In Which We Serve (1942)
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In Which We Serve Movie Review
In Which We Serve is a 1942 British patriotic war film directed by Noel Coward and David Lean and starring Noel Coward, John Mills, Bernard Miles and Celia Johnson. It is a very forgettable war flick.
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“This is the story of a ship…“
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After the British destroyer Torrin capsizes, some of the crew members await rescue while remembering their families and loved ones. When this film was released, it was acclaimed by critics. But nowadays, it is hardly going to be praised by anybody as it is rather dated and typical for its time. Its patriotism for the British people and their cause in WWII is especially annoying to watch in the modern context.
The performances are uniformly strong. Coward and Mills are particularly memorable and Celia Johnson also impressed in a film that otherwise lacked in female characters for obvious reasons. The emotional engagement is pretty evident, though sometimes the movie went into overly melodramatic, maudlin territory.
Technically speaking, In Which We Serve represents a terrific piece of filmmaking. Not only is the cinematography highly polished and accomplished, but the editing is also strong and the directing from these two great directors is solid, though both made much better movies than this one and this counts as a disappointment for them both.
Structurally speaking, the movie is interesting as it goes through time and its atmosphere is also one that is both dreamy and melancholic. In this area, the film succeeds. However, the pacing is so slow and the movie is such a slog to sit though that it is difficult to really care about it more. Couple that with a very propagandistic ending and you’ve got a very dated picture.
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In Which We Serve is a 1942 movie, but it was nominated at the 1943 Academy Awards. Neither of its two awards was deserved, especially not Best Picture, though I can see a case for its screenplay as the film is very densely plotted and filled with many characters. However, I personally find that novelistic approach unfitting for the movie format, resulting in a very tedious viewing experience.
