Review of Sink The Bismarck! / Enemy Below

Introduction

This double feature includes 2 classic World War II naval movies:

The Enemy Below - Based on a book of the same name, this 1957 Movie recounts the tale of the game of cat an mouse played by a US Naval Destroyer captained by Robert Mitchum and a German U-Boat with it`s captain played by Curt Jurgens.

Sink The Bismarck! - Released in 1960, this black and white film recounts the tale of the British Navy`s massive hunt for the Bismarck, one of Germany`s most powerful battleships of its time. It remains one of the largest ever hunts of its kind to date.

Video

The Enemy Below is quite well presented with what seems to be a decent quality full colour picture. It`s not the best and there is evidence of grain but then when you consider how old the film it`s not too bad really!

In terms of effects within the film they are quite good though in the occasional scene the use of models does stand out. They`ve also used the old "repeating scene" trick for the depth charges going off now and then where they reuse the same footage of the explosions.

Sink The Bismarck however is in black and white, picture quality is below average though the noticeable use of the even grainier actual WWII library footage does stand out now and then. Grain is evident and stands out even more than it would if the film was in colour but again that`s largely due to the age of the film. Model work on this one holds up quite well for the most part though the explosion of "The Hood" does seem somewhat poor.

Audio

The Enemy Below has an English DD5.1 soundtrack though it makes almost no use of the rear channels at all…well they didn`t have DD5.1 sound in those days did they!

Sink The Bismarck is in DD2.0 only, sound effects, particularly the explosions seem rather hollow and lacking in bass.

In both cases the sound in the films is adequate though they show their age. Dialogue is clear throughout and The Enemy below is obviously the better of the films in terms of sound but I`m not sure of the reasoning behind using DD5.1 when DD2.0 would be more suited. Both films also come in a variety of languages…er, which I don`t speak!

Features

In both cases there is not a lot in the way of extras, indeed 1 trailer each is all you get but then they didn`t have DVD`s back in those days so why would you expect commentaries etc??? Some more in the way of extras would have been nice but then the type of person that would buy this film probably isn`t so concerned about what extras they come with.

Conclusion

While both films were reasonably enjoyable they do show their age somewhat. Dialogue is somewhat corny and the characters stereotyped. The Enemy Below was probably good in its time but is lacking in the tension of many of the more modern cat and mouse type films and the characters are simply too cliché nowadays. Sink The Bismarck obviously doesn`t hold up too well either in the eyes of the more modern viewer but for someone older it`s one of those classic wartime naval movies.

Overall, enjoyable but dated and will appeal only really to fans of the classic war movies.