The Sinking of the Laconia (2011)

Alan Bleasdale's drama, The Sinking of the Laconia recounts a controversial maritime incident in the second world war. The event took place some 600 miles from the west coast of Africa in September 1942 some.According to one British survivor. The German U Boat Commander, Werner Hartenstein sank the Laconia killing over 2000 passengers but then realising that civilians were in the ship including women, children, Italian prisoners of war, he risked his U Boat and the lives of his crew to sit on the surface all the time and rescue the survivors. The U Boat was then attacked by a US bomber despite displaying a red cross flag.Bleasdale adds some stories to the main narrative. Mortimer (Andrew Buchan), the Laconia's honourable Third Officer dutifully carrying on with his life just moments after learning his wife and children have been killed in a bombing raid. Hilda (Franka Potente) is a widow who lost her baby in the sinking. She sounds English but she is part German, guilty that she did not protest against the rise of Nazism unlike other members of her family.This is a well shot drama but not entirely enthralling. Bleasdale's reputation is such that you expect top drawer writing from him. Ken Duken stands out as Hartenstein but it is not in the level of Das Boot as a claustrophobic drama.

Nobody talks like this. The characterisation is flat with no clear motivations. Why does the British officer feel so betrayed by the German woman? 'You lied to me' - he's known her for about one day, and she didn't want to give herself away, obviously... The plot plods from one quasi-intellectual soliloquy to another. The whole thing is pretentious playwright preaching which detracts from the sad true incident it is based on.

First of all, I'm German and I want to leave out all the stuff about whether it is anti-American or not, because the bombing of the U-Boat Is a fact and the point brought up by some here that it's a movie to ease German conscious is bullshit. Let's just talk about the movie. First problem; it's too long. The arc of suspense is terrible. Next problem: at some points it just tries too hard to be Titanic. Biggest Problem: it's a serious movie, or at least wants to be and should be. But they put two cartoonish, annoying, cliché characters in this movie, which made me hit my head against the wall every time they appeared. I don't care for the fate of a character I hate. The egoistic father, and The "British lady". The fur coat wearing Lady is a walking cliché and by asking every five minutes in the second half where her daughter is and how hard life is she tries to force empathy. But no, she's just not a real person. Nobody on earth would behave like this and if somebody did, everybody would hate her. The leading roles of Ken Duken and Franka Potente are well performed. The general look of the movie is good. But the second half just lacks tension. At some points a solid movie, at some points horrible.

Just happen to watch this movie about 2 months ago. I really enjoyed it, I didn't think for one second it was anti American. In the movie the scene people are referring to they were given direct orders to bomb, they reported what they saw. But in general I thought it was a great TV movie. People take stuff so serious. Just relax and take in the show. I'm starting to really enjoy international movies, to me just more depth. It's nice to see at war time what went on behind the scenes in other countries. Germany could have easily said screw those people but they showed compassion. Just think the world was at War, they stopped what they were doing and helped the enemy.