Best movie of this year hands down!

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Don't listen to the negative reviews

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

A true story worth telling, this movie suffers heavily from contrived dialog which was obviously written by someone unfamilar with the Navy. It's a classic example of writers who have learned most of what they think they know about their subject matter from watching previous movies which were just as likely written by still other writers who learned from watching still earlier movies, ad infinitum. The use of an Iowa-class battleship to portray an obsolescent pre-war heavy cruiser less than one-third its size didn't help, either.One technical point: speed was always generally regarded a significant defense to submarine attack, and given the technology available at the time it was just plain bad luck as much as anything else that the Japanese were actually able to hit the INDIANAPOLIS. Note also that the submarine had to fire a total of six torpedoes to achieve two hits.One last point: speaking as the survivor of a wild-animal attack, I can attest that the fear of it is infinitely worse than its physical reality, and I could easily come up with a long list of worse ways to go - surely one would suffer worse from dehydration and exposure, to say nothing of what the medical profession is capable of doing to you once you get to a hospital.***SPOILER ALERT *** Incidentally, McVay never recovered from the sinking. He committed suicide in 1968. In 2000 the United States Congress passed and the President signed a formal resolution exonerating him from blame for the sinking.

Remember the boys out on Quint's boat? At night, down below, swapping seagoing yarns, showing their scars, knowing the shark is out there, waiting in the watery night, guys talk of exploits and escapes. Joining in, the Roy Schieder character naively questions, "What's that one?" noticing another tattoo on Quint's forearm, The USS Indianapolis. Quint tells the tragic story of that WWII ship and crew. His personal motivation as a shark hunter.Well, if you want more of the story, that's what Mission of the Shark delivers. It is a nicely crafted historical drama with high marks for historical accuracy. Stacy Keach is wonderful as the captain, a tragic figure with biblically bad luck.

I saw this film when it was first aired... Since then I have been interested in the story of the tragedy. This book has recently been published about the sinking, "In Harm's Way: The Sinking of the USS Indianapolis and the Extraordinary Story of Its Survivors" by Doug Stanton. I recommend this book to anyone who would like to know the complete story with the most current information. This will probably be the last book with new interviews from survivors as source material.

This film is nicely filmed, though probably purposefully has the feel and look (and dialog) of a movie made in the 50s or 60s. Since the beginning and end are set in the 60s, I suspect that it was done on purpose. Scenes on the Indianapolis are fairly well done. The acting is a little stiff throughout, which is mostly due to a rather dry, stiff dialog and unimaginative script. They do manage to get the viewer steamed up at the Navy at the Court Marshall of Captain McVay. The film leaves a bit to be desired, but the saddest part of the tale is that the horror is true and teh abhorent behavior of the US Navy was unforgivable, even as of 1991. I have no idea whether the record or memory of McVay has been cleared since, but it certainly should be. The film makes a strong statement about the horrible costs of war.