This excellent documentary charts the events of the night of 19th December 1981, when the eight crew of the lifeboat Solomon Browne died attempting to rescue eight people from the stricken coaster Union Star off the coast of Cornwall in hurricane force winds. The use of dramatic reconstructions is resisted and instead the film relies on eyewitness accounts, footage from a news article about the lifeboat (made shortly before the disaster) and recorded radio conversations, to weave a gripping and moving narrative. The climax, where radio contact is lost with the Solomon Browne after it had rescued four people from the Union Star and the coastguard is just left calling to the wind, is truly haunting. The film is a fitting tribute to the brave men who lost their lives that night.
2 Reviews
An unforgettable tribute
jnfe30 May 2018
The finest television documentary I have ever seen: watch it on YouTube and you will understand why. The Royal National Lifeboat Institution should arrange with the BBC to issue 'Cruel Sea: The Penlee Disaster' on DVD, as the most eloquent statement of its wonderful work.
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