Breakinger A Brilliant Conflict

Griff Lees Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Ariella Broughton It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Yazmin Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

bheadher This movie is never shown anymore, I suspect because it would scare people even more than it did at the time.The movie deals with a gritty, autocratic Naval Captain, in command of a guided missile Destroyer during the height of the cold war, who is almost fanatical about forcing a Soviet Missile sub to surface and acknowledge he is in territorial waters. Finlander (Widmark) is determined, perhaps a bit too determined, for he expects perfection from his crew, and drives them constantly to the brink of psychosis...Poitier is a journalist, who has been granted access to a front line ship, to document just how they operate...he recognizes the palpable tensions on board, and confronts the Captain many times, only to be rebuffed as an ignorant civilian...I don't want to spoil it for you, but if you want top notch drama, this is it...I expect it is still available on DVD...

Leofwine_draca THE BEDFORD INCIDENT is a Cold War thriller like no other. It's set on an American destroyer sailing off the coast of Greenland and looks at the psychology of the dedicated, over-zealous captain leading the mission to hunt a Russian submarine. Richard Widmark has a long career of playing officers in war pictures but this is his most developed part, a study of a man for whom winning means everything.Sidney Poitier plays a writer who acts as the eyes and ears of the audience. What a refreshing change to see no mention made of his race; he's just an ordinary guy and it's a sign of the times that he was accepted as such by the men on the warship. Martin Balsam has a good role too as the ship's doctor with his own cross to bear.For the most part, THE BEDFORD INCIDENT is quite a slow-paced story with plenty of dialogue and just a few suspense sequences to keep the viewer absorbed. However, things begin to gel together more and more as the film goes on, leading to a wildly impressive climax that'll have your jaw dropping. It puts the rest of the movie into a different perspective, that's for sure. Watch out for a youthful Donald Sutherland playing one of the ship's medics.

Werner I met this movie again after having seen it possibly more then 20 years ago now on DVD and in original English version. From the very start when 3 medics take maximum effort to analyze a piece of cabbage fished from the sea to the very end a highly claustrophobic atmosphere is created dominated by the Ahab-like Captain subordinating everything under his cold professionalism and determination to fight his cold war to the maximum heat allowed. The chase of the submarine certainly has many similar aspects of the chase for Moby Dick up to the awful end. Towering performances by Eric Portman, Richard Widmark and Sidney Poitier, strong support by Martin Balsam, Wally Cox and James Mcarthur. 9/10.

thinker1691 The Cold War is one of the world's most frightening conflicts ever as it nearly extinguished humanity. During this time, suspicious nations rattled atomic sabers at one another and secret agencies scurried about disseminating Ideological propaganda and psychological warfare, but for the most part the only thing accomplished was that Americans spent billions threatening a distant enemy who ultimately became our friend. One exceptional film which appear during this era, was " The Bedford Incident." It is the story of an American reporter Ben Munceford (Sidney Poitier) who seeks out a controversial naval officer, because he believes him to be a rare individual. That particular man is Captain Eric Finlander. (Richard Widmark) a no-nonsense commander who is determined to do his duty, even if it means destroying a stray Russian Submarine, armed with nuclear missiles. While Munceford is trying to fathom the Captain, he notices everyone under Finlander's command is being subjected to increasing pressure, enormous stress and intolerable strain to remain on high alert as if war could be initiated at any time. From an audience point of view, the tension on board the Bedford, mirrors the terrifying state of fear in the world. Helping the audience analyze the situation is Lieut. Cmdr. Chester Potter (Martin Balsam) a naval Doctor who warns the Captain of mounting psychological dangers of his crew. One such officer is Ensign Ralston (James MacArthur) who the doctor warns is wound 'too tight' to be on duty. Another is Seaman Merlin Queffle (Wally Cox) who believes he controls the ship. This is a remarkable film, for it's characters, it's drama and eventually it's inevitable ending. It's a reminder, the fears we create are as real as our nightmares. ****