THE ARCTIC CONVOY - Mark Reviews Movies

The Arctic Convoy, Magnet Releasing

Follow on Facebook | Follow on Twitter | Become a Patron

Review by Mark Dujsik | July 25, 2024

Throughout World War II, merchant ships from Iceland sailed the waters of the Arctic Ocean to ports in Russia, with the aim of arming the forces of the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany along the Eastern Front. This is not necessarily a forgotten part of the history of the war, but it is overlooked compared to other aspects of the conflict. The Arctic Convoy shines a light on the perilous efforts of merchant sailors during the war, while also telling a compelling human story about the crewmembers of one such vessel.

The setting is the summer of 1942, and Christian Siebenherz, Harald Rosenløw-Eeg, and Lars Gudmestad's screenplay is inspired by one particular convoy of the time. The specific history of that expedition arrives with some text at the end, when we realize this story should probably be more well-known than it is, if only because of the degree of the losses, the reason behind it, and the heroism of those who continued forward in the face of what must have seemed to be impossible odds.

Beyond the ignored importance of the backdrop of this story, the film also succeeds as a suspenseful tale of men and one woman at sea, confronting assorted challenges, both external and internal, and the deeper question if their lives are worth the mission at hand. The screenwriters and director Henrik Martin Dahlsbarkken keep the characters, not the situation, at the center of focus here.

The ship, a few days into a planned 12-day voyage from Iceland to Murmansk, is captained by Skar (Anders Baasmo), a lifer at sea who is wholly devoted to the convoy's significance in defeating Germany. This has made him cold and distant toward his crew, who become even more skeptical of the skipper and their current goal when a German U-boat sinks one of the merchant ship's in the convoy. The rest of the fleet may be saved by British warships and planes escorting the cargo-baring vessels, but a single surprise attack in waters filled with hostile submarines and battleships could mean the end of their mission and, likely, their lives.

That becomes a bigger issue when the British escorts are suddenly called away from the convoy without warning, ordering the merchant vessels to scatter. There's no explanation coming over the radio, according to Ragnhild (Heidi Ruud Ellingsen), the chief radio operator and the sole woman aboard, but she and the captain can only come up with three possibilities. First, the weather might be preventing the warships from continuing forward, but there's no sign of storms at all. Second, they may have been called away for another operation, but surely, someone would have communicated, even in vague terms, that another priority has arisen.

The third and, hence, most likely option is that the escorts have received word that the German forces ahead outnumber and/or outpower them. The Brits definitely wouldn't communicate that news, lest the merchant ships stop and return home demoralized, and Skar decides to keep this deduction to himself, lest his crew begins to panic.

This story possesses two central conflicts. The first comes from the almost-certain potential that the ship will some hostile force—on the sea, submerged beneath it, or in the skies. Distress calls keep coming from other ships in the convoy, and it seems only a matter of time before Skar's is attacked.

There are some skirmishes here, in the opening and when a pair of German planes find the ship, and they're staged well here. One of the more intense sequences, though, has a couple of young sailors hanging from a cargo net over the side the ship and using long hooks to push mines away from the vessel. That they only have to perform this action on account of an understandable misjudgment and because Skar directly orders that two of the younger crewmembers be assigned to this duty, though, gets at the conflict of the narrative.

That's between and among the crew, who see Skar as a man who has earned his position and some respect but perceive his attitude either as an inevitable consequence of his career or as a possible detriment to their lives. On that second side is Mørk (Tobias Santelmann), the newly assigned first officer of the ship, who previously survived a U-boat attack while serving as captain on another merchant ship and, therefore, know what can happen when any one thing goes wrong.

The two men have a foundational disagreement about leadership, and it escalates as the crew becomes almost mutinous upon discovering that the escort has abandoned them, the ship is nearly destroyed itself when Mørk attempts to rescue any survivors from another capsized vessel, and the first officer realizes with shock that the captain refuses to learn the names of any crewmember with whom he doesn't have direct, regular dealings. Mørk believes Skar's callousness could get people unnecessarily killed (The look of contempt on Mørk's face when the captain uses a name he just learned to make a rousing speech is palpable). Meanwhile, Skar suspects Mørk's hesitation to make decisions is a sign of cowardice.

There are some other characters of note here—mainly Swedish gunner Johan (Adam Lundgren) and his young assistant Sigurd (Jon Ranes), who gradually form a fraternal bond that means more to each one than the other knows. They provide a sense of the personal stakes of this story, as planes strafe the deck and the climax revolves around one choice, in which either option could mean certain destruction and death.

The film succeeds because of that focus on the human drama. The importance of the mission in The Arctic Convoy is apparent from the start and even clearer by the finale, but the story ensures that we have a firm understanding of the people caught in the middle of such a risky but necessary undertaking.

Back to Home

Buy Related Products