Black Sea (7/10)

by Tony Medley

Runtime 114 minutes.

OK for children.

Robinson (Jude Law) is a submarine captain who has been fired by his longtime employer and set adrift with no prospects. While drinking in a bar, one of his friends tells them of a Nazi submarine that was sunk during World War II containing hundreds of millions of dollars of gold bars, and that he knows where it is. He also says that he knows an old rusty submarine that they could use to dive and recover the gold. Robinson signs on and recruits a motley crew composed of people who are as disaffected as he is, along with some Russians who were recruited by one of his friends in the bar, and off they go.

Directed by Kevin McDonald, best known as the director of The Last King of Scotland (2006), this is intended to capture the claustrophobic feeling of being in a disabled submarine of questionable safety in the ocean depths. Unfortunately, good as this movie is, McDonald has apparently never seen the inside of a real one because this submarine is big enough to play a basketball game in. I’ve been on a US atomic submarine which are a lot larger than the World War II era submarines, and there is very little room for anything. If McDonald really wanted to create a feeling of claustrophobia, he needed to re-create the actual size and lack of room in a submarine. Even though they’re trapped in black depths of the ocean the viewer really doesn’t feel the claustrophobia that would be actually present in a real submarine and its cramped quarters.

McDonald credits The Treasure of Sierra Madre (1948) and The Dirty Dozen (1967) as inspiration but, alas, there are no iconic lines like “We don’t need no stinking badges” of 'Sierra Madre or light-hearted humor like was present in 'Dozen to liven this up. There is not a scintilla of humor in this film, nor are there any memorable lines.

Despite the fact that it’s too long and it lacks humor, it still creates a sufficient amount of tension along with the plot twist that make it entertaining. Frankly, though, the plot twist made absolutely no sense to me.