Hard Graf

The Battle of the River Plate (1956)

Based on real events this film from Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger stars Anthony Quayle and Peter Finch. A German heavy cruiser faces off against three Commonwealth cruisers in the early part of WW2.

While this film is largely told from the point of view of the Allies it does give a fair portrayal of the German captain who is shown as a professional naval officer rather than a Nazi caricature. What stands the film apart from most naval war films is that it mainly uses real war ships rather than model work and that is a vast improvement even if it is fairly obvious an American ship is used to portray the German raider. Over all this is a well made effort that largely sticks to the facts which is in sharp contrast to the modern trend of forcing fictional narratives into real events.

4/5