A Glimpse of Hell

This is a morality tale of investigating a military cover up. An explosion aboard an aging battleship is covered up to save face for the Navy. Captain Fred Moosally(James Caan) agrees with his superiors that the fatal explosion that killed 47 is to be blamed on a homosexual rift between two sailors. LTJG Dan Meyer(Robert Sean Leonard)struggles to convince his captain that faulty equipment an gunpowder on board was the real cause of the tragedy. Meyer was considered disloyal until a congressional hearing forced the Navy to revise its findings.

Well scripted and kudos to director Mikael Salomon. This true life drama packs a punch. Special effects were a bit gruesome, but very essential focal point for the story.

Also in the cast are: Andrew MacVicar, James Bulliard and Jamie Harrold.

A very frank account of a true incident, told with no holds barred, with an excellant cast. I can bet that the Top Navy brass didn't like this movie very much. James Caan (as usual) gave an realistic performance as the Captain of the Iowa. I was very surpised at the quality of this movie.

As a Navy veteran, I can truthfully say I was mightily impressed by the quality of this movie as well as its message. The producers seemed like they genuinely cared about the welfare of the ordinary sailors who man ships such as the Iowa. The fact that the Navy falsely implicated one of these sailors, who was no longer alive to defend himself, is appalling in and of itself. The fact that FX and the people who made this movie attempted to set the record straight, speaks glowingly about the state of movie-making these days.

Well worth watching.

Its bad enough when young men die in battle but when they die in peacetime training accidents that could have been easily prevented and when the military tries to cover it up, it makes it infinitely worse. This is a fine film that tells of the horrible tragedy of the Iowa. Its sad that most people remember this ship only for this incident, it had a very fine record in three wars it seems. A lot of people will have a hard time understanding the naval jargon they use in the film. This is my only real complaint about it. James Caan is great as the conscience-stricken captain who does the right thing in the end at the cost of his career. The reenactment of the explosion of turrent 2 is chilling and there are some really gruesome special effects where it shows all the burned to a crisp bodies. There is one thing in the end of the film where an officer calls a sailor a little faggot. That sort of dated it because that is prohibited in the military today. The montage of photos they show at the end of all the innocent victims really makes you pause. I feel Clayton Hardwig really was innocent and that he and the forty six others need to be honored as brave men who died in their countries service.

Why does it take years after an event for the media to gain the courage to film an actual event with all its warts? The difficulty this guy had in even getting this mildly white-washed film made is witness to how sensitive we are in this country to even MILDLY criticizing our corrupt government.

The acting by James Caan is remarkable, as he has to portray a good ol boy captain, striving to be an admiral, was well as a self-important, lazy Navy officer, imposing no discipline on his troops, nor even overseeing properly the supplying of his ship (which might have saved a few of the 40+ lives). Yet, Caan also portrays his good side (which we all have), making him keep his lips tightly closed as he tries to walk the line between truth and completely throwing in with the whitewash of the Navy investigative committee. As if the higher-ups in government don't know that no group can truthfully investigate itself.

I find it puzzling that this was a Made for TV movie, instead of for the big screen. Having worked as a NASA contractor throughout its initial coverups and waiving of the O-rings preceding the Challenger debacle, I find the disingeniousness attempts by the NASA PMs presetly at work very similar to the nefarious activities by the Navy big wheels in this movie. Quite instructional for any idealist young patriot, and I mean that in the best sense.