The Bedford Incident
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| The Bedford Incident | |
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| Directed by | James B. Harris |
| Written by | Mark Rascovich (novel) James Poe |
| Starring | Richard Widmark Sidney Poitier James MacArthur Martin Balsam Wally Cox Eric Portman |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) | 1965 (USA) |
| Running time | 102 min. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
The Bedford Incident is a Cold War film from 1965 starring Richard Widmark and Sidney Poitier, and co-produced by Richard Widmark. The cast also features Martin Balsam and Eric Portman, as well as an early appearance by Donald Sutherland. The film was based on the 1963 book by Mark Rascovich, which was patterned after Herman Melville's Moby Dick. It was filmed at Columbia Pictures studios in England.
The screenplay was written by James Poe and directed by James B. Harris, who until then was best known as Stanley Kubrick's producer. Harris had recently split from a 9-year partnership with Kubrick. Just after the split with Harris, Kubrick would make Dr. Strangelove (1963), which raises similar issues to The Bedford Incident.
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[edit] Plot synopsis
The USS Bedford (DLG-113) is a fictitious guided missile destroyer (presumably named for one or more of the cities named Bedford in Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Iowa, or Virginia). No ship of the United States Navy has been named Bedford, or had the hull classification symbol DLG-113, but the role of Bedford was played by a Navy Farragut class destroyer.
The Bedford detects a Soviet submarine in the North Atlantic near Greenland. Captain Eric Finlander (Widmark) harries his prey mercilessly, while civilian reporter Ben Munceford (Poitier) and NATO naval advisor, Commodore Wolfgang Schrepke (Portman), look on with mounting alarm. The film also features Wally Cox as a sonarman and James MacArthur as a young officer who is constantly pressured by his captain over small errors caused by his inexperience.
Poitier is a reporter on assignment. He receives mounting hostility because he is seen as a civilian putting his nose into the ship's business and because he disagrees with the captain's decisions.
[edit] Commentary
The film serves as a dramatic reminder of the risks the world faces when military units from opposing countries operate in close proximity to one another. It explores the explosive mixture that can sometimes be created when strong personalities are combined with over-zealousness and poor communication.
Although the movie was made during the height of the American Civil Rights Movement, the hostility shown toward Poitier's character is strictly due to his actions as a reporter and not because of his race.
[edit] Errors
- A Soviet ship is shown with the name "NOVO SIBURSK" painted on it. The correct spelling of that city in the Latin alphabet is Novosibirsk, and the name should be in Cyrillic writing as "Новосибирск".
[edit] External links
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