When I preview a movie, I generally show a trailer or something to start the post with. Not this time. I decided to show you a clip from the movie, Jaws. This little scene is Quint’s personal story of his time aboard the USS Indianapolis. It’s a very haunting speech, and while not 100 percent accurate, really details the despair and the fear that Quint felt during that time. What a lot of people who aren’t familiar with certain particulars of World War II realize is that the sinking of the USS Indianapolis actually happened. The ship was on a top-secret mission to deliver parts of the atomic bomb to the island of Tinian. On July 30th, 1945, the Indianapolis was struck on her starboard bow by two Japanese torpedoes. There were 1,197 men aboard that ship. 300 went down when the ship sank. A week later, only 317 men came out alive. The rest were taken by exposure, sharks, and starvation among other things. It’s a very grim story. This was one of the US Navy’s worst disasters on record. I was very surprised to hear that they were going to make a movie about the Indianapolis. Even more intriguing is that they cast Nicolas Cage as Captain Charles B. McVay III. Indianapolis: Men of Courage is directed by Mario Van Peebles and is scheduled to be released on Memorial Day, May 30, 2016.
My opinion? I’m really curious to see how this turns out. The story of the USS Indianapolis is an extraordinary tale of survival, so anybody who is familiar with it is probably going to know how the film ends, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. This may actually shed some light on one of the worst disasters in Naval history. I’m just hoping that Nicolas Cage will put away his crazy and actually bring a down-to-earth performance as McVay. I know he’s capable of it. Cage has done some amazing work in the past. The film also stars Thomas Jane, Tom Sizemore, and Cody Walker in his feature film debut. The rating of the film is unknown at this point, but I would honestly hope they go with an R-rating, so they can adequately convey the seriousness of the situation. Overall, I think it looks good and I’m very interested in seeing this.