Lewis Gilbert's - Sink the Bismarck! - DVD Lewis Gilbert Sink the Bismarck! DVD

Directed by Lewis Gilbert
UK 1960

Sink the Bismarck is a faithful retelling of the British Navy’s attempts to debilitate the German mega-battleship Bismarck. Based on C.S. Forester’s book and directed by Lewis Gilbert (of James Bond film fame) the real-life naval battle is detailed and fascinating as it delves deep into the successes and failures of one small triumph of the war. We are treated to exposure of massive amounts of information leaving character development to take a backseat. This helps produce an almost documentary-like representation through Edmund H. North’s ( In a Lonely Place and The Day the Earth Stood Still )confident screenplay. Both Kenneth More and the beautiful Dana Wynter are really given no opportunities to shine as the story takes full command of our senses. Most enjoyable is the films lack of judgment - sure the Axis are the bad guys whose fatal flaw is excessive pride in their war machine - but it has glimmers of extolling an anti-war sentiment that I found quite refreshing. Young men of both nationalities are shown dying horrible deaths.

This is very much worth seeing - a very complete and thorough war development film that I strongly recommend.

NOTE: That is Edward R. Murrow playing Edward R. Murrow!

Gary W. Tooze

Posters

Theatrical Release: February 11th, 1960

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DVD Review: 20th Century Fox - Region 1 - NTSC

DVD Box Cover

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Also available in The Heroes of War Collection - Naval Battles which also includes The Enemy Below, The Frogmen and Morituri,

Distribution

20th Century Fox Home Video - Region 1 - NTSC

Runtime

1:37:27

Video

2.35:1 Aspect Ratio
Average Bitrate: 8.0 mb/s
NTSC 720x480 29.97 f/s

NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.

Bitrate:

Audio

English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo), English (Dolby Digital 1.0), DUBs: French (Dolby Digital 1.0), Spanish (Dolby Digital 1.0)

Subtitles

English, Spanish, None

Features

Release Information:
Studio: 20th Century Fox Home Video

Aspect Ratio:
Original Aspect Ratio 2.35:1

Edition Details:

• MovieTone News
• Theatrical trailers

DVD Release Date: May 20th, 2003
Keep Case
Chapters: 32

Comments:

Another competent DVD from Fox. Excellent detail, contrast, grey scale and the widescreen scope gives an authentic theatrical feel. Audio comes in a few flavors including a stereo mix, original mono and some DUBs. optional subtitles are in bright yellow and the extras are sparse with some trailers and a very good MovieTone news real.

I'm not much of a war buff but I was riveted to this film from start to finish. It is really too reasonable priced considering the value - a definite asset to your collection.