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SEA CLASSICS presents this handy reference guide to the best of the films highlighting the Silent Service.
Submarines have long been sure-fire movie fare for audiences. Beginning with 1910's. The Aerial Submarine, 1915's A Submarine Pilot, 1916's Hero Of Submarine D-2 and 1917's Submarine Chase, the perils of life beneath the sea has held moviegoers spellbound. Offering everything from fantasy adventures to comedies, suspenseful survival tales, and grim war epics, the scriptwriters have taken full advantage of the natural drama of massive man-made machines which delve deep into the world's oceans. Ever since, Hollywood and its counterparts in the UK, Germany, Italy and Japan have exploited the submarine as the compelling cinematic setting for high adventure, great risk, impossible heroics, survival, love, hate, vengeance and even as an animated pop-art musical.
Submarine films rank very high with our readers. In the recent Sea Classics (March 2002) TOP TEN SEA FILMS contest four submarine films -- The Enemy Below - Das Boot -- Run Silent, Run Deep - The Hunt For Red October - were among the winners chosen by our readers. If this isn't proof enough of their ongoing popularity one has only to look over this list of 51 classic submarine films for proof that this genre is indeed most enduring. To qualify for inclusion in our roll call submarines had to be more than incidental to the film's story line. For example, the James Bond film You Only Live Twice is not included because its submarine sequence was not a critical element in the story line.
Responding to countless letters requesting more information on submarine films we have prepared this roster of those films which in our estimation are most representative of the genre. Though their merit varies from laughable mediocrity to superb cinematic epics the titles selected represent the various eras of this particular genre and therefore many of modest quality are included only for their historic or nostalgic worth.
Suitable for the entire family, most of these titles are available for rental or purchase from local sources or via direct mail from vendors such as Bell & Blade whose owner, Steve Morondo, graciously assisted in the preparation of this roster. Most are available on VHS or DVD cassettes at prices...