Below (film)
| Below | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | David Twohy |
| Written by | Lucas Sussman Darren Aronofsky David Twohy |
| Produced by | Darren Aronofsky Sue Baden-Powell Eric Watson |
| Starring | Bruce Greenwood Matthew Davis Olivia Williams Holt McCallany Scott Foley Zach Galifianakis Jason Flemyng Dexter Fletcher |
| Cinematography | Ian Wilson |
| Edited by | Martin Hunter |
| Music by | Graeme Revell Tim Simonec |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Miramax Films Dimension Films |
Release date | October 11, 2002 |
Running time | 105 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $605,562 |
Below is a 2002 World War II horror film directed by David Twohy. It was written by Lucas Sussman, Darren Aronofsky and David Twohy, and stars Bruce Greenwood, Olivia Williams, Matthew Davis, Holt McCallany, Scott Foley, Zach Galifianakis, Jason Flemyng and Dexter Fletcher.
It was filmed on location in Lake Michigan (for exteriors, using the World War II-era U.S. Navy submarine, USS Silversides) and at Pinewood Studios.
Plot
The USS Tiger Shark is a submarine on patrol in the Atlantic Ocean in 1943. The submarine is ordered to pick up survivors spotted adrift by a British PBY Catalina patrol plane. At the wreck site, they retrieve three survivors — a British nurse and two sailors, one wounded — from a British hospital ship that was torpedoed several days earlier. As they pick up the survivors the Tiger Shark spots a German warship bearing down on them. The submarine has several encounters with the German warship and suffers heavy damage from depth charges in the process.
Immediately after the first attack the commanding officer of the Tiger Shark, Lieutenant Brice (Bruce Greenwood), discovers that the wounded sailor is actually a German POW, Luftwaffe pilot and family man Ben Archerlift. Brice confronts him because he thinks Archerlift has been making strange noises to betray their position to the German warship. Brice believes it was an act of sabotage, and shoots Archerlift dead when the German panics and grabs a scalpel to defend himself. The crew experiences eerie phenomena seemingly related to the recent death of the previous captain, Lieutenant Commander Winters. According to Brice, Winters was killed trying to obtain a souvenir from a torpedoed German ship; he fell and hit his head while reaching for his souvenir, then drowned before he could be rescued.
Disembodied voices are heard, a series of mechanical problems keeps the submarine turning back towards the site of the sunken German ship, and crewmen are accidentally killed at an alarming rate. They begin to suspect a supernatural influence. They also begin to question Brice's version of how and why Captain Winters died.
It is revealed that Brice and two other senior officers were responsible for the death of Captain Winters, and that the British hospital ship was mistaken for a German ship and was sunk by the Tiger Shark. The three officers could not afford this blot on their records and conspired to suppress the story, killing Captain Winters as he tried to save the wounded in the ocean to make up for his and his crew's drastic mistake. This is discovered after one of the senior officers is mysteriously killed while working on the exterior of the sub, and the other is impaled on an outside railing after trying to escape the boat after seeing Winters' ghost.
The boat is ultimately crippled by the mounting accidents, and only five crew members remain alive: Brice, Odell, Claire, Stumbo, and eccentric crewman "Weird" Wally. Brice and Claire face each other down on the surface deck of the disabled submarine. Claire has spotted another ship in the area and tries to get its attention, but Brice holds her at gunpoint. His remorse over the accident overcomes him, and he shoots himself in the head, falling dead into the ocean. The four survivors are picked up by ship spotted by Claire, which turns out to be British. The Tiger Shark sinks away from the surface, coming to rest on the ocean floor next to the British hospital ship.
Cast
- Bruce Greenwood as Lieutenant Brice
- Matthew Davis as Ensign Douglas Odell
- Olivia Williams as Claire Paige
- Holt McCallany as Lieutenant Paul Loomis
- Scott Foley as Lieutenant Steven Coors
- Zach Galifianakis as Weird Wally
- Jason Flemyng as Stumbo
- Dexter Fletcher as Kingsley
- Nick Chinlund as Chief
- Andrew Howard as Hoag
- Christopher Fairbank as Pappy
Production
The producers used the USS Silversides (SS-236), a World War II-era Gato-class submarine based in Muskegon, Michigan, for exteriors of the "USS Tiger Shark." The sub was towed out into Lake Michigan.
Reception
The film gained an approval rating of 63% on Rotten Tomatoes with 41 out of 65 reviews calling it fresh.[1] Reviewers on Metacritic gave a mixed response with a 55% approval rating based on 20 reviews.[2] Entertainment Weekly gave the film a B+ rating, calling it a "handsome, haunting submarine thriller".[3] Edward Guthmann from the San Francisco Chronicle gave a mainly negative review stating that the dialogue was "heavy on sarcasm and puncturing insults, never captures the World War II period but sounds ridiculously anachronistic".[4] Variety Magazine gave the movie a mixed review stating that "the strenuous seriousness the film applies to an idea that is finally silly at its core steadily increases the impression of overwrought artificiality as matters progress".[5]
References
- ^ "Below Movie Reviews". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2008-03-16.
- ^ "Below (2002): Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 2008-03-16.
- ^ "Below - Movie Review - Entertainment Weekly". Entertainment Weekly. 2002-10-09. Retrieved 2008-03-16.
- ^ Curiel, Jonathan; Guthmann, Edward; Meyer, Carla; Nevius, C.W. "FILM CLIPS / Also opening today". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2008-03-16.
- ^ McCarthy, Todd (2002-10-06). "Below Review - Variety.com". Variety Magazine. Retrieved 2008-03-16.