Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Bumpy Chip It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Deanna There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Signet The sheer tedium of the pacing was enough to make me want to turn this WW II propaganda film off, but I was determined to see it through. The message, however, came stomping over my hopes for some redemption from a very solid cast with unquestioned talents. Sadly, they didn't stand a chance with this gray, grim material that was meant to convey a very plain and unadorned message: Oppression is bad, liberty is good. It is impossible to disagree, but this movie was so drawn out, so yawn-worthy, that it almost undercut the sentiment. Not one of the better products of the difficult war years from Britain's film industry. And, alas, Michael Wilding's central performance was such a sorry one-note of morose self-pity that it was extremely difficult even to want to empathize with him. Times were tough for the British during the Forties but at least they couldn't have been this boring.

moonspinner55 Early film from Britain's Boulting brothers (producer John and director Roy) shows an uncanny grasp of technical assurance, yet their combined talents, and those of the sterling cast, cannot eradicate the stultified air of theatricality which comes via this material, taken from the play by Robert Ardrey. Anti-fascist journalist in England, upset over the hypocrisy of the newspaper business and the silencing of free speech, takes a job at a lonesome lighthouse in Lake Michigan; his superiors question his need for complete isolation, though he confesses he's not alone. Seems the ghosts of a one hundred-year-old shipwreck reenact their lives for the lighthouse keeper, all in an attempt to bring him back to civilization. Portends to be a heady mix of political strife and the human condition, however the central character's history is much more interesting than those who were aboard the ill-fated ship, and activity in the main set (the lighthouse) becomes tiresomely stagy. One professional critic compared the film to "Citizen Kane"; however, while it is polished and professionally assembled (and moodily photographed), the falseness of the picture's conception keeps the fantastic aspects firmly grounded. ** from ****

rsternesq This may not be the greatest film ever made and to those who don't like the lesson it teaches it may seem to be propaganda (a negative implication) but for those who are receptive and consider what the story tells and what is its intended purpose, it is a valuable lesson beautifully presented. We are faced with a similar perfect storm as I write this brief note and yet most people who are not directly engaged refuse to see what is happening and the inevitable consequences of such refusal. Like the Redgrave character, we think that a personal disengagement will be a solution but it is not and never can be. Courage then is the lesson learned at Thunder Rock and any film that teaches it is worthy and a film that teaches it well is especially worthy. It is our loss that today's movie makers lack the perspective to make such a film for us in our time but then, if one did, he might be in personal danger so it is easier for them to decline. Therefore we are left with an old film that preaches us to have courage against a different enemy but the lesson holds. Watch it and think how it resonates. More than a worthy film, a necessary reminder and a lesson to us all.

albertsanders I saw this movie in 1942, when I worked for the War Department and had just enlisted in the Army Air Corps, so this might account for the strong memories I have of it.I was a little shocked that it seemed almost pure propaganda. However, it was clearly made for a British audience at a time when the nation was in imminent danger of invasion by the Nazis. Its message was never to give up hope.It opens with the hero being frightened by the spread of Fascism across Europe. He goes into a London movie house where the depressing newsreel is followed by a cartoon which the unthinking audience finds hilarious. Disgusted, he gives up and withdraws into himself. He becomes a sort of hermit and somehow gets a job as a lighthouse-keeper on the Great Lakes.Browsing through the lighthouse's log, he finds an account of a shipwreck. As he reads, the viewer notices that the lighthouse's central pole is now at an angle--a very clever hint of the transition to the fantasy now taking place. He is now on board the sinking ship and all is confusion and despair. But it turns out OK--the first example of the message (to the English) not to give up hope. There are several other such episodes including one about the doctor in Vienna who discovers that doctors not washing their hands is how the deadly childbirth fever infection is spread. A failure, he is laughed out of town. But a few years later his radical theory is proved correct. Another morale boost for the discouraged wartime English.I can't remember how the movie ends--but I've never forgotten the movie!