The Finest Hours: A Film Review

“We’re not giving up on them. Not on my watch. We all live, or we all die.”- Bernie Webber

The Finest Hours starring Chris Pine,was based on a true story involving a heroic rescue. On February 18, 1952,  a group of U.S. Coast Guardsmen rescued the crew from the S.S. Pendleton off the Chatham Coast in Massachusetts in the middle of a harsh winter storm. This T-2 tanker had split in half, but it wasn’t the only one to split in half that day. Another T-2 tanker, the S.S. Fort Mercer also split in half. Majority of the Coast Guard. Other rescue ships went to help the Mercer, but no one knew that the Pendelton had also split in half. 

In the film, Chris Pine stars as Bernie Webber, a shy young man but a true and brave seaman. He meets Miriam Pentinen, played by Holliday Grainger, on a date after speaking with her for several weeks on the telephone. Miriam is a woman like no other as you will see in this film. She is gutsy, stands up for herself and takes a stand in for what she wants. In what is not normal for those times, she asks Bernie to marry her on the date that she chose April 16. 

When Bernie went to work at the Chatham Station, he asked Chief Warrant Officer Daniel Cluff (Eric Bana) if he could marry her.  Everyone in the station told him it’s just a formality and he doesn’t need permission from his commanding officer.  

Bernie likes to follow everything to the letter. During this talk about Miriam is when they learn that a storm was coming in and Bernie had to take several guys to the harbor and tie off the boats. This is no ordinary storm as the waters can become treacherous and the deep cold could kill a man if one is out there too long. They hear of the S.S. Fort Mercer splits in two and orders a group of men to go help save any survivors. The crewman chief tells Mr. Cluff it was better to go out in this kind of weather and takes a different boat. He does not want to risk his life in this type of weather. He does manage to help rescue 4 crew members but everyone in the station and fisherman don’t think it’s a good idea to send people out in this weather. This town had already lost good fishermen in weather like this and it haunts Bernie that he couldn’t save one fisherman. 

When Bernie returns after tying up the boats, he learns from a resident that another tanker he saw off the bar near his house was blowing its whistle and it looked split in half. They check the radar (new technology for its time) and see that indeed another ship is off the coast and it’s over the Chatham Bar. Cluff orders Bernie to pick a crew and take the CG36500 boat and go assist whomever may be on that ship. Several fishermen try to convince Bernie not to go as it is dangerous weather and especially trying to go over the bar. The bar even on a normal day is dangerous, but in this weather it is a death sentence. Bernie says the Coast Guard’s unofficial motto, “you gotta go in but they don’t say you gotta come out.”

Bernie and his crew go out into the frigid ocean and make their headway in the CG36500 not knowing how things will transpire. The cast of the crew complement one another; Ben Foster as seaman Richard “Richie” Livesey, Kyle Gallner as Engineman Third Class Andrew “Fitz” Fitzgerald, John Magaro as Seaman Ervin Maske. This group of men throughout the film form a special bond as they go through the rough waters, lose their compass, make it over the bar, lose their way at night and follow their leader Bernie Webber to push on. 

Director Craig Gillespie did a fantastic job with this film. Between the cast and the film, it felt as if it was an edge on your seat film, even though you know it is one of the greatest rescues in Coast Guard history. The film constantly makes flawless transitions of events that are either on shore, to Weber and his crew and the crew of the S.S. Pendleton. The crew of the Pendleton, comprises an ensemble of newcomers and all-star cast. Casey Affleck (brother to Ben Affleck) plays Ray Sebert, the engineer who seems to know the ship from rivet to knob. He miraculously, in the film, creates a manual tiller with the crew to get the ship to land on a reef and save them in time before the air pumps are filled with water. Once the pumps are filled with water, the ship will lose power and sink. There are some crew members who back him up in his decisions; these crewman include Frank “Pop” Fauteux played by the very personable Scottish actor Graham McTavish (known for earlier seasons of Outlander and one of the Thirteen Dwarves in The Hobbit Trilogy), Tchuda Southerland played by Josh Steward and George “Tiny” Myers played by Abraham Benrubi and several others. 

The crew of the Pendleton with the clock racing manage to get their half of their ship on the reef and hope that a rescue will happen. The way they had orders told to each other in a fireman’s line with the soundtrack was awe inspiring and sent chills up my spine. It was quite a feat of sheer luck, human ingenuity and the brilliance of Ray Sebert to get the ship to safety on the reef before it sank. Their luck prevailed as Bernie Webber came across them by accident. He made it over the bar and heard the awful groans of the damaged ship. He only initially saw one survivor and thought he was too late. The soundtrack created this immense crescendo when more survivors came to the rail to see that they were being rescued. Bernie realized that there were over 30 men aboard that ship. Their boat could only hold 12 and that included them per Coast Guard regulations. Richie had stated perhaps they should turn back when they started getting fuller and harder to turn. He said “We’re not giving up on them. Not on my watch. We all live, or we all die.”

I won’t spoil what happens involving the rescuing of the S. S. Pendleton crew; however, I will note that but the heroics of the crew that day was something no one would have ever imagined to happen. These heroics were displayed brilliantly by both the Coast Guard and the S.S. Pendleton crew. When Bernie announced on the radio back that they had 32 survivors, everyone on the other end was flabbergasted that they succeeded over the bar and had that many survivors. Bernie was instructed to go to another rescue ship that had the 70 survivors from S.S. Fort Mercer. Bernie refused orders and brought his cold, soaked but thankful survivors home. The crowd at home’s response to their boys coming back home is nothing short of tear jerkers and compassion. 

What Bernie Webber and his crew did that day is still listed as one of the greatest rescues that the U.S. Coast Guard has ever been listed. His determination to get across that bar, rescue the men and bring them back home to safety despite the risk of himself and his crew is beyond admirable. Of course with every film based on true stories, there are going to be creative license/differences that the real people would know what happened. 

The following links and sites that follow below will give you the reader more insight about these heroic acts. This is a link about History vs Hollywood and gives you a great detail about the differences of the movie and the people they were based off. There were other areas of the movie I did not discuss to not spoil it, but some things did not happen and they can be read at the History vs Hollywood site. The Times magazine also wrote their own article about the movie vs life and gives an in depth story.

There is a Coast Guard site that is dedicated to  Mr. Bernie Webber who died in 2009. He is survived by his daughter Patricial Hamilton and a son Bernard E. Webber who are both very proud of their father. He is also survived by his grandchildren. For more information about this dedication, go to the USC LightShip Sailors website.

The Orleans Historical Society lists an interview by Bernie Webber and several articles about that historic day. The interview is in an audio format and it is worth listening to hear the man who didn’t consider it a heroic moment. He and others were just doing their jobs.

The Coast Guard Heritage Museum in Cape Cod, Massachusetts has several items of the history of Bernie Webber and his crew. This museum also houses other historical facts of the Coast Guard in the Cape Cod. If you are a fan of podcasts and would love to listen to other interviews of Bernie Weber listen to The Takeaway podcast and the Old Salt Blog.

Relive this harrowing tale of courage, ingenuity, honor and battling the odds and watch it today on Disney Plus or purchase a copy from eBay. On the DVD you can watch extra featurettes that are not shown on Disney.

I have yet to read any of the books listed about this daring rescue but they are in my wish list and there will be blog entries about them. You can read the memoir Into a Raging Sea: My life and the Pendleton Rescue by Bernie Webber. You can also purchase The Finest Hours which the film is based on; this book is written by Michael Tougias and Casey Sherman and is available for purchase from Bookshop.org.

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