"In Which We Serve" is a great movie about World War II, England's entry into the war, the war's toll on people at home, and sea battles and survival. As such, it is a marvelous character study of the culture that was England at the time, running the gamut of social classes.

The film covers about three years, from the launch of a new destroyer before Britain enters the war after Germany invaded Poland in 1939. The story unfolds in three ways. First, through the eyes of several men assigned to the ship. The captain, a chief, a regular seaman and others survive the sinking of their ship during the battle of Crete in mid- 1941. On their raft in the Mediterranean, each has flashbacks to times at their homes, with families and of loved ones. Second, we see scenes of their families at home enduring the long waits and then the Battle of Britain and German bombings. Third, we see the men in service on the ship in battle with enemy ships and convoys and in the rescue of British troops from Dunkirk in mid-1940.

This film has a fairly large cast of people with significant parts, and all perform with excellence. In various scenes, I felt right a home as though I were a member or welcomed friend or guest of the families or groups. Others have commented on the stiff upper lip of the Brits, portrayed so well by all in this film. I only add that one can get a sense of the heroism in this, in each person doing his or her part to help keep some sanity and not letting things fall apart. And, the excellent script by Noel Coward, and directing with the excellent acting only brings the audience more into the emotion of the moments so that we feel and care deeply for the people.

What is dated, if not history? One of the great values of film, it seems, is that it gives us a record of history. Any story put on film in the time in which it takes place, is naturally dated. But that gives us a picture, a few years later and decades into the future, of what the life and times and culture and people were like at that point in history. And that only enhances the value of older films, it seems to me, in helping later generations better learn about and understand the past. At least for those people who don't mind watching, enjoying and learning from films produced in the past, about lives and times of the past.

This film is a strikingly rich and seemingly honest portrayal of its period, the war, the life around naval families of the time, and of British people and society. It was produced right in the middle of World War II, when the outcome was far from certain. While it portrays the strength of the British people in persevering, with their stiff upper lips, it also shows the reality and horrors and loss of war. And, it does all that at a time when it will be shown in theaters in England and abroad. We might call it "real" time, today. "In Which We Serve" is a classic that will be around well into the future. I highly recommend it.

Naval men watch their ship sink as they cling to a raft and remember the lives they left in "In Which We Serve," a 1942 film starring Noel Coward, John Mills, Celia Johnson, and Bernard Miles. The story takes place in World War II and shows how the war affected the British soldiers and their loved ones. Noel Coward also wrote and co-directed this film with David Lean. Like Coward's Brief Encounter, there are no glamorous movie star types. This is the story of the common man bound together by war and by their ship. Coward is Captain Kinross, who has a wife (Celia Johnson) and two children. John Mills is "Shorty," a seaman who falls in love while on leave, gets married and has a short honeymoon. Bernard Miles is Walter Hardy, a happily married man whose wife hates having him go away. Each man reflects on his story in flashback.

The impact of "In Which We Serve" must have been very powerful when it was first released. The announcement of war by the Prime Minister which comes over the radio is met with a chilling silence that the audience feels along with the men. The devastation of a blackout, the impact of the bombs at sea are very real.

"In Which We Serve" is the story of a ship, the HMS Torrin, but we learn quickly that a ship is about its people, united in one cause and who share a special camaraderie. The captain's final speech to his men is highly emotional, all the more so because it is so restrained.

All of the acting is top-notch. Someone commented that Coward seemed stiff. I think his role called for a certain formality. Hard to believe John Mills was ever that young. Celia Johnson, in her first film role, is wonderful. Coward obviously had no problems attracting the best actors to the film, as every person fits his or her role perfectly.

Like many classics, despite changes in film technique, the core story remains compelling, especially today with so many soldiers in Iraq. In one scene, the camera falls on some of the seamen as they go to their stations to do battle. Each man was carefully chosen to show his extreme youth. It was a terrible time for the world, but somehow the film is strangely uplifting. A no-miss.

David Lean's directorial debut was made with Noël Coward with a version of the playwright's "In Which We Serve"... The film's success led the pair to work together on three further films: "This Happy Breed," "Blithe Spirit," and "Brief Encounter."

English filmmakers had a prevailing direction to be more sensitive to the interplay of roles in wartime action...

Heroism was not the privilege of one man... With a common social understanding, working together, as the title of Noël Coward's and David Lean's "In Which We Serve" suggests...

The film, one of the finest wartime dramas to come out of Britain, tells the story of an English destroyer HMS Torrin, sunk in the Mediterranean Sea by the Germans, during the Battle of Crete...

As commander and crew keep close to the life raft, the screen fades gradually to take us back in active to the commission of the ship...

By concentrating on each member of the crew a different memory is relieved, and each flashback advances the story of the life of the ship and the men who served on her...

It is a magnificent film about courage and dedication, devotion and sacrifice... It is a tribute to the spirit of the western democracies but also to the spirit of the British people who would not admit defeat...

A last but one powerful moving scene is the farewell on Alexandria's dock of the Torrin's Captain (Noël Coward) to the few remaining seaman survivors...