On G List of Movie Reviews
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A Glimpse of Hell (2001)
Rate:
8
Viewed:
2/25
2/25:
A Gimpse of Hell deserves a '7', but I'll give it '8' for being brave enough to tell the truth about
the USS Iowa incident on April 19, 1989.
It's something I never knew before. The U.S. Navy's cover-up of the matter is certainly on the same level as
what France did to Alfred Dreyfus as highlighted in
The Life of Emile Zola.
The Pentagon Wars came to my mind a lot while watching the film
except that the story wasn't funny and that 47 people died for nothing.
The script is hard to follow at first, but it'll be made clear in the long run. Basically, Turret Two on the
USS Iowa was too old (the ship had been in operation since 1942) and behind in maintenance, but a serviceman,
namely Stephen Skelley, had an idea of going for the unauthorized record of the longest conventional 16-inch
shell ever fired to make an impression on the superiors. As a result, it blew up, killing everybody in proximity.
The ship was about 250 nautical miles northeast of Puerto Rico, and the sprinkler system in Turret Two never
worked when it happened.
Nobody wanted to admit the truth because damnit...the U.S. Navy must look good at all times! So, they blamed it
on some "fag" for sabotage. But ask yourself this simple question: had there been somebody planning to do that,
wouldn't it be easy for others to report him in advance because they were stuck on a ship for a long while?
Unfortunately, the U.S. Navy continues to deny the true cause of the turret explosion. Some members of
the guilty party sued the author of A Glimpse of Hell: The Explosion on the USS Iowa and Its Cover-Up
for libel, among others, and the case was settled out of court in 2007. But it doesn't mean the author was
wrong in his presentation of facts. Clayton Hartwig is still blamed for the incident to this day, and his
family has never gotten closure from it, having tried to sue the U.S. Navy but to no avail. Ditto for the
class action lawsuit filed by the deceased's family members.
Captain Fred Moosally only got the job of commanding the USS Iowa through political connections despite not
knowing very much about the inner workings of a battleship. Why would he? He graduated from his class at Annapolis
with a ranking of 812 out of 868 and was a big-time athlete, playing football there. Anyway, Moosally was
responsible for the scrubbing of the supposedly crime scene before any evidence could be gathered. So much for the
sabotage theory being credible.
The performances are fine. Obviously, I went for the film because of James Caan. It helps when they do
something like that. Robert Sean Leonard is a better actor in dramas than Jim Carrey given that they look
somewhat alike. However, the made-for-TV feel is heavily pronounced throughout, hence the cheap shortcuts
of using fake CGI explosions and stock footage.
All in all, A Gimpse of Hell is a straightforward, frank picture of how the USS Iowa incident
was covered up by the U.S. Navy.