german cruisers world of warships review

In accordance with the Hague Convention, the Graf Spee's Captain Langsdorff is given barely enough time to make his ship seaworthy, without improving her fighting efficiency, before having to leave port. She is tracked down by three British and New Zealand cruisers and after a fierce battle takes refuge in the harbor of Montevideo, Uruguay. The 'pocket battleship' (in armor and armament, somewhere between a battleship and a heavy cruiser) Graf Spee is abroad in the Atlantic, sinking British merchant shipping. Overall, not a film for the casual viewer but certainly one for history and naval buffs out there. However, I did appreciate how the film portrayed him as an ultimately decent and competent man-a nice requiem for a fallen enemy who was just doing his duty. Finally, and I can understand why they didn't mention this, shortly after the German Captain scuttled his ship he committed suicide. The word was 'Plata'-meaning Silver River when correctly translated into English.

Second, oddly, in the original version, the movie is called 'The Battle of the River Plate' but there was no River Plate. First, of course the Spee had been sunk, so an American ship filled in-and this is certainly forgivable. There are a few omissions or mistakes in the film, but they aren't all that important. This and the script really worked together to produce a film that seemed almost like a documentary in how it tried very hard to get the details right-and as a WWII buff, this impressed me very much. While there were many fine British actors in important roles (Anthony Quayle, Bernard Lee and Peter Finch, among others), to the average American audience they probably will seem more like sea men versus actors. Unfortunately, while this film was big on realism, it also will probably seem a tad dull to the average person because it did stress realism and not huge name actors and unnecessary action. I enjoyed this film very much because I am a history teacher and love realistic war films. This ship did a lot of damage to British shipping during the early days of the war until she was ultimately hunted down by a small armada of smaller and very vulnerable naval vessels. This film is about the final days of the German pocket battleship (like a heavy cruiser), GRAF SPEE.

German cruisers world of warships review