Some reviewers feel that this film is dull and stagey. I tend to agree.
I grew up with those British war films of the 1950's. I was a kid in Australia and nearly all our dads and many of our mums had played a part in the war. Where documentaries showed us what happened, those films gave us a feeling for the times and the spirit of the people involved. They were different in tone to the Hollywood product; more understated and less histrionic - even the music sounded different.
Some of them are special. I never tire of "The Dam Busters" even with its raggedy-edge explosions and the retrospective questions of morality that surround it.
In comparison, I thought "The Battle of the River Plate" static and tedious, even though they had real warships to play with. Why did so much get filmed on stagey looking studio sets, especially the officers on their various bridges? Ultimately, poor model work and the lack of convincing special effects really hurt the film.
But they were good for the times some would say. Well, not really. A British film, "The Yangtze Incident", made around the same time showed what was possible. It had amazing battle scenes using a real ship. Check them out; the relevant clips are online. It was filmed in Britain and the shots of HMS Amethyst ploughing through exploding shells and towering waterspouts show how lacklustre "River Plate" is.
The juice also leaked from the drama when it was hard to work out who was shooting at whom and with the distracting subplot involving the British prisoners. Finally, those talky scenes in Montevideo and the American reporter sprouting pages of exposition in the ridiculous bar run by Peter Cushing are totally eye glazing.
To show how restrained Powell and Pressburger were, Peter Finch's Captain Langsdorff sails off into the sunset at the end. In real life, the guy committed suicide the next day. Amazingly, the filmmakers didn't think it dramatic enough to put in the film.
Maybe my disappointment comes from comparing "River Plate" to the best British war films. Back in the day they all came out around the same time. Some stayed in the memory even after 60 years and others simply sank without trace, a bit like the Admiral Graf Spee.
I grew up with those British war films of the 1950's. I was a kid in Australia and nearly all our dads and many of our mums had played a part in the war. Where documentaries showed us what happened, those films gave us a feeling for the times and the spirit of the people involved. They were different in tone to the Hollywood product; more understated and less histrionic - even the music sounded different.
Some of them are special. I never tire of "The Dam Busters" even with its raggedy-edge explosions and the retrospective questions of morality that surround it.
In comparison, I thought "The Battle of the River Plate" static and tedious, even though they had real warships to play with. Why did so much get filmed on stagey looking studio sets, especially the officers on their various bridges? Ultimately, poor model work and the lack of convincing special effects really hurt the film.
But they were good for the times some would say. Well, not really. A British film, "The Yangtze Incident", made around the same time showed what was possible. It had amazing battle scenes using a real ship. Check them out; the relevant clips are online. It was filmed in Britain and the shots of HMS Amethyst ploughing through exploding shells and towering waterspouts show how lacklustre "River Plate" is.
The juice also leaked from the drama when it was hard to work out who was shooting at whom and with the distracting subplot involving the British prisoners. Finally, those talky scenes in Montevideo and the American reporter sprouting pages of exposition in the ridiculous bar run by Peter Cushing are totally eye glazing.
To show how restrained Powell and Pressburger were, Peter Finch's Captain Langsdorff sails off into the sunset at the end. In real life, the guy committed suicide the next day. Amazingly, the filmmakers didn't think it dramatic enough to put in the film.
Maybe my disappointment comes from comparing "River Plate" to the best British war films. Back in the day they all came out around the same time. Some stayed in the memory even after 60 years and others simply sank without trace, a bit like the Admiral Graf Spee.