The Bedford Incident (1965)

THE BEDFORD INCIDENT is a Cold War thriller like no other. It's set on an American destroyer sailing off the coast of Greenland and looks at the psychology of the dedicated, over-zealous captain leading the mission to hunt a Russian submarine. Richard Widmark has a long career of playing officers in war pictures but this is his most developed part, a study of a man for whom winning means everything.Sidney Poitier plays a writer who acts as the eyes and ears of the audience. What a refreshing change to see no mention made of his race; he's just an ordinary guy and it's a sign of the times that he was accepted as such by the men on the warship. Martin Balsam has a good role too as the ship's doctor with his own cross to bear.For the most part, THE BEDFORD INCIDENT is quite a slow-paced story with plenty of dialogue and just a few suspense sequences to keep the viewer absorbed. However, things begin to gel together more and more as the film goes on, leading to a wildly impressive climax that'll have your jaw dropping. It puts the rest of the movie into a different perspective, that's for sure. Watch out for a youthful Donald Sutherland playing one of the ship's medics.

I must confess I'd not heard of this film as it was off my radar (no pun intended) despite starring those two fine actors Sidney Poitier and Richard Widmark in the leads and the solid Martin Balsam in support. More fool me as it proved to be a fine, gritty Cold War thriller, highlighting explicitly then and still, I'd contend, now, that one wilful or accidental action in the heat of the moment could lead to catastrophe for the world. The film skilfully combines a study of men under pressure with the wider political picture, at the same time cleverly invoking the classic story of Moby Dick, with Widmark's Captain Freelander as obsessed with catching a fleeing Russian submarine as old Captain Ahab was his pesky whale.All the action takes place on Freelander's US navy destroyer encompassing a gradually increasing character examination of the wilful Captain, driving his crew to exhaustion and the end of their wits by keeping them constantly at attention or GQ as it's called here, so that in the end a simple misunderstanding by a pressurised, even terrorised young officer of a phrase used by the captain in conversation leads to disaster. The abrupt ending is particularly memorable, the better for being so inevitable and brutal.Widmark as the crusty old captain is excellent in his portrayal of this particular single-minded sailor, while Poitier is also fine as the journalist who by questioning the captain's methods effectively acts as the conscience of the film, for once his skin colour having no bearing on his character''s relevance to the plot. Balsam too steps up as the passed over new medical officer who yet predicts the climactic outcome from way back.Tautly directed in black and white, the tension is palpable as the American ship closes in on its prey and nerves become frayed to breaking point on the bridge, in so doing making an early case for greater psychological consideration due to crew members as advocated by Balsam's character.Topical and relevant, especially with recent events echoing even today in Syria, this is an unflinching and superbly acted contemporary thriller which deserves to be better known.

The 1965 cold war film, "The Bedford Incident", by James B. Harris is a great suspenseful production. The storyline is written quite well, and accompanied by the great acting from the cast, i instantly became drawn into the film, feeling as if i was there. I thought the angles used by the cameras and the shots they produced where amazing. I felt that the sound effects and lighting added to the tension that built up throughout the film. I did think that the models that were used, the boat and the iceberg, could have been a little more realistic, but hey. All in all i give the film , "The Bedford incident" 4 1/2 out of 6 chicken nuggets

The Bedford Incident (1965)A tightly focused moment in an imaginary cold war naval confrontation, the Incident in question is an example a small thing becoming a big one. This was the big fear in the Soviet/American nuclear buildup. Richard Widmark as the ship's captain is in a intense mode without the snarling excesses that made him a film noir staple. Martin Balsam as the newly arrived doctor, and Sydney Poitier as a congenial photographer both fill in roles of reason and normalcy--the you and me of the situation. And then there are the side characters, and the one impulsive moment that changes everything.It's hard to call this a great film. The pace and editing, the photography, and the acting are all first class, certainly. The writing on a broad level is fine, the concept in total. On the immediate level, the dialog is good with a slightly predictable edge to many lines. But it works overall, just not brilliantly. What holds it together for us is a sense of history--the very real fear of atomic annihilation--and it's a history that is thankfully starting to feel a little distant. Not that I think nuclear war is less likely now than then, but that this kind of war, with superpowers toe-to-toe at the brink, is no more. And so something the movie had then, the immediacy of pure terror, the walking out of the theater into the street and looking up with sweat at the sky, it doesn't have now. And it might need that to fully succeed.