Black Sea
Dir: Kevin Macdonald
2014
****
It's pretty hard not to cover old ground when making a Submarine movie but writer Dennis Kelly and director Kevin Macdonald have managed to produce something new within the nautical sub-genre. It's no Das Boot but it does have familiar themes. Black Sea is unique in that it doesn't take place during a war, instead it is a contemporary story of a group of out of work ex-Navy under-sea salvage experts. It deals with the usual issues you'd expect from a submarine movie; claustrophobia, cabin-fever, technical difficulties, lots of listening in silence etc but what it really focuses on and what is usually a background idea in such films, is the social class side of working under the sea. These men have worked hard all their lives and have all been made redundant without compensation. The whole film is a metaphor, the crew are the working class, blue collar workers of the world and the sea is capitalism and corporation. An opportunity arises but inevitably the working class turn on each other while the 'Man' watches on, ready to reap the benefits. It's very clever and adds a new element to the genre that I've always found exciting. Jude Law is pretty convincing as a Scott, Michael Smiley is always a welcome addition to any cast, Ben Mendelsohn plays a brilliant and strangely likable bad-guy and there was something quite wonderful about seeing Frank Gallagher (David Threlfall) in a diving suit. The whole cast are perfect and completely believable in their roles. It's beautifully directed, cliche free and full of intensity and almost unbearable suspense.