Read the book when I was in high school over 30 years ago. Riveting story. Forgotten history. Might make a good movie...

NO!

HORRIBLE movie. Can't believe they sold this as an "A" movie when it's barely a "B" movie.

Produced/directed by Mario Van Peebles? Really?!? Last time I've heard of him was "Heartbreak Ridge".

Nicolas Cage. Terrible actor...should have stuck with quirky "Raising Arizona" type characters instead of ever trying to be a real movie star.

What 1990s video game on Win95 did they use for their CGI and special effects???

Should have been a SyFy channel movie because a lot of it reminded me of the "Sharknado" movies...

UGHHH!

My father's cousin was lost in that sinking.

The survivors group (only 20 remain, 19 Navy and one Marine) has pretty much disowned this movie. They were given no say in it's production, the movie execs acted as if the survivors didn't exist.

Be honest, how many men did you see fall in the water with the oboe slide tune before you started laughing.

Looks like I made the correct decision to avoid this. I reckon the 'Indianapolis' scene in Jaws would have been better than this whole movie.

Acting was so wooden, the survivors wouldn't need liferafts as they would all float.
And calling Cage an 'actor' is an oxymoron.

Yeah i could have made better flight scenes in FSX

According to the book I read over 30 years ago, the life jackets became water logged after awhile and weren't as buoyant anymore. They're only designed to float for awhile because usually you get rescued before a few days. Also, if not on a life raft, the sharks were eating the floaters.

I don't think I needed to see the Japanese sub commander talking to a ghost of his father...because, you know, that really happened...lol.

I nearly turned the movie off within the first five minutes because I saw the planes and ships and how absolutely horrible the CGI was but I thought I'd at least give the story a chance. Wasted 2 hours of my life...lol.

Yep, Kapok life jackets were never intended to last for 4 days in the water.

Interesting note, Indianapolis survivor Giles McCoy kept a Kapok life jacket in his garage. At certain times when he was feeling despondent he would go to his garage and put on the lifejacket until he felt better.

This was worse than I thought it was going to be. There isn't a thing good about it. As already has been said, the computer generated effects were laughable. Right from the opening scene it starts going badly. Nicholas Cage is standing on the bridge as cgi Zero bore in.
"Zeros, twelve oclock," he's saying and the guns fire. "Zeros at two oclock," and they fire again...etc..etc. Yeah, the captain calls out enemy aircraft to the aa guns. That's hows it's done because he sees them a lot better than the gunner do. You know, standing up high on the bridge and all.
How about that plot involving the two buddies and the blonde. One is in love with her but the other one gets her pregnant. Well, guess who comes back and marries her even though his dead buddy knocked her up? I wonder if the writers might have seen 'Pearl Harbor.'
What was with that PBY? Someone should have let them know there are some old P-Boats still flying. That was one of the worst computer animated airplanes I've ever seen!
Cage should just cut his losses and stop acting in films. And Peebles should never be allowed behind a camera again.

Cage doesn't turn down ANY work because he still owes Uncle Sam a ton of money in backed taxes.

Pooch, I vividly recall the Pearl Harbor plot twist with he three way love affair...same damn story!

Cage calling out targets also struck me as...well, not odd, but totally f'd up. Capt's don't call out targets...DUH!

The PBY almost had me thinking "okay, this might be cool" as they showed actual PBY footage for a minute...then it just went full retard.

Is this the movie that accidentally destroyed a pristine PBY Catalina during shooting? I read a news article awhile back where during the filming of the movie, they had the PBY anchored right off a beach and if I recall correctly, someone did not secure it properly and it filled with sand and water and sank. Then when craning it out I believe they damaged it even more. I'm not sure if it was the fault of the production people or whoever owns the plane. I would think whoever owns a plane like that would know better but accidents happen. I also can't imagine the owners would leave it totally in the hands of a movie crew to work with and use without them being present. Seems like the articles I saw lambasted the movie itself for the antique's destruction but I never found out anymore info on it. Perhaps it wasn't their fault?

If its the movie I'm thinking of I put it on my "watch later" list on Netflix but man you guys make it sound horrible. I don't remember the trailer looking that bad and actually pretty decent.

p.s. That's a shame to hear about the producer's attitude towards the still living survivors of this event. I get so angry and ashamed to think these kinds of movies get by with being made and they go out of their way to ignore the men who are still alive who survived this event and time in history. I would think they would want their blessing or some feedback and to tell them that they will do their best to show some level of accuracy while still trying to produce something that makes for an enjoyable cinema experience. Its just plain disrespectful. History, especially living history with actual participants still around to tell it how it was, is not Hollywood's possession and should not be theirs to belligerently misrepresent. There was a movie with Christian Bale I wanted to see about a famous Vietnam pilot but I kept reading and finding articles about the family of this man complaining and rejecting the director/producers because of apparent blatant inaccuracies and intentional misrepresentation of the true history and character of the man. I would still like to see but I don't know. If its so far off that the family members feel compelled to speak up and say wait a minute, that's not who he was or what he did or how that went down, then maybe I never will watch it as it wouldn't be worth it if it caused that type of upset with the families of the real individuals.

FYI


Survivor AC (Tony) King is turning 92 years old at the end of this month. He was born August 30, 1925. He has never felt up to attending a reunion. Until recently, he wasn't able to speak about the tragedy at all. He told his entire story to filmmaker Sara Vladic for the first time a few months ago and it a was a poignant, heart-wrenching experience. Hopefully, someday soon, he'll join his fellow Survivors at their annual gathering in Indianapolis.

His adopted granddaughter, Suzanne, would like him to receive as many birthday cards as possible from people who appreciate his service and sacrifice.

Please mail them to:
Tony King c/o Suzanne Baumann
1810 Caminito Monrovia
La Jolla, CA 92037