There is nothing like watching a movie about a winter storm, be it on land or at sea, that makes one grateful to live in Florida.  Granted, we have to worry about the weather in the summer, and these last months between May and November had their share of tense moments for the Sunshine State.  A hurricane should not be taken for granted, and I pray for those still dealing with the process of getting their homes and lives back together after Helene and Milton.  My reason for being thankful for the latter brand of tempest rather than the former pertains to the temperature.  When I see a film of The Finest Hours’ (2016) ilk, I can almost feel the chill of the ocean and the snow, not to mention the blasting wind and waves.  This is the kind of weather a service man or woman in the United States Coast Guard (USCG) has to contend with, potentially being ordered to their deaths in the hopes of rescuing others.  That is a mission a Catholic can support.

Before Boatswain’s Mate First Class Bernard “Bernie” Webber (Chris Pine) is sent to face peril in The Finest Hours, he is working up the courage to face an enormous task of a different sort: meeting Miriam Pentinen (Holliday Grainger).  She is a woman with whom he has only spoken to over the phone, but is hoping to get to know more personally.  Accompanied by a fellow member of the USCG, Bernie introduces himself to Miriam before convincing a local fisherman to let him and the others take one of the boats out on the harbor for a nighttime cruise.  At the bar where this request is made is Carl Nickerson (Matthew Maher), a resident of the area who lost a brother when the Coast Guard could not make it past the Chatham Bar beyond their Cape Cod station.  This raised area of the ocean floor is where inland waters meet the Atlantic Ocean, and during times of high seas, it is impassable.  Nobody there blames Bernie for the tragedy, but the tension is still palpable.  A little over a year passes and Bernie and Miriam are still dating.  During a dance, she asks him to marry her, but he hesitates.  To assuage her feelings over the apparent rejection, he says it is not because of a lack of love or willingness.  On top of citing USCG regulations regarding getting permission to start a family, he also mentions the dangers he must endure in these waters.  Yet, seeing the ache on her face, he agrees to her proposal.  The next day, there is a storm on the sea.  About ten miles off the Massachusetts coast is the oil tanker SS Pendleton.  As massive walls of water crash into the ship from all sides, engineer Ray Sybert (Casey Affleck) listens in the engine room to the literal hum of a weld in the hull as it hums to the vibrations of the water pounding the outside.  His warnings to the captain to take a different course are unheeded until the Pendleton crests a particularly tall wave and crashes down the other side.  The seam opens up, but Ray’s reports the bridge go unanswered.  The reason for the silence is because the boat has split in two amidships.  They are in the aft section, which stays afloat thanks to watertight bulkheads above the waterline.  Nonetheless, the sea is coming in faster than the pumps can handle, and it is only a matter of time until the Pendletonfounders.  The remaining crew is split on what course of action to take.  The ones who wish to abandon ship are led by D.A. Brown (Michael Raymond-James), who wants to take his chances in the lifeboats.  Ray is against this action, and proves his point when he launches one of the skiffs, only to see it be immediately smashed to pieces on the Pendleton’s side.  With that settled, they rig a makeshift tiller, start the engines, and make to run aground on a nearby shoal.  It is not the ideal solution, but the hope is that it will keep them above the water until help arrives.  Of course, it is Bernie who is ordered to attempt to make it to the Pendleton.  Everyone believes it is suicidal, with some of merchant sailors and his own comrades telling him to take their thirty-five foot launch out around the harbor and come back, saying that the bar is impassable.  Of course, Bernie has too much character to do so.  As he and his three mates head into the teeth of the waves, Miriam arrives at the station to demand that their commanding officer, Chief Warrant Officer Daniel Cluff (Eric Bana), order Bernie to turn return.  This, too, does not happen.  Instead, after being battered and losing their compass, Bernie’s boat makes it across the bar and into the Atlantic.  Their search appears hopeless until they chance upon the derelict aft of the Pendleton.  As their crew come on deck, Seaman Richard Livesey (Ben Foster) points out that the thirty-five-footer is designed to carry only twelve including themselves.  The normally rule following Bernie waves off this information, determined to take them all back to shore.  Miraculously, all but one of the survivors make it onto Bernie’s vessel.  Still, there is one more problem to overcome: the lack of a compass.  Once they are able to reestablish radio contact with the station, Chief Cluff instructs Bernie to take everyone to another ship in the area.  Not wanting to put the men he has just saved on another ship, he once more disobeys orders, sets the wind on the other side of the lifeboat than what he came out with, and hopes he is pointed back towards the coast.  There is one more hurdle, though, in that the lights he expects to see have gone dark due to a power outage.  However, waiting on shore is Miriam with a number of cars with their headlights turned on, guiding them.  With them, the cold and tired Bernie docks the boat to a hero’s welcome.

A title like The Finest Hours should clue one in to the fact that what you are about to watch will include heroism.  Service makes heroes, and this is as true for the military as it is for Faith.  The saints are considered to have “exercised heroic virtue,” which can seem like a tough act to follow if you do not understand what is meant by that phrase. That is not to say that the holy men and women honored by the Church were without sin.  That is not what is taught, and outside of Jesus and the Virgin Mary, such behavior is impossible for us mere mortals.  What they do is give their best effort at the right moment.  Such describes Bernie’s behavior.  Like anyone else that lives near Cape Cod, he understands that trying to cross the bar in the middle of a storm in any vessel, much less his comparatively tiny motorboat, is likely to cost him his life.  At the same time, he knows that it is not about him but something bigger, namely the sailors trapped on a doomed ship in need of help.  To this end, there is a Scripture shown in the movie that sheds light on the kind of emotional disposition one needs in these kinds of situations.  It is Psalm 23, and it is one that has been used in other films, like Titanic (1997).  In that one, as a priest makes his way to the back of another doomed ship, he utters a version of verse four: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff comfort me.”  The same spirit is found in The Finest Hours.  When dealing with life at sea, an environment that can sometimes look as if God’s finger is directly upon it, you have to be prepared to be called to the Lord at any moment.  With preparation comes the ability to “fear no evil.”  Like the discussion of sin above, this does not preclude fear itself. Like the seamen of the Pendleton or the servicemen in the USCG, the prospect of death is not a pleasant one.  It is the terror of what could come after that paralyzes people.  However, if you can conquer that part, it will give you the strength to act when needed, and to do it in the right way.  This film, though not a faith-based one, is a testament to that fact.

As alluded to in the introduction, it is good to watch a film like The Finest Hours because you see people doing a job you likely will never have to do.  And God bless them.  Seeing this movie is a tribute to the sacrifices of these men and women, and thus why I recommend it.