USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage is allegedly based on In Harm’s Way: The Sinking Of The USS Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of its Survivors by Doug Stanton, which I plan to read and without reading, would recommend to anyone even mildly interested in seeing this movie based on the summary instead of seeing the movie. During the final weeks of WWII, the crew was on a secret mission without escorts to protect them to travel waters being patrolled by the Imperial Japanese Navy. When they were torpedoed, they were stranded for five days without food and water while sharks hunted them. Only 317 people survived out of 1,197, including Captain Charles B. McVay III, whom Nicholas Cage plays in the film.
Unfortunately these men would go on to endure more unspeakable suffering if they decided to watch this movie. Yes, it is one of THOSE Cage movies. I would guess that the only people that would like USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage are the people who loved Red Tails or George Lucas’ Star Wars prequels, which are comparative masterpieces, or perhaps people who have never watched a movie before because it never does anything well for more than a few beats.
USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage is dreadful on multiple levels. The framing of the story keeps changing. At times, there is narration then it disappears. The pacing of the movie is completely off. There is no rhythm to the way that events are spaced. Characters are introduced in a haphazard fashion. A character’s importance or lack thereof is impossible to determine, which normally would be fine in a movie that is probably going to kill off a majority of their cast after the introduction, but it also means that you are not as invested in what happens to them. Instead of character development, most characters strive to at least reach the level of archetypes. Someone took an entire storyline out of Pearl Harbor (yes, the Ben Affleck movie, which is not exactly a movie that you should be looking to for inspiration). Specifically it was the how to get the girl that you want and still be a good friend. I would prefer that there be no women characters than this one. The acting is dreadful, and the accents would not pass muster to appear in a skit on Saturday Night Live.
USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage is so bad that out of some type of coping mechanism such as Stockholm Syndrome, I began to consider what were the best aspects of this hamfisted movie. Even though the first sixteen minutes hurt my soul, at least it set up storylines that did continue throughout the film. There were two Afterschool Special storylines: stealing is wrong, and racism is bad. These storylines were cheesy, and the resolution was obvious from the beginning of the conflict, but because they fit some sort of recognizable pattern, they felt vaguely satisfying, especially the racism storyline, which was the funniest part of the film.
After sixteen minutes, USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage becomes a passable disaster movie, but the CGI is still bad. It was wise to borrow from Clint Eastwood’s Letters from Iwo Jima and make the Japanese characters into counterpoints and foils, but they act as bookends so we don’t get a lot of time with them. Lt. Standish is a passable villain, and he was probably the most interesting character because he is a consistent presence throughout most of the film. In addition, he is the only character who develops albeit in the wrong direction. He goes from a teacher pet to a power hungry figure. I’m not even sure if I have his name right because it is rarely mentioned or used.
Thomas Jane should get an award in professionalism because no matter how bad the movie is, he always acts as if he cares and is in a good one. He seems skinnier than usual, and I hope that he is ok. Even Cage seems as if he filmed all his scenes in one day then grabbed his paycheck at the end of the day and never looked back. Side note: I would love to know if Cage and Tom Sizemore hung out during the shoot, and if they did, I want stories told in the fashion of Tony Curtis in Hollywood Babylon. Sizemore is actually likeable and does not play a sinister character.
The best part of USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage is the end because we get to hear interviews with actual survivors. Clearly a documentary filmmaker should revisit this subject and make a good film. I vote for Werner Herzog, who made one of the best documentaries on a Vietnam War POW, Little Dieter Needs to Fly. Apparently a couple of the actors were descendants of the original survivors: Matt Lanter, who plays a role in the Pearl Harbor storyline, and Johnny Crane, who plays his grandfather, Granville “GS” Crane, and whom I don’t remember seeing in the film.
You would think that at least the camera work in USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage would be good since Mario Van Peebles directed this film, but it is not. It was too frenetic and close. I’m not going to blame him for the quality of the entire film, but the one part that the director of New Jack City and Panther could have controlled and made better was not solid. Sorry, Van Peebles is part of the problem, but at least his son, Mandela Van Peebles, got a job out of it so that is three generations in show biz.
USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage is such a waste. It does nothing well for long, and what it does do well is not enough to make this movie worth your time. Life is short so don’t spend 2 hours and 8 minutes of it watching this film even if you personally know and love someone in this film. It is not worth it. It did inspire me to rewatch Jaws, which apparently references this story, and is obviously a better film.