The Battle of the River Plate

It's 1939 and Poland has just fallen to the Nazis. Hitler thinks the rest of Europe will now back off and let him do his thing. The Germans currently patrol the world's oceans, staking their claim to world domination with U-boats, magnetic mines and surface raiders (also known as pocket battleships). These surface raiders are colloquially known as the 'tigers of the sea', helping to blockade the UK during WWII in an attempt to starve them into submission. The Battle of the River Plate focuses on one of these ships - the Graf Spee, scourge of the Atlantic, and the three British battle cruisers that seek to destroy it.

There are two things you'll probably need to take into account before watching this film - the first is that it's a very British film primarily about British pluck and dignity in the face of poor odds, and so the film puts a firm spin on the British victory in this battle being hardwon rather than inevitable. The second thing worth noting is that The Battle of the River Plate is oddly structured in order to prioritise historical accuracy - the first act presents events from the German perspective via the point of view of a captured British sea captain who is held aboard the Graf Spee as a prisoner, the second act concerns the British ships that come across the Graf Spee and engage it in battle, and the third act concentrates on the strategic endgame between both sides that takes place in the neutral harbour of Montevideo, Uruguay.

Like a lot of meat and potato war films, The Battle of the River Plate focuses a little too much on strategy-talk, routine and military detail. From a dramatic point of view, nowhere near enough time is spent on characterisation, and the script lacks the rise-and-fall momentum that accompanies traditionally successful film-plotting. The film does benefit however from lush full-colour cinematography and high production values, and no doubt it has a special place in the hearts of war buffs as an earnest and accurate record of the events as they happened. It's also interesting to note that everybody (even the German contingent) is terribly nice to one another - a blanket depiction of honourable conduct in war that goes against the grain of most British or American films from the era (which typically presented the Germans as stereotypical Nazi bad guys).

The battle scenes are quite effective (if a little low-key in terms of actor performances), realistically showing the accumulative damage sustained to each ship, and the attention paid to detail is impressive (EG. The finer details of different ship models, extras speaking German, various scenes depicting naval routine). There's also some great location work in Uruguay for the last third of the film, and more than a few magnificent shots of massive battle cruisers dwarfed in the shimmer of vast oceans at dawn. There's one scene of efficient Nazi might where the bombastically sinister music swells as the ship's loudspeakers cry out "Achtung! Ahctung!" and the camera cranes upwards to fit in the view of the ship's massive guns. It's great stuff, and there's more than a few of these breathtaking moments, though it may be hard to watch for some viewers who are used to the pace and plotting of modern films. I have to admit that I found the overall film a bit dull at times despite it's strengths.

TRIVIA: Christopher Lee has an early role as a background comedy character, a Uruguayan nightclub owner. He's quite easy to spot and has a few scenes, though all his lines are in Spanish.

The real-life Captain Langsdorff (played quite gentlemanly in the film by Peter Finch) actually committed suicide a few days after his ship was destroyed.

The film is also known as The Pursuit of the Graf Spee.

DIRECTOR: Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger
WRITER/SOURCE: Written by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, based on real events in WWII.
KEY ACTORS: Anthony Quayle, John Gregson, Peter Finch, Christopher Lee

RELATED TEXTS:
- Powell and Pressburger were heavily influenced by the film In Which We Serve.
- Michael Powell later wrote a book based on the film, The Last Voyage of the Graf Spee (also known as Death in the Atlantic).

AWARDS:
Nominated for three BAFTA awards - Best British Film, Best Film From Any Source and Best Screenplay.