USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage (2016) - Review

USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage is a disaster movie in more than one sense of the phrase. The story follows groups of soldiers before deployment on a mission to deliver materials for the Hiroshima atomic bomb, during that mission, and the aftermath. The ship was hit by Japanese submarine fire on its return journey home, but due to the top secret nature of the mission and other incompetencies, the surviving crew were stranded at sea for 4 days before being rescued. 

I did enjoy the story of the movie, the strongest parts being the off-water scenes. The water scenes were not particularly offensive story-wise, however, another disaster was set squarely during these moments. The special effects are horrendous given the serious and somber tone of the movie. Given the nature of the sailor's location, the South Pacific, I have seen criticism of the CG being compared to the television feature Sharknado and after looking at some comparison footage, the comparison is not far off. The CG planes and boats are more jarring than that of the sharks which are tinged with a blue hue (being underwater, like sharks are).

It is a real shame that the movie is plagued with budgetary issues - as stated above, I believe that the story is fairly moving, if not heavily abbreviated. I had a deep emotional connection to the sailors on the boat that were struck by such tragedy - I had 2 great-uncles (on opposite sides of my family) both present at Pearl Harbor at the time of the December 7th attack and survive. It is disappointing to me that the depiction of such a tragic event is mired by the poor attempt at CG.