Released: October 2016
Director: Mario Van Peebles
Rated R
Run Time: 128 Minutes
Distributor: Lionsgate Studios
Genre: War/Drama
Cast:
Nicolas Cage: Captain McVay
Tom Sizemore: McWhorter
Thomas Jane: Lt. Adrian Marks
Matt Lanter: Bama
James Remar: Admiral Parnell
Yutaka Takeuchi: Hashimoto
In my preview of USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage last year, I used this clip from the movie Jaws. It’s one of the most haunting moments in that entire movie, and you can thank Robert Shaw’s performance for that. It was spine-tingling. Like many people, my initial knowledge of the USS Indianapolis incident came from that movie. At that point, I didn’t even think it was real. Oh, it was real. It’s considered to be the worst disaster in the US Navy’s history. But again, I use this clip from Jaws, because it’s been the inspiration for many adaptations of the story, and the Nic Cage movie is no different. So, does USS Indianapolis respect the source material, the event, and the people who survived this horrific event? Let’s find out.
Because this movie is based on actual events, I’m basically just going to cover what happened with this ship. The USS Indianapolis was commissioned by the President of the United States to deliver top-secret materials to the island of Tinian. The thing was, the mission to deliver those materials was so top-secret, the Navy refused to send an escort of destroyers with the Indianapolis. They felt that having destroyers would have drawn attention to the vessel by the Japanese Imperial Navy. The top-secret materials that were loaded onto McVay’s ship were parts to a top-secret weapon developed during what is now known as The Manhattan Project. The materials, which included enriched uranium, were to be used in construction of Little Boy, the first atomic bomb which would be dropped on Hiroshima. After delivering the weapon, the Indianapolis was struck by two Japanese torpedoes. The ship sank in 12 minutes taking 300 men down with her. The rest of the crew, including the captain were adrift for several days after the ship sank. 900 men died to exposure, starvation and shark attacks. 317 men survived. Captain McVay was unfairly court-martialed for hazarding his ship during war. Ironically, the captain of the Japanese submarine that sank the ship came to his defense. Captain Hashimoto basically said that zig-zagging would have made no difference, because the submarine was so close. The story of the USS Indianapolis is one of the most intriguing stories in US history. It’s an amazing story about survival in one of the worst possible positions to be in.
USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage is directed by Mario Van Peebles, who, in a bizarre twist of irony, starred in one of the Jaws movies. I don’t consider Mr. Peebles to be a terrible director or actor, he really isn’t, but his handling of this movie is a bit of a mixed bag. Let’s start with some of the performances. Nicolas Cage will always be one of the most spectacular actors in cinema, for both good and bad reasons. Nicolas Cage plays Captain McVay. There are moments when Cage’s performance is very emotional and compelling, but there are other times when he’s either stiff as a board or is just hamming it up like it’s nobody’s business. Tom Sizemore’s the same way, he’s got some scenes that really genuine and introspective, but the rest of the time, he’s so over the top, it’s hard to take him seriously. These are the two actors that really needed to sell their characters, and they kind of didn’t. The performances from the other actors are just standard-fare. Nothing else really stands out.
One of the other major issues I have with the film are the special effects. I understand that Men of Courage is not exactly a big-budget movie, but more effort could have been made to make the effects more believable. As it stands, some of the effects are so laughably bad, it looks like they came from a bad 90’s video game. For a film like this, you really need to portray it with the utmost realism, so the audiences can get involved with the story and the characters. But you can’t do that, when the sharks and some of the planes are obviously CGI. That being said, there are moments in this film that are genuinely good. The sinking of the ship is spectacular and really intense. While the survivors are adrift, there is some real tension there, because you have no idea who is going to die next. The court-martial of Captain McVay has some real emotional weight to it, especially when Captain Hashimoto comes in to testify. This scene really highlights one of greatest travesties that the US Navy ever committed against one of its own. Of all the ships that were lost during the war, Captain McVay was the only one to be court-martialed.
Captain McVay ended up committing suicide in 1968 due to the all the guilt that was on his shoulders for the incident. In 1996, a sixth-grade student did some research into the USS Indianapolis, which would lead to United States Congressional investigation. In October of 2000, Congress passed a resolution which exonerated McVay of any wrong-doing during the Indianapolis incident. President Bill Clinton signed that resolution and the Secretary of the Navy ordered McVay’s record cleared of any wrong-doing in 2001. There are lessons to be learned from the tragedy of the USS Indianapolis, but the Nicolas Cage film isn’t really the right movie to tell them. It doesn’t change history to fit its narrative, thankfully, but there were some serious missteps along the way. This could have been one of the most powerful films of 2016, if Mario Van Peebles reeled in some of the outlandish performances of the film’s cast, and with better visual effects. As it stands, USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage isn’t a terrible movie. It really isn’t. While it definitely suffers on several levels, there’s enough here that can satisfy people who are interested in history and fans of Nicolas Cage.
Final Score: 7.5/10.