111 - Lifeboat

    A variety of survivors from a U-boat attack are joined in their lifeboat by a German.  They survive, care for each other, bicker, and try to make their way from the wreckage over to where they feel they'll be saved.
    A 1944 Hitchcock movie, I wasn't sure what to expect.  While I like some of Hitchcock's work, some of his work has very dull pacing.  While I didn't dislike this movie, it didn't stand out at all.  The writing is dated, and there are a lot of actions that don't ring true to me.
    What feels very out of place is the idea that self-preservation would be overridden by a desire to avoid being implied in cooperation with a Nazi.  I'm not sure if I phrased that right.  There's an attitude that comes out early on, which has people making their decisions strictly in opposition to the ideas expressed by the German.
    This idea could have been interesting, and it could have made a fantastic villain.  If he were willing to misdirect the boat for the sake of leading them to their deaths, in something more akin to a slow-motion kamikaze… that would be a really dark ending.
    There are a lot of conversations to work on character building and establishing relationships.  These were interesting enough that I did remember them, and felt myself being a little curious about where they were going.  But I didn't feel like any of them paid off.
    I didn't care for the ending either.  At first, I thought it would have a more concretely downer ending, but it never came.  Then I realized that, because the movie came out in 1944, and WWII was popular enough, it would be hard for them to depict the war in anything other than a positive light.

    And I suppose that's one thing that makes the movie interesting - how different the same premise would play out in modern times.