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Away All Boats
Directed by Joseph Pevney
Written
by Ted Sherdeman
Produced by Howard Christie
Cast: Jeff Chandler as Captain Jebediah Hawks
George Nader as Lieutenant Dave MacDougall
GoodTimes
Home Video, 1956, 114 min., DVD
Three kamikaze planes hit and nearly sink a US Navy attack
transport (APA) in this realistic movie based on the
1954 novel of the same
title by Kenneth Dodson, who served in World War II in the Pacific aboard the
attack transport USS Pierce (APA-50). No other English-language movie
highlights a fictional ship hit by kamikazes. The crewmen of the film's fictional
attack transport, named USS Belinda (APA-22), participate in battles
throughout the Pacific. Although the battle scenes convincingly portray the
dangers faced by the Belinda and her boats that carry battalion landing
teams, the real strength of Away All Boats
lies in the depiction of the crewmen and their relationships in the midst of
war.
The Belinda's inexperienced crew include a wide
variety of personalities and temperaments, but the captain demands the highest
level of performance in order to develop his men into a team ready to fight
together in battle. Although the captain plays a critical role in the ship's
success in battle and her survival after being hit by kamikaze planes, the
movie depicts how many individual crewmen played heroic roles. The film's
scenes portray many typical happenings on a US Navy warship besides battle,
such as shakedown cruise, initial seasickness, artillery target practice, boat
landing drills, mail call, shore leave, and disabling mines.
Lieutenant Dave MacDougall, former merchant marine ship
captain, starts the film by saying goodbye to his wife to go aboard the Belinda
as the ship's boat group commander. Captain Jebediah Hawks, graying veteran
whose destroyer went down fighting at the Battle of Santa Cruz, boards the Belinda
at 0300 and gathers together the officers, most who have no battle experience.
As the Belinda makes her way to Pearl Harbor, Hawks tells MacDougall
that he needs to get used to the fact that he is no longer captain, but
throughout the movie Hawks depends more and more on MacDougall's experience and
leadership. After MacDougall injures himself in a boat landing drill, Hawks
assigns MacDougall to train new officers and to serve as his unofficial backup
since his executive officer, Commander Quigley, lacks experience.
The boats of the Belinda experience their first
combat during the Battle of Makin as they storm the beaches of the atoll. Next
follow battles at Kwajalein, Saipan, Guam, and Leyte, but the movie just
inserts some historical film clips rather than shows the Belinda's
participation in these battles. At one point three unknown planes approach the
fleet, so Hawks asks Ensign Twitchell, the ship's signal officer, to identify
the planes. He mistakenly identifies them as enemy planes rather than American Hellcat
fighters, and one of the other ships in the fleet shoots down a plane with
friendly fire. Away All Boats clearly pays tribute to the wartime
performance of the US Navy, which provided support and lent ships for the film, but this
friendly fire incident and a few other scenes show that the film's director was
willing to expose some embarrassing actions by officers and men in the US Navy.
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VHS Cover
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The last quarter of the film covers two waves of mass
kamikaze attacks early in the Battle of Okinawa and the saving of the Belinda
after being hit by three Japanese planes. Despite several kamikaze planes in
the first wave of 20 to 25 planes being shot down by gunners on the Belinda
and other nearby ships, one plane slams into the attack transport near the
waterline and kills 26 men in and near sick bay. After a short reprieve, later
in the same day five separate groups of Japanese planes approach from different
directions and attack the Belinda and nearby ships. Two more planes hit
the Belinda, even though Captain Hawks tries to wave off the last
incoming plane by yelling out, "Get away from my ship! Get your filthy
plane away from my ship!" Hawks gets seriously wounded from the third and
final kamikaze hit, but he stays alive until his men work together to keep the
ship from sinking and use the Belinda's boats to tow the ship to safety
at Kerama Rettō.
Jeff Chandler turns in an excellent performance as Captain
Hawks, a demanding leader who keeps pushing his men to the highest performance
level so they will be ready for battle. MacDougall understands how Hawks must
stay apart emotionally from the other officers and his crew in order to make
effective decisions as captain. He becomes the object of his men's hatred when
he orders them to build him a personal sailboat rather than to repair the
ship's landing craft for an upcoming battle. However, MacDougall comes to
understand that Hawks did this deliberately so that his men would start
working together as a team rather than fighting with each other. When Hawks
dies at the end of the movie after seeing that his ship will make it safely to
Kerama Rettō, MacDougall says to the ship's doctor, "All of us are better
than we ever thought we could be because of what he gave us. I'm going to go
home again because of him."
MacDougall, even though he had his own command in the
merchant marine prior to joining the Navy, keeps levelheaded and understands
his new role that reports to Captain Hawks. Although he clearly disagrees with
some of the Captain's comments toward him, he tries to support Hawks and does
not talk back nor become embittered. MacDougall explodes only when Hawks tells
him that he blocked a couple of opportunities for him to have command of his own
ship.
Ultimately, when Hawks is dying, he transfers command of the Belinda to
MacDougall. Although MacDougall has a
wife and young son at home, his family receives no attention except at the
movie's beginning when his wife says goodbye to him and during an extended
flashback after he receives letters from his wife. This flashback of his
courtship and his homecomings does not fit well with the rest of the film.
Several other memorable characters add humor and appeal to Away
All Boats. For example, Gilbert Hubert, the garbage grinder who always
carries a strong stench, takes great pride in keeping a clean area and plays a
critical role to ensure any waste dumped into the sea is thoroughly ground up
so it will not be detected by enemy submarines. Ensign Twitchell, signal
officer, tries to browbeat the crewmen with his officer rank, but eventually
Captain Hawks transfers him off the ship due to his technical incompetence and
his lack of leadership skills.
Both the film and the book on which the film is based
realistically portray life aboard an attack transport and combat faced by the
battalion landing teams and the ship's gunners. The movie, of course, contains
far less details than the novel of over 400 pages, but the film director
generally closely
follows the novel's plot and includes almost all the main characters from the
book. One major difference is that the novel has another captain, Winthrop
Gedney, before Jebediah Hawks takes command of the ship. Captain Hawks in the
film combines traits from both captains in the novel. The actual US Navy ships
used in the film make the scenes realistic, although the attacking kamikaze
planes shown in the film do not reach the same high standard. A couple of the
flaming planes approaching the ship seem quite realistic, but the planes shot
down by the Belinda's gunners appear to be cheap models when they
explode in the air.
Away All Boats stands out from other fictional films
as the only one that focuses on a ship hit by kamikaze pilots. The movie
shows the carnage inflicted by these suicide attacks, but it also gives a
heroic portrayal of how the crewmen work together to save the Belinda.
This thoughtful and realistic film stands as a Pacific War classic.
Film Poster
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