Review: Greyhound (2020)

Some films are meant to be seen on the big screen, while others can survive launching on a TV platform.  One new film that was expecting to take the cinema route is Greyhound, starring and written by Tom Hanks.

Originally due to come out in cinemas in March, this release got pushed back by the pandemic to May/June, and eventually ended up premiering on Apple TV+ on July 10^th.  An unusual step, but not surprising given the situation.

Based on the 1955 novel The Good Shepherd by C. S. Forester, the plot follows a convoy of Allied ships crossing the Atlantic during World War II, led by Commander Ernest Krause (Tom Hanks).  Despite being a senior officer, this is his first wartime command, and as Captain of the USS Keeling (codenamed Greyhound), he is responsible for protecting 37 ships from the threat of German U-boats.  Over the course of a few days tensions mount as they traverse the ‘Black Pit’, the gap in the Atlantic where they can’t get any air cover.

With a budget of $50 million, the first thing that you notice is that the visuals are very well done, and it gives you the right sense of the environment.  Alongside that thought is whether it is as effective on the small screen as it would have been in the cinema.  Unless this does get a later cinema release, this will be difficult to answer, but generally I would say that it does hold its own, even on the small screen.  Predominately, this is probably because a lot of the visual is inside the ship, and outside shots are only used for key sequences.

The next thing that is obvious is the runtime, which is exceptionally short.  Taking away the credits, this essentially has 80 minutes of drama, and it feels short.  With some films the meat of the story can be delivered, with a decent pacing, within a short runtime, and any longer would make it uneven or seem stretched.  Here though, it rattles through the journey far too quickly, and fails to give us any real depth to the characters in the meantime.  I can’t help but wonder whether it would have been better to add an additional 20 minutes and let us know some more about the characters, and the context of the war at that point.  We don’t really know much about anyone, even Krause himself, and many are just wafer thin props, such as his partner Evelyn (Elizabeth Shue), or his Executive Officer, Lt Col Cole (Stephen Graham).  When you have actors of that calibre, they should really be given a bit more to play with.

Contrast this with the film that examined the U-boat perspective on the other side of this conflict, Das Boot (1981), and these deficiencies seem even more of a misstep.  Das Boot is one of the all-time classic war films and stands up today as a great example of how to show tension, fear, and action, while also showing the tedious nature and human aspects of war.  We get to see who the crew are, and how the conflict affects them over time.  The director’s cut of Das Boot is suitably 3 hrs and 29 minutes long, which is obviously significantly different to Greyhound.  While Das Boot does admittedly take place in 1941 before the US joined the war, compared to 1942 in Greyhound, the basic comparison holds true.

That isn’t to say there isn’t a lot to enjoy here, as it’s a well-crafted and well-acted film.  There is some suspense and emotion delivered by the cast, in a believable way, and it is entertaining.  The main problem is just that it could have gone further with the source material and packed a much bigger punch.