Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Usamah Harvey The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Scotty Burke It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

Raymond Sierra The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

JLRVancouver John Wayne headlines this tale of the USN Thunderfish as it takes on the Japanese Navy early in WW2. Admittedly, I thought the submarine's exploits were pretty much unbelievable until I read that many of them were based on actual incidents (not all involving the same submarine and crew of course). Despite that "Operation Pacific" is pretty weak. Much of the film was shot in studio and it shows, especially in the dockyard and underwater scenes. The best sequences (such as dive-bombing and torpedo runs at Leyte) are archival footage that are often not well matched to the newly filmed material. The 'on the beach' storyline is a tedious triangle between Wayne's character ('Lt Cmdr. Duke E. Gifford'), his ex-wife (a too young Patricia Neal) and "Lt. Bob Perry" the brother of Duke's buddy and "CO 'Pops' Perry" (played by Wayne perennial Ward Bond). Neither interesting nor believable, the love story requires lots of predictable coincidences in order to run its course and really slows the film down. The rest of the cast are OK, playing the stereotypical sailors found in these movies (the wiseacre, the loose cannon, etc) but their interactions with their commanding officers (including Wayne) never rang true to me. Some of the battle sequences are OK but the 'action footage', especially the obligatory depth-charging scenes, lacked the tension that makes for a really good submarine yarn (such as "Hell Below" or "Das Boot"). Good for die-hard fans of the Duke or the genre, otherwise, not a must-see.

grantss Lightly entertaining John Wayne submarine drama.The Pacific Theatre of WW2. Lt Commander Duke Gifford (played by John Wayne) is the Executive Officer of a US Navy submarine, the USS Thunderfish. The submarine fleet, incl the Thunderfish, is suffering from malfunctioning torpedoes. Meanwhile Commander Gifford is also trying to win back his ex-wife...A stereotypical John Wayne movie, i.e. overly gung ho and not that accurate, militarily. Some quite unrealistic battle scenes. The relationship side is mildly interesting but also overly melodramatic and complex. Not all bad though, as long as you don't think too much. The battle scenes are quite exciting and there are some insights into submarine life.

utgard14 A middle-of-the-road submarine picture starring John Wayne that unfortunately didn't appeal much to me. First, I'm not a huge fan of Patricia Neal. I know, I know. She was a fine actress and I respect her. But as leading ladies go, she leaves me cold. Second, this is full of clichés and stereotypical plot lines, even for 1951. I'm not huge on war movies in general. Oh it's not some philosophical thing. I actually like a lot of the WW2-era war movies. But many of the ones made from the '50s onward, like this one, feel like programmers to me. There are exceptions, of course, and I praise those movies when I see them. But, for the most part, these types of movies are predictable and dull. There's an audience for this picture that will like it a lot but unfortunately I didn't.

MartinHafer This movie is an excellent submarine movie that combines exciting and generally believable action along with a decent back-story. John Wayne is the second in command on a sub and he's become reacquainted with his ex-wife, Patricia Neal. His trying to win her back and his difficulties with expressing himself is handled more credibly than most Wayne characters, as he is vulnerable and more 3-dimensional than his usual self. As for the action itself, the movie spends a lot of time on a lesser-known aspect of US sub warfare--the fact that our torpedoes at the beginning of the war were often duds. And the subplot involving the death of the commander is interesting as well. About the only down-side is that, at times, the sub does rather extraordinary things that no sub ever did--such as sinking 3 ships in mere minutes--including a sub, destroyer and an aircraft carrier! With victories like that, we could have won the war in just a few weeks. BUT, considering this is counter-balanced with dud torpedoes and the destruction of a fellow sub, this is a little more realistic than the standard fare.PS--a cute part of the film is when the crew is watching the movie DESTINATION TOKYO (with Cary Grant). One of the crewmen comments that this is a great movie but it was awfully short on realism. Ha.