SUBMARINE X-1

US, 1968, 90 minutes, Colour.
James Caan.
Directed by William A. Graham.

Submarine X-1 is a conventional war film, coming more than twenty years after the events. It is based on the X submarines who are able to target the German ship Tirpitz. However, the episode is fictionalised in this conventional film.

1 What is the main appeal of war films for audiences? The appeal of this film?

2. What was the quality of this war film? Average or more than average? The particular qualities? A war film of the late sixties?

3. What in the main interest in war films? Personnel, the mission, the sense of achievement? Which predominated here?

4. The plan and the trainings the details of the mission, the personal conflicts, the details of the practice, the danger and the skills the final capture, the final success? How well visualized were these? The atmosphere of suspense, the attention to detail?

5. How important were the human themes? The,personality of Bolton, the initial loss of the submarine, his being blamed for the loss? The clash of personalities? His being exonerated, his new command? His decisiveness? impersonality? Daring and relentlessness? The impact of the training? The nature of his success?

6. The detail of the human conflicts, the prologue and the sinking of the submarine, the hospital sequences, Shiton's demands for obedience, Quentin and his pushing himself? Sumner, Davies, and the decision to try to get through the day?

7. The portrayal of the British Commander, the decisions of those in authority, the backing up?

8. The drama of the German raid and the action in the film?

9. The presentation of the climax, the getting through the wire, the frogmen, the capture, the torture, the escape, the final explosion?

10. What is the explanation of the mystique of war in the film tradition? Questions of patriotism? The presentation of the British and their achievement? How real does this seem? What values to war films like this stand for?