The Tom Hanks-penned WWII naval drama Greyhound<\/em> starts off in the second camp, but somehow miraculously manages to approach something close to Master and Commander\u2019s<\/em> \u201cboth and\u201d style by the end. Greyhound<\/em> never quite reaches that same level of emotional connection, but by the time its climactic final battle sequence rolls around, you may be surprised by how committed you\u2019ve become to the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Based on C.S. Forester\u2019s novel The Good Shepherd<\/em>, Greyhound<\/em> is told from the perspective of an honest but inexperienced naval captain, Krause (Hanks), who has to protect a convoy of Allied supply ships from German U-Boats during the Battle of the Atlantic. This is Krause\u2019s first wartime mission, and the film addresses the impossible decisions he has to make in the heat of battle as much as it does the technical aspects of fighting at sea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unless you\u2019re a military obsessive (or perhaps in the Navy yourself), the first third of Greyhound<\/em> feels like watching a foreign film with the subtitles turned off. You can tell there are ships, and that some of them are Good Ships and some of them are Bad Ships. Which ships are which, as well as where they are and what the Greyhound is trying to accomplish, all get lost in a hail of call signs and jargon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A funny thing happens after Hanks and his crew sink their first U-Boat, however. The further in the movie goes, the more things start to make sense, and the more you start to care about the mission. By the end, I found myself gasping at information conveyed over the ship\u2019s radio that, an hour beforehand, would have baffled me. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This is due to Hanks\u2019 economical screenwriting, alongside Aaron Schneider\u2019s lean direction. What the film lacks in character beats it makes up for in momentum. The information set up in the first act may take a moment (or several) to register, but when that exposition pays off later, and you suddenly understand its significance, you feel all the smarter for it. You could think of Greyhound<\/em> like Mad Max: Fury Road<\/em> for Dads\u00a0\u2013 we\u2019re being immersed in an unfamiliar world and asked to just go with what we\u2019re given.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The difference between Fury Road<\/em> and Greyhound<\/em> is that George Miller parsed out resonant character information and philosophy alongside his world-building (something Peter Weir also managed with Master and Commander<\/em>). Greyhound<\/em> doesn\u2019t do much with any character outside of Hanks\u2019 Krause, but there are small moments throughout that subtly suggest their core values. We see Krause pray before meals, and place high importance on helping others. His interactions with his second-in-command, Charlie Cole (Stephen Graham) show two professionals with a lot of respect for each other. The ship\u2019s head chef, Cleveland (Rob Morgan), has a strong sense of duty, evidenced in his insistence on serving Krause good, regular meals, even in the tense moments leading up to a battle. It\u2019s all just barely enough to make the characters compelling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For WWII buffs, Greyhound<\/em> is likely an all-killer-no-filler experience. For anyone not quite on that level, it\u2019s a little more work to get excited. However, from a nuts-and-bolts perspective, it\u2019s still a good example of economical, immersive action storytelling. It never dumbs anything down, and expects the audience to keep up with what\u2019s happening. Patient viewers will get there, and may just find they\u2019ve actually learned something in the process. ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/greyhound2-1024x576.jpg\")
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