A 2020 American war film directed by Aaron Schneider and starring Tom Hanks, who also wrote the screenplay, Greyhound is set to be released in theatres on February 15, 2020. The film is based on the 1955 novel The Good Shepherd by C. S. Forester, and it also features Stephen Graham, Rob Morgan, and Elisabeth Shue as well as the aforementioned actors.

After being assigned as the commanding officer of a multinational escort group in early 1942 during the Battle of the Atlantic, only months after the United States officially entered World War II, the plot follows a US Navy commander on his mission to defend an Allied merchant ship convoy under attack by German submarines.

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Greyhound was originally scheduled to be released in theatres in the United States on June 12, 2020, by Sony Pictures Releasing. However, the film was ultimately cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, after having previously been delayed indefinitely due to the outbreak. The film’s digital distribution rights were then sold to Apple TV+, which will release the film on July 10, 2020, in its entirety.

The film received generally positive reviews from critics, who praised the action sequences and the efficient use of the film’s 90-minute running time. The film was nominated for Best Sound at the 93rd Academy Awards, where it received a nomination.

Plot

Convoy HX-25, consisting of 37 Allied ships, is making its way to Liverpool during the Battle of the Atlantic. The convoy is escorted by the USS Keeling DD-548, radio call sign “Greyhound,” captained by Commander Ernest Krause of the US Navy; the British Tribal-class destroyer HMS James, call sign “Harry”; the Polish Grom-class destroyer ORP Viktor, call sign “Eagle”; and the Canadian Flower-class corvette, HMCS Dodge K136, call sign “Dicky.” Despite his seniority and significant naval schooling, Krause is commanding the escort ships for the first time in a war.

The convoy enters the “Black Pit,” a Mid-Atlantic chasm where they will be out of protective air cover. The convoy flagship’s high-frequency direction finding intercepts multiple German messages, signalling the presence of U-boats. Greyhound spots a surfaced sub approaching the convoy and prepares to attack. The submarine tries to stow itself beneath Greyhound, but Krause positions his ship above it and sinks it with a full pattern of depth charges.

The crew’s joy is short-lived, as they soon get reports of distress rockets being fired from the convoy’s rear. Another U-boat has targeted a Greek merchant ship, which is rapidly sinking. Krause dispatches Greyhound to assist, deftly avoiding torpedoes fired upon his warship. Greyhound rejoins the convoy just as the bridge receives several warnings from the other escorts: a wolfpack of six U-boats is staying just out of gun range of the convoy; Krause assumes they are waiting for dusk, when the escorts will have no visibility.

That nightfall, five commercial ships are torpedoed and sunk as part of the operation. One U-boat uses an undersea decoy device to torpedo an oil tanker and elude Greyhound, duping the crew into spending most of their remaining depth charges. Rather than assisting the other ships, Krause chooses to rescue survivors from the burning oil tanker first.

Cast

Commander Tom Hanks (Tom Hanks) The USS Keeling, nicknamed Greyhound, was commanded by Ernest Krause.
Lieutenant Commander Charlie Cole, Krause’s executive officer, is played by Stephen Graham.
George Cleveland, Mess Attendant 2nd Class, is played by Rob Morgan.
Evelyn Frechette, Ernest’s love interest, is played by Elisabeth Shue.
Melvin Lopez is played by Manuel Garcia-Rulfo.
Red Eppstein is played by Karl Glusman.
Lieutenant Watson is played by Tom Brittney.
Harry Fippler is played by Jake Ventimiglia.
Lieutenant J. Edgar Nystrom is played by Matt Helm.
Forbrick is played by Joseph Poliquin.
Homer Wallace is played by Devin Druid.

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ORP Viktor captain Maximilian Osinski, callsign “Eagle”
Captain Dominic Keating, HMS James, Callsign “Harry”
Signalman #1 is Grayson Russell.
Dave Davis is the first Boatswain’s Mate.
Lieutenant Carling is played by Michael Benz.
LTJG Dawson Travis Przybylski
Talker #1 is Josh Wiggins.
Bushnell is played by Chet Hanks.
Ian Captain James Corlett of the HMCS Dodge (callsign “Dicky”)
Captain Thomas Kretschmann of the U-boat Grey Wolf (voice only)
Rico Ochoa, Forward Lookout (Michael Carollo)

Production

Pre-production photography took done at sea in January 2018 on board HMCS Montréal, a Royal Canadian Navy frigate. The model for the corvette, HMCS Dodge, was HMCS Sackville, the last surviving Flower-class corvette (call sign Dicky). To construct the CGI version for the imaginary corvette, the producers took several 3D scans of the repaired ship’s exterior in Halifax, Nova Scotia.  Filming began aboard the USS Kidd in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in March 2018.

Release

Greyhound was set to be released in theatres in the United States on March 22, 2019, by Sony Pictures Releasing under its Columbia Pictures label, before being postponed until May 8, 2020, and finally June 12, 2020.

Due of the COVID-19 epidemic in the United States, it was withdrawn from the release schedule in March 2020, along with many other films.

[16] Earlier that month, while filming Elvis for Warner Bros., Hanks was diagnosed with COVID-19. Apple TV+ purchased distribution rights to the film for around $70 million in May 2020, leaving Stage 6 Films as the lone Sony distributor as of the film’s release. On July 10, 2020, the service made it available digitally. The film had the biggest opening weekend of any programme in Apple’s history, according to Deadline Hollywood, with stats “commensurate with a summer theatrical box office huge hit.” According to Variety, the film was the 24th most watched straight-to-streaming release in 2020 as of November.

Reception

The film has a 79 percent approval rating on review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes, based on 228 reviews with an average rating of 6.5/10. “Greyhound’s characters aren’t as robust as its action sequences,” the website’s reviews agree, “but this fast-paced World War II thriller benefits from its efficiently economical approach.” The film received a weighted average score of 64 out of 100 from 37 critics on Metacritic, signifying “generally good reviews.”

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The picture is “less of a narrative than a tense and robust record of the practicalities of battle,” according to Variety’s Owen Gleiberman, and “while much of the action is place in the open air of the ship’s command perch, Greyhound often feels like a submarine thriller: taut, tight, boxed-in.”

“Like the canine, [Greyhound] is sleek, narrow of scope, and it works efficiently and well despite a deluge of on-screen time stamps and vessel identification marks,” Michael Phillips wrote for the Chicago Tribune, awarding the film three out of four stars.

“A terse and minimalist dad movie that’s shorter than a Sunday afternoon snooze and just as exhilarating, Greyhound bobs across the screen like a detailed character study that’s been entombed in a 2,000-ton iron casket and left adrift over the Atlantic,” commented David Ehrlich of IndieWire. The film gives a few glimpses at the tortured figure Forester created for his book… but it’s far too obsessed with staying afloat to devote any meaningful attention to the man at the helm.