The Bedford Incident
Encyclopedia
The Bedford Incident is a 1965 British-American Cold War
film starring Richard Widmark
and Sidney Poitier
, and co-produced by Richard Widmark. The cast also features James MacArthur
, Martin Balsam
, Wally Cox
and Eric Portman
, as well as early appearances by Donald Sutherland
and Ed Bishop
. The screenplay by James Poe is based on the 1963 book by Mark Rascovich, which was patterned after Herman Melville
's Moby-Dick
.
The film was directed by James B. Harris
, who up to that time was best known as Stanley Kubrick's
producer. Harris had recently split from a nine-year partnership with Kubrick. Just after the split, Kubrick would make Dr. Strangelove
(1964), which raises similar issues to The Bedford Incident.
USS Bedford (DLG-113) detects a Soviet submarine
in the GIUK gap
near the Greenland
coast. Though they are not at war, Captain Eric Finlander (Widmark) harries his prey mercilessly, while civilian reporter Ben Munceford (Poitier) and NATO naval advisor, Commodore (and ex-World War II
U-boat
captain) Wolfgang Schrepke (Portman), look on with mounting alarm. Because the submarine is not powered by a nuclear reactor
, its submerged endurance is limited. This gives Finlander an advantage, but also means the Russians will be more desperate. The film also features James MacArthur
as Ensign Ralston, an inexperienced young officer who is constantly being criticized by his captain for small errors. Also joining the ship is Lieutenant Commander Chester Potter, Medical Corps, USNR (Martin Balsam
), the ship's new doctor who is a reservist recently recalled to active duty.
Munceford is on board in order to write an article of life on a navy destroyer, but his real interest is Captain Finlander who was recently passed over for promotion to rear admiral. Munceford is curious as to why. He is treated with mounting hostility by the captain because he is seen as a civilian putting his nose where it does not belong and because he disagrees with Finlander's decision to continue with an unnecessary and dangerous confrontation. Finlander treats as unwanted anyone who isn't involved in the hunt for the Russian submarine - including the doctor. (Finlander uses the ship's medical staff to sift through garbage possibly dumped by the Russian sub.)
The crew becomes increasingly fatigued by the unrelenting pursuit. The conflict escalates into a collision between Bedford and the Soviet submarine. Captain Finlander orders Bedford to withdraw to a safe distance. He reassures Munceford and Schrepke that he is in command of the situation and that he won't fire first, but that if the Russian does shoot, "I'll fire one". Ensign Ralston, clearly on edge due to the ordeal, mistakes Finlander's boast as an order to fire, and launches one of Bedford's nuclear warhead anti-submarine rockets, an ASROC
, at the sub. The crew can only watch helplessly as the ASROC destroys the Russian sub. The crew of Bedford have little opportunity for regret before their sonar detects a salvo of four torpedoes
at the destroyer, apparently fired by the Russian once the ASROC was detected. Finlander orders evasive maneuvering and the use of countermeasures but realization has already dawned on everyone except Munceford that the approaching torpedoes will be nuclear
. Finlander, in shock, leaves the bridge, trailed by a panicking Munceford. The movie ends with still shots of various crewmen "melting" as if the celluloid
film were burning as Bedford and her crew are vaporized. The last image of the film is an iconic, towering mushroom cloud
from the torpedo detonations.
in England
, although some shots at sea were used, including a vessel portraying a Russian intelligence ship (with English, and not Cyrillic lettering along the side), and a Royal Navy frigate (HMS Wakeful) portraying Bedford in one scene. Some of the scenes were also shot on another Royal Navy Frigate HMS Troubridge.
USS Bedford (DLG-113) is a fictitious guided missile destroyer
. No ship of the United States Navy
has been named Bedford, or had the hull classification symbol
DLG-113, but the role of Bedford was played by a Farragut-class destroyer
.
The actual ship used in production was the USS MACDONOUGH (DLG-8 / DDG -39)
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
film starring Richard Widmark
Richard Widmark
Richard Weedt Widmark was an American film, stage and television actor.He was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as the villainous Tommy Udo in his debut film, Kiss of Death...
and Sidney Poitier
Sidney Poitier
Sir Sidney Poitier, KBE is a Bahamian American actor, film director, author, and diplomat.In 1963, Poitier became the first black person to win an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Lilies of the Field...
, and co-produced by Richard Widmark. The cast also features James MacArthur
James MacArthur
James Gordon MacArthur was an American actor best known for the role of Danny "Danno" Williams, the reliable second-in-command of the fictional Hawaiian State Police squad Hawaii Five-O.-Early life:...
, Martin Balsam
Martin Balsam
Martin Henry Balsam was an American actor. He is known for his Oscar-winning role as "Arnold Burns" in A Thousand Clowns and his role as "Detective Milton Arbogast" in Psycho.- Early life :...
, Wally Cox
Wally Cox
Wallace Maynard Cox was an American comedian and actor, particularly associated with the early years of television in the United States. He appeared in the U.S. TV series Mr. Peepers , plus several other popular shows, and as a character actor in over 20 films...
and Eric Portman
Eric Portman
Eric Portman was a distinguished English stage and film actor...
, as well as early appearances by Donald Sutherland
Donald Sutherland
Donald McNichol Sutherland, OC is a Canadian actor with a film career spanning nearly 50 years. Some of Sutherland's more notable movie roles included offbeat warriors in such war movies as The Dirty Dozen, , MASH , and Kelly's Heroes , as well as in such popular films as Klute, Invasion of the...
and Ed Bishop
Ed Bishop
Ed Bishop was an American film, television, stage and radio actor based in Britain.-Early life:Bishop served in the US Army from 8 October 1952 to 24 September 1954, working as a disc jockey with the Armed Forces Radio at St. Johns in Newfoundland...
. The screenplay by James Poe is based on the 1963 book by Mark Rascovich, which was patterned after Herman Melville
Herman Melville
Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet. He is best known for his novel Moby-Dick and the posthumous novella Billy Budd....
's Moby-Dick
Moby-Dick
Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, was written by American author Herman Melville and first published in 1851. It is considered by some to be a Great American Novel and a treasure of world literature. The story tells the adventures of wandering sailor Ishmael, and his voyage on the whaleship Pequod,...
.
The film was directed by James B. Harris
James B. Harris
James B. Harris is a film screenwriter, producer and director. He worked with film director Stanley Kubrick as a producer on The Killing, Paths of Glory and Lolita...
, who up to that time was best known as Stanley Kubrick's
Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick was an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer who lived in England during most of the last four decades of his career...
producer. Harris had recently split from a nine-year partnership with Kubrick. Just after the split, Kubrick would make Dr. Strangelove
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, commonly known as Dr. Strangelove, is a 1964 black comedy film which satirizes the nuclear scare. It was directed, produced, and co-written by Stanley Kubrick, starring Peter Sellers and George C. Scott, and featuring Sterling...
(1964), which raises similar issues to The Bedford Incident.
Plot
The American destroyerDestroyer
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast and maneuverable yet long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against smaller, powerful, short-range attackers. Destroyers, originally called torpedo-boat destroyers in 1892, evolved from...
USS Bedford (DLG-113) detects a Soviet submarine
Submarine
A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
in the GIUK gap
GIUK gap
The GIUK gap is an area in the northern Atlantic Ocean that forms a naval warfare chokepoint. Its name is an acronym for Greenland, Iceland, and the United Kingdom, the gap being the open ocean between these three landmasses...
near the Greenland
Greenland
Greenland is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe for...
coast. Though they are not at war, Captain Eric Finlander (Widmark) harries his prey mercilessly, while civilian reporter Ben Munceford (Poitier) and NATO naval advisor, Commodore (and ex-World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
U-boat
U-boat
U-boat is the anglicized version of the German word U-Boot , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...
captain) Wolfgang Schrepke (Portman), look on with mounting alarm. Because the submarine is not powered by a nuclear reactor
Nuclear reactor
A nuclear reactor is a device to initiate and control a sustained nuclear chain reaction. Most commonly they are used for generating electricity and for the propulsion of ships. Usually heat from nuclear fission is passed to a working fluid , which runs through turbines that power either ship's...
, its submerged endurance is limited. This gives Finlander an advantage, but also means the Russians will be more desperate. The film also features James MacArthur
James MacArthur
James Gordon MacArthur was an American actor best known for the role of Danny "Danno" Williams, the reliable second-in-command of the fictional Hawaiian State Police squad Hawaii Five-O.-Early life:...
as Ensign Ralston, an inexperienced young officer who is constantly being criticized by his captain for small errors. Also joining the ship is Lieutenant Commander Chester Potter, Medical Corps, USNR (Martin Balsam
Martin Balsam
Martin Henry Balsam was an American actor. He is known for his Oscar-winning role as "Arnold Burns" in A Thousand Clowns and his role as "Detective Milton Arbogast" in Psycho.- Early life :...
), the ship's new doctor who is a reservist recently recalled to active duty.
Munceford is on board in order to write an article of life on a navy destroyer, but his real interest is Captain Finlander who was recently passed over for promotion to rear admiral. Munceford is curious as to why. He is treated with mounting hostility by the captain because he is seen as a civilian putting his nose where it does not belong and because he disagrees with Finlander's decision to continue with an unnecessary and dangerous confrontation. Finlander treats as unwanted anyone who isn't involved in the hunt for the Russian submarine - including the doctor. (Finlander uses the ship's medical staff to sift through garbage possibly dumped by the Russian sub.)
The crew becomes increasingly fatigued by the unrelenting pursuit. The conflict escalates into a collision between Bedford and the Soviet submarine. Captain Finlander orders Bedford to withdraw to a safe distance. He reassures Munceford and Schrepke that he is in command of the situation and that he won't fire first, but that if the Russian does shoot, "I'll fire one". Ensign Ralston, clearly on edge due to the ordeal, mistakes Finlander's boast as an order to fire, and launches one of Bedford's nuclear warhead anti-submarine rockets, an ASROC
ASROC
ASROC is an all-weather, all sea-conditions anti-submarine missile system. Developed by the United States Navy in the 1950s, it was deployed in the 1960s, updated in the 1990s, and eventually installed on over 200 USN surface ships, specifically cruisers, destroyers, and frigates...
, at the sub. The crew can only watch helplessly as the ASROC destroys the Russian sub. The crew of Bedford have little opportunity for regret before their sonar detects a salvo of four torpedoes
Torpedo
The modern torpedo is a self-propelled missile weapon with an explosive warhead, launched above or below the water surface, propelled underwater towards a target, and designed to detonate either on contact with it or in proximity to it.The term torpedo was originally employed for...
at the destroyer, apparently fired by the Russian once the ASROC was detected. Finlander orders evasive maneuvering and the use of countermeasures but realization has already dawned on everyone except Munceford that the approaching torpedoes will be nuclear
Nuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission or a combination of fission and fusion. Both reactions release vast quantities of energy from relatively small amounts of matter. The first fission bomb test released the same amount...
. Finlander, in shock, leaves the bridge, trailed by a panicking Munceford. The movie ends with still shots of various crewmen "melting" as if the celluloid
Celluloid
Celluloid is the name of a class of compounds created from nitrocellulose and camphor, plus dyes and other agents. Generally regarded to be the first thermoplastic, it was first created as Parkesine in 1862 and as Xylonite in 1869, before being registered as Celluloid in 1870. Celluloid is...
film were burning as Bedford and her crew are vaporized. The last image of the film is an iconic, towering mushroom cloud
Mushroom cloud
A mushroom cloud is a distinctive pyrocumulus mushroom-shaped cloud of condensed water vapor or debris resulting from a very large explosion. They are most commonly associated with nuclear explosions, but any sufficiently large blast will produce the same sort of effect. They can be caused by...
from the torpedo detonations.
Differences from the Book
The film follows the novel fairly closely. However, the two have completely different endings. In the novel, the Russian submarine does not fire back at Bedford before being destroyed, and the crew of the American ship ends up skimming the sea for the remains of the sub. Finlander, in shock, receives word of his promotion - the Pentagon being oblivious to the result of the Bedford's hunt. Schrepke, realizing the catastrophic consequences that will stem from the Bedford's attack, sabotages one of the remaining ASROC's, and destroys the ship. Munceford survives the destruction - he is the sole survivor - and the book ends with him about to be found by the submarine's mothership, the Novosibirsk (an exact parallel with Moby Dick).Production
The Bedford Incident was mostly filmed at Shepperton StudiosShepperton Studios
Shepperton Studios is a film studio in Shepperton, Surrey, England with a history dating back to 1931 since when many notable films have been made there...
in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, although some shots at sea were used, including a vessel portraying a Russian intelligence ship (with English, and not Cyrillic lettering along the side), and a Royal Navy frigate (HMS Wakeful) portraying Bedford in one scene. Some of the scenes were also shot on another Royal Navy Frigate HMS Troubridge.
USS Bedford (DLG-113) is a fictitious guided missile destroyer
Guided missile destroyer
A guided missile destroyer is a destroyer designed to launch guided missiles. Many are also equipped to carry out anti-submarine, anti-air, and anti-surface operations. In the U.S...
. No ship of the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
has been named Bedford, or had the hull classification symbol
Hull classification symbol
The United States Navy, United States Coast Guard, and United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration use hull classification symbols to identify their ship types and each individual ship within each type...
DLG-113, but the role of Bedford was played by a Farragut-class destroyer
Farragut class destroyer (1958)
The Farragut class was the second destroyer class of the United States Navy to be named for Admiral David Glasgow Farragut. The class is sometimes referred to as the Coontz class, since Coontz was first to be designed and built as a guided missile ship, whereas the previous three ships were...
.
The actual ship used in production was the USS MACDONOUGH (DLG-8 / DDG -39)