? Why?
2. What was the point behind the film or was it merely a story?
3. Did the Captain run the Bedford efficiently? Did he run it well?
4. Was the Captain really as hard as he was made out to be?
5. Is such policing and spying as the Bedford was engaged in necessary during peace-time? What were its aims?
6. Why did the journalist apply to Join the Bedford for his background to an article? What interested him about the Captain?
7. What motivated the Captain? Was he anti-Communist? Why did he take a strong outspoken line? (Why had he been passed over for Admiral?) Why was he suspicious of others?
8. Was the Captain a fanatic? Why did he enjoy the hunt? (Contrast the other officers, the Commodore, the doctor, the journalist.)
9. Was the Bedford crew too tense? Did they need exercise and recreation programmes? Why was no one ever sick?
10. Why did the officer fire the rocket? Who was to blame? (Was this situation prepared for during the film - the Captain's treatment of the officer - cutting him down to size, his tense glances, and automatic, unthinking carrying out of orders, the collapse of the radio operator, the clash with the doctor)?
11. The Commodore said of the submarine crew that desperate men were forced to do reckless things. How was this true of the Bedford? Why did the Captain look so bewildered at the end?
12. Why was there no evasion procedure prepared for torpedo attack?
13. What comment on the world's nuclear situation and tensions did the end of the film make?
14. What did it reveal about the type of man needed for this kind of situation and the need for balance instead of paranoia and fanaticism?
15. Is this nuclear parable still valid to-day?
