Below (film)
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| Below | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | David Twohy |
| Produced by | Darren Aronofsky Sue Baden-Powell Michael Zoumas |
| Written by | Lucas Sussman Darren Aronofsky |
| Starring | Bruce Greenwood Olivia Williams Holt McCallany Scott Foley |
| Music by | Graeme Revell |
| Release date(s) | October 11, 2002 |
| Running time | 105 min. |
| Country |  United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Below is a 2002 World War II horror film directed by David Twohy. It was written by Lucas Sussman, Darren Aronofsky and David Twohy, and stars Bruce Greenwood, Olivia Williams, Matthew Davis and Holt McCallany.
It was filmed on location in Lake Michigan (for exteriors, using the WW II era U.S. Navy submarine, USS Silversides) and at Pinewood Studios.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
The USS Tiger Shark is a submarine on patrol in the Atlantic Ocean in 1943. The submarine is ordered to pick up survivors spotted adrift by a British patrol plane. At the wreckage, they retrieve three lone survivors - a British nurse and two sailors, one wounded - of a British hospital ship that was torpedoed several days earlier.
After that, the Tiger Shark must avoid a German warship attempting to find and destroy them. The submarine has several encounters with the German warship and suffers heavy damage from depth charges in the process.
The Commanding Officer of the Tiger Shark, Lieutenant Commander Brice (Bruce Greenwood), discovers that the wounded sailor is actually a German POW, and shoots him because he thinks the German has been causing strange noises to attract the German warship. Meanwhile, eerie events begin to manifest themselves and seem to be related to the recent death of the previous captain, Commander Winters. Winters had been killed after the Tiger Shark torpedoed and sank a German ship.
Winters had ordered the sub to surface and had then gone topside with his senior officers to make sure the ship had sunk and to see if there were any survivors. According to LT Commander Brice, Winters had wanted a souvenir from the wreck and had fallen and hit his head on the side of the sub while reaching for his souvenir, then fell into the ocean and drowned before he could be rescued.
However, as the eerie events mount - strange voices are heard, a series of mechanical problems keeps the submarine turning back towards the site of the sunken German ship, and crewmen are killed at an alarming rate from various problems - the British nurse and sailor, and one of the junior officers on the Tiger Shark, begin to suspect that more is going on than just mechanical problems. They also begin to question LT Commander Brice's version of how and why Commander Winters died.
[edit] Cast
- Bruce Greenwood - Lieutenant Commander Brice
- Matthew Davis - Ensign Douglas O'Dell
- Olivia Williams - Claire Paige
- Holt McCallany - Lieutenant Paul Loomis
- Scott Foley - Lieutenant Steven Coors
- Jason Flemyng - Stumbo
- Dexter Fletcher - Kingsley
[edit] Production
The producers used the USS Silversides (SS-236), a WW II submarine based in Muskegon, Michigan, for exteriors of the "USS Tiger Shark." The sub was towed out into Lake Michigan.
Matthew Leitch and Dexter Fletcher appeared together in the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers, where they were also under the command of a Captain Winters.
[edit] Reception
The film gained an approval rating of 63% on Rotten Tomatoes with 41 out of 65 reviews calling it fresh.[1] Reviewers on Metacritic gave a mixed response with a 55% approval rating based on 20 reviews.[2] Below also gained mixed reviews in the press. Entertainment Weekly gave the film a B+ rating, calling it a "handsome, haunting submarine thriller". [3] Edward Guthmann from the San Francisco Chronicle gave a mainly negative review stating that the dialogue was "heavy on sarcasm and puncturing insults, never captures the World War II period but sounds ridiculously anachronistic". [4] Variety Magazine gave the movie a mixed review stating that "the strenuous seriousness the film applies to an idea that is finally silly at its core steadily increases the impression of overwrought artificiality as matters progress".[5]
[edit] References
- ^ "Below Movie Reviews", Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved on 2008-03-16.
- ^ "Below (2002): Reviews", Metacritic. Retrieved on 2008-03-16.
- ^ "Below - Movie Review - Entertainment Weekly", Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved on 2008-03-16.
- ^ "FILM CLIPS / Also opening today", San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved on 2008-03-16.
- ^ "Below Review - Variety.com", Variety Magazine. Retrieved on 2008-03-16.
[edit] External links
- Below at the Internet Movie Database
- Below review at [RogerEbert.com]
- Below at Allmovie
