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VHS Cover
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Film Poster
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Film Poster
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The boats of the Belinda experience their first
combat during the Battle of Makin as they storm the beaches of the atoll. Next
follow battles at Kwajalein, Saipan, Guam, and Leyte, but the movie just
inserts some historical film clips rather than shows the Belinda's
participation in these battles. At one point three unknown planes approach the
fleet, so Hawks asks Ensign Twitchell, the ship's signal officer, to identify
the planes. He mistakenly identifies them as enemy planes rather than American Hellcat
fighters, and one of the other ships in the fleet shoots down a plane with
friendly fire. Away All Boats clearly pays tribute to the wartime
performance of the US Navy, which provided support and lent ships for the film, but this
friendly fire incident and a few other scenes show that the film's director was
willing to expose some embarrassing actions by officers and men in the US Navy.
The last quarter of the film covers two waves of mass
kamikaze attacks early in the Battle of Okinawa and the saving of the Belinda
after being hit by three Japanese planes. Despite several kamikaze planes in
the first wave of 20 to 25 planes being shot down by gunners on the Belinda
and other nearby ships, one plane slams into the attack transport near the
waterline and kills 26 men in and near sick bay. After a short reprieve, later
in the same day five separate groups of Japanese planes approach from different
directions and attack the Belinda and nearby ships. Two more planes hit
the Belinda, even though Captain Hawks tries to wave off the last
incoming plane by yelling out, "Get away from my ship! Get your filthy
plane away from my ship!" Hawks gets seriously wounded from the third and
final kamikaze hit, but he stays alive until his men work together to keep the
ship from sinking and use the Belinda's boats to tow the ship to safety
at Kerama Retto.
Jeff Chandler turns in an excellent performance as Captain
Hawks, a demanding leader who keeps pushing his men to the highest performance
level so they will be ready for battle. MacDougall understands how Hawks must
stay apart emotionally from the other officers and his crew in order to make
effective decisions as captain. He becomes the object of his men's hatred when
he orders them to build him a personal sailboat rather than to repair the
ship's landing craft for an upcoming battle. However, MacDougall comes to
understand that Hawks did this deliberately so that his men would start
working together as a team rather than fighting with each other. When Hawks
dies at the end of the movie after seeing that his ship will make it safely to
Kerama Retto, MacDougall says to the ship's doctor, "All of us are better
than we ever thought we could be because of what he gave us. I'm going to go
home again because of him."
MacDougall, even though he had his own command in the
merchant marine prior to joining the Navy, keeps levelheaded and understands
his new role reporting to Captain Hawks. Although he clearly disagrees with
some of the Captain's comments toward him, he tries to support Hawks and does
not talk back nor become embittered. MacDougall explodes only when Hawks tells
him that he blocked a couple of opportunities for him to have command of his own
ship.
Ultimately, when Hawks is dying, he transfers command of the Belinda to
MacDougall. Although MacDougall has a
wife and young son at home, his family receives no attention except at the
movie's beginning when his wife says goodbye to him and during an extended
flashback after he receives letters from his wife. This flashback of his
courtship and his homecomings does not fit well with the rest of the film.
Several other memorable characters add humor and appeal to Away
All Boats. For example, Gilbert Hubert, the garbage grinder who always
carries a strong stench, takes great pride in keeping a clean area and plays a
critical role to ensure any waste dumped into the sea is thoroughly ground up
so it will not be detected by enemy submarines. Ensign Twitchell, signal
officer, tries to browbeat the crewmen with his officer rank, but eventually
Captain Hawks transfers him off the ship due to his technical incompetence and
his lack of leadership skills.
Both the film and the book on which the film is based
realistically portray life aboard an attack transport and combat faced by the
battalion landing teams and the ship's gunners. The movie, of course, contains
far less details than the novel of over 400 pages, but the film director closely
follows the novel's plot and includes almost all the main characters from the
book. One major difference is that the novel has another captain, Winthrop
Gedney, before Jebediah Hawks takes command of the ship. Captain Hawks in the
film combines traits from both captains in the novel. The actual US Navy ships
used in the film make the scenes realistic, although the attacking kamikaze
planes shown in the film do not reach the same high standard. A couple of the
flaming planes approaching the ship seem quite realistic, but the planes shot
down by the Belinda's gunners appear to be cheap models when they
explode in the air.
Away All Boats stands out from other fictional films
as the only one that focuses on a ship hit by kamikaze pilots. The movie
shows the carnage inflicted by these suicide attacks, but it also gives a
heroic portrayal of how the crewmen work together to save the Belinda.
This thoughtful and realistic film stands as a Pacific War classic.
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