The Bedford Incident

I enjoyed this movie over the years.

An older film, but right up to date. Lots of well known actors, many from way back. Nice to see them again. I have probably seen this film six times and it just gets better.

Outstanding performances from the leads, supporting cast is top notch, and some fabulous cameos by future stars.

This DVD has CC and is of a high quality. A great product.

Great product and service.

Wow. That is my reaction to this movie. It is a very rare movie that leaves you saying "wow."What is amazing about it to me is that it never takes the obvious route. It's not Mutiny on the Bounty with disgruntled sailors. It's not about some maniacal captain; he's not crazy, he's not over the top. It's completely serious business, and they all take it completely seriously. And the detail is amazing. I learned a ton about how hunting submarines works. In particular I loved that they never explained what you're listening for when they run the sonar, they let you figure it out. Another thing that is particularly good about it is the humanity. In any normal war movie the soldiers are treated as video game extras--who cares how many people are killed, that's the whole point, let's blow up some people. In this movie, the real lives that were at stake were the entire point. There was no international tension going on here. Whatever happens isn't going to end up in WWIII. The only thing at stake is the lives of the men in the submarine and the men in the ship, and that is the point. You're not hunting a whale, these are real men. It's really amazing.This is James B. Harris's first movie as director. It is interesting to note the similarities between this and Dr. Strangelove, which Harris did not work on. (Harris, if you don't know, was Kubrick's producer early on, Lolita, Killing, and Paths of Glory.) Certainly not in style, but in the devotion to realism, especially during the bomber scenes of Strangelove. A lot of close quarters and wide-angle close-ups, which Kubrick of course loved. One could say, in a way, that this movie is a serious version of Strangelove.

This movie was made in the period when Hollywood was transitioning from the melodramatic to realistic style. Their cast includes many stars but the performances by Richard Widmark and Sidney Poitier are true, real, engaging and terrifying.

THE BEDFORD INCIDENT is a fair story but it is not the story which is gripping; it is the acting. Richard Widmark and Sidney Poitier play strong and intense characters at odds with each other and their interplay is fascinating. So too is the interplay with the other characters of the story.The story takes place on a US destroyer at the height of the cold war. Widmark plays the captain of the ship. It is his job to protect the US and he takes the job seriously and does it well. He demands perfection from his crew in all things and the crew responds well. They know they are working for the best. Poitier plays a reporter who is intrigued by the crew's loyalty and the persona of the captain. He senses an interesting story. He is basically a decent sort but very skeptical of all things military, especially anything anti Soviet.The ship finds a soviet sub violating NATO water. A cat and mouse game ensues where the US captain is determined to get the goods on the commies. The Soviets, whom we never see aside from a periscope, are equally determined not to be caught. Tensions continue to escalate and lead to inevitable conflict and nuclear devastation.The story is predictable. Military types are automata eager to shed blood and bring about devastation. The press are the world's agents for peace and a free press trumps all else, especially national security. It is definitely anti war. That is one expects from this time period. Still, it is the characterization which are fascinating. They save the movie from being nothing but a propaganda piece.

A thoroughly enjoyable and gripping cold war drama. American Destroyer Captain Eric Finlander is obsessed with finding Russian submarines in territorial waters. He is undoubtedly very good at his job and tactically brilliant, but passed over for promotion and with outspoken hardline views is he really the sort of person for handling such a delicate task? Reporter Ben Munceford is not too sure, especially given the ship's recordfor transfers and sickleave. He wonders if the crew are not all dangerously driven, and wangles a few days `observing' on the ship in the hope of getting a story.The tension soon mounts when Finlander gets on the scent of a red submarine and gives chase. A game of cat and mouse ensues which builds to a thrilling climax as Finlander pushes his crew to the limits of physical and mental endurance.The film is well directed, but it is so filled with quality actors that a good film was guaranteed, no matter who was directing. Richard Widmark dominates as Finlander, portraying a hardnosed and driven man, but not without a human side. Sidney Poitier puts in another great turn as the concerned Munceford, observing, questioning and concerned. Eric Portman steals every scene he is in as the ex Nazi sub commander on board to advise Finlander as to sub tactics. Great actors, great performances. All in all it makes a gripping and tense film whose 98 min runtime just zips by.This 2004 Columbia release is pretty good. The black and white print has a good transfer and has little or no defects. The soundtrack is mono only, and again is in good shape. The picture is in 1:1.85 widescreen. There are no extras. A very acceptable presentation of a corking good thriller. Four stars.

Cat & mouse in the Cold War. Perhaps, since it's a naval yarn, that ought to be seal & sardine? It's a very difficult film to rate, either way. The majority of Amazon reviews tend to be 1* or 5*. Odd, really, because I doubt most people would give 1/10 or 10/10 to something; they'd think a bit more about the mark they were giving. This film, though, is right on the border between 4 & 5 stars.Made in '65, this is a generally believable tale of Cold War shenanigans; a US destroyer haunting a hinted at, but never actually seen, Russian submarine. The ostensible star is Widmark. He is, somewhat, the Rutger Hauer of his day - on his day, terrific; off his day, I'm just doing this because I need the work. This was an on-day, he hits the hard-ball authoritarian captain off to a T. Sidney Poitier is a powerful presence as the journalist. Here, he often gives the impression of being stupid. Sometimes, you feel, that is because he is ignorant of naval whys & wherefores; sometimes, you feel, it's because he wants to give the impression he is ignorant of naval whys & wherefores...They are ably supported by the rest of the cast, most notably Eric Portman, finely playing a world-weary ex-U boat commander, and Martin Balsam (possibly best known for his role in 12 Angry Men) as the unwanted ship's doctor, unable to find a way to get the right side of his cynical captain. Shot in atmospheric black & white, the film remains tense throughout. The director, James Bridges, deserves his share of the credit, it must be said.Ultimately, the ending, whilst true to its time, feels a little unsatisfying to me (I shall say no more than that for fear of spoiling it for anyone that hasn't seen it), and that's why I suggest it's borderline. Whether it be a 4* or a 5* film, however, I am sure of one thing - I'm very pleased it's on my shelf. If you've any love for war films, it's well worth adding to your collection.

The scenes are dated, and some of the sea and ship sequences are obviously models. They didn't have the technology to do anything else in 1965! The story reflects the general unease and tensions between the Soviet Union and the Allies which I believe reached its peak in the early 1980's - just before the breakdown of the Soviet Union. The 60's were known for the Ban the Bomb and Greenham Common demonstrations which I vaguely knew about, and this film reflects those days.

This is a very curious, sometimes even strange, but quite good film adapted from a novel which mixed Cold War obsessions with "Moby Dick" theme. The story described is a pure fiction and nothing even close to "Bedford incident" never happened during the 46 years of "war games" played by US and other NATO navies and the Soviet ships and planes all over Atlantic.The whole story takes place on board of a fictif US warship, destroyer USS "Bedford" (no US Navy ship of that name ever existed). For the needs of the film US Navy willingly contributed a real destroyer, USS "Macdonough", which in 1964 was a very modern ship (commissioned in 1961 - retired and placed in reserve in 1992 - scrapped in 2004). The USS "Macdonough" was to earn some fame in 1966 as flagship of an US Navy force (19 ships) engaged in Palomares incident (research of atomic bombs lost in the ocean following the crash of an American B-52 bomber).ASROC missile/torpedoes which play an important role in the movie are a real weapon, introduced first in 1961 and, after many modernisations, still in use by US Navy and many others even today - they are basically missiles, which instead of classical warheads carry an American Mark 46 torpedo. Once a submarine is detected, the missile arrives at great speed in its vicinity and releases the torpedo as close as possible to its position - the missile role is then finished and once its fuel gone, it fells into the sea and sinks. However the torpedo, once in water, activates its sonar, locates the submarine and follows it, until interception and impact. One Mark 46 torpedo is in principle enough to sink or critically cripple most of the submarines - although for the biggest ones, like Russian gargantuan "Typhoon" or huge "Delta IV", "Borei" and "Oscar" types, two or more would probably be used.The story is about a journalist (Sydney Poitiers) who is writing a story about American ships tracking Soviet submarines in the Northern Atlantic, something that in the real life Western navies were doing on a regular basis from 1945 to 1991 and even beyond (although now the tracked subs are Russian and no more Soviet). He expressly asked to stay on board of USS "Bedford", as it is not only a very modern ship, but also it is considered as having one of the best crews in the whole US navy - and her commanding officer, Captain Finlander (Richard Widmark) is a kind of a living legend amongst the sailors. Another very important character is a NATO naval advisor from Bundesmarine (German Navy), an aged commodore named Schrepke (Eric Portman), who was once a succesful captain of an U-Boot in WWII. I believe that his name is clearly inspired by that of Joachim Schepke, a real life U-Bot "ace" from WWII, killed in action in 1941. In many scenes this character completely "steals the show" from the two main stars.Two other secondary characters are to play an important part in the story: the new medical officer just arrived on board and ensign Ralston, a young weapons officer, who shows considerable promise and for that reason is the object of particular "attention" of the captain, who pushes the youngster to the limits to harden and strengthen even more a man in whom he recognizes a younger himself...The whole story develops around the chase of a Soviet submarine detected and tracked by USS "Bedford". As it is a classically (diesel/electricity) propelled ship, it is known that it will have to surface at one moment for lack of oxygen and also to make work its diesels to recharge the batteries. The purpose of the game Captain Finlander wants to play as part of the rigorous training schedule, is to stay with the submarine all the time and to be next to her when she makes surface and then "tickle" the Soviets with a sonar wave to simulate the sinking. Such "games" were routinely played during the Cold War as part of intelligence collection and training, by both sides.Well, this hunt will reveal itself to be much harder and much more complicated than anybody could think and with time Captain Finlander starts to show a quasi obsession, wishing even to take risks for the safety of his ship and crew. But no more details will be provided to avoid spoilers.I liked this movie, although I found the ending ludicrous rather than dramatic (still, it is better than the ending in the novel, which is simply idiotic beyond description). Watching Richard Widmark and Sydney Poitiers is a real pleasure in almost every movie and in this one their conversations are a treat. The "game" between USS "Bedford" and the Soviet submarine is a very very interesting one and the minor characters provide many good cinema moments. Still, because of the ending I simply can not give this film five stars - but I can not really explain here why, without revealing too much.So bottom line, I warmly recommend to watch this film and that you make your mind yourself. No matter what one thinks of the ending, it is a good, solid, interesting movie. Enjoy!

Sidney Poitier is a journalist on board a US destroyer hunting a Soviet submarine. He is at loggerheads with the hard-nosed Captain who is fixated on discipline The captain's uncompromising attitude takes his crew to the very edge making for an extremely tense film. This is a superior Cold war drama. Richard Widmark gives a first-class performance as the captain.The film was directed by James B Harris who produced some of Stanley Kubrick's work. Great movie.