My thoughts.
It’s a good action movie — the story of a single battle. It’s the sort of movie you have to watch again just to catch all the details. But there’s not much of an intro. There’s one very brief scene where Captain Krause and his girlfriend are exchanging presents. He asks her to marry him, she says no, and that’s it. Their relationship is never resolved.
We know Krause is a religious man — we see him praying in the middle of the battle — and he has bad feet — he has to send a runner to his cabin to fetch his slippers, and his feet are bleeding by the time the battle’s over. And Tom Hanks’ acting is excellent, as always. But still, it feels like we’re missing part of his story. The movie is fairly short — only 91 minutes — and I have to wonder if there wasn’t more than was left on the cutting-room floor.
I thought it's a bit unfortunate that the movie doesn't take a little time to develop the characters. The scene of the Captain meeting his girlfriend felt tacked-on and without consequence. It all feels a little empty, but thanks to the short runtime and fast pacing it's still an entertaining action thriller that doesn't get boring. But anyone hoping for a companion piece of "Das Boot" (watch the full-length TV version if you can!) will be disappointed.
Because it was released on Apple TV+ (not in theaters), I tolerated it because I was at home.
That being said, the movie had a ton of problems which could have been resolved by increasing the 90 minute runtime. No character development is definitely the main problem.
I have read the book, The Good Shepherd, by C. S. Forester, on which the movie is based, or from which it is derived.
For once, if what you write is true, the movie does not omit most, or much, of the book, which has often happened with film/movie adaptations of books.
In fact, paradoxically, from what you have written, this seems to have been an unusually faithful adaptation of the book the movie is based on.
The book - which is quite short - starts at the outset of the voyage, and there is not much of either a back story (there is no girlfriend, but - bear in mind that this was written in the 50s, and set in the 40s, thus, there is a failed marriage, - which was also a late marriage, to a younger, but very accomplished woman, - a failure partly attributed to the fact that Krause's repressed character was utterly unable to communicate or express the emotions he felt - and partly, because, towards the end of the book, it becomes also clear from his appalled and shamed recollections that he had hit her, after which she left him), nor much by way of character development.
However, the sore feet arose from the fact that Krause had been on his feet or the best part of three days, without sleep, under sustained stress and was utterly shattered by the time air cover was restored and the running sea battle to protect the convoy had been successful. And the naval action sequences in the book were both intense and well written (and clearly, well researched).
And yes, Krause was religious, this informed his perspective, and, if memory serves, in a brief flashback, it was shown that his father had been a clergyman, or a church minister.
