I feel that I can add little to the broad conversation about WWII and the valiant fight that men and women around the globe had to endure. The sea. The vast swelling waves. The salt water desert. WESTERN APPROACHS reveals a detail often ignored and in truth forgotten by many a war historians. That of the lifeboats and those left adrift as their ships sank. These brave men, many of the Merchant Navy, faced down the perils they faced during the Atlantic Convoys. Namely the dreaded U boat and their hunter packs of torpedo murder. Pat Jackson saw to it that these brave souls had a voice in his Technicolor marvel, peopled by non professionals and lensed by the Jack Cardiff (The Red Shoes, The African Queen).

The story is simple. A U-Boat attack sinks a merchant vessel and the crew are a drift on a lifeboat. These men are left floating in the open sea and await the hopeful rescue. Problem is that a Nazi U Boat has eyes on them and hopes to add to its sunk ships. Forgoing the obvious conversations about ‘realism’, which will run through all reviews and see word like ‘real sailors’ and ‘who experienced the ravages of being sunk and set a drift’, WESTERN APPROACHS is really about one thing. It is a story of resilience. This word is banded about in the psycho therapy circles I now frequent but once it was a by word for bravery and a specific kind of person. We all have it and should try hard to not be fixated on it. I am troubled often by the idea of linking a mind set of balance with acts of human courage that are beyond the everyday. We need to make people feel less like they need be superhuman to achieve their everyday life goals.

Thanks to the Imperial War Museum and the BFI (who I am told had a previous release of this) we can revisit the film anew, capturing this realisation. The new 2K restoration by Imperial War Museums, has a sense of the scale of sea and surf that enables the salt to taste in the mouth and the spray to sting the eye. What I loved more were the features that got voices of those in charge. Craig McCall all to short talk on the use of colour in filming and the power it translated. Ferry Pilot a story about an essential and forgotten part of the war effort. Steel is the sort of film that mesmerises. The film artist in you will be called to it. 

• Restored in 2K by Imperial War Museums and presented on Blu-ray and DVD
• Audio commentary featuring the Imperial War Museum’s Toby Haggith and director Pat Jackson (2004)
• Colour on Sea (2023, 8 mins): a making-of featurette by Craig McCall featuring writer and director Pat Jackson and cinematographer Jack Cardiff
• Builders (1942, 8 mins): short film by Pat Jackson highlighting the importance of builders to the war effort
• Ferry Pilot (1941, 35 mins): Pat Jackson’s account of the Air Transport Auxiliary which provided personnel to fly newly completed aircraft from factory to service airfield.
• People at War: A Seaman’s Story (1942, 7 mins): interviewed in his room as he packs for his next trip, a Newfoundlander whose been torpedoed no less than four times, typifies the courage and service of the Merchant Navy
• This is Colour (1942, 18 mins): This Technicolor marvel sponsored by ICI explores colour theory and its application to the material world around us. Produced by Basil Wright with direction by Jack Ellitt, narration by Dylan Thomas and photography by Jack Cardiff
• Steel (1945, 34 mins): this Technicolor masterpiece shot by Jack Cardiff explores the manufacture of steel and the workings of a foundry.
• Western Approaches linocut production (2023, 2 mins): illustrator and printmaker Mat Pringle shares his process for creating the new Western Approaches sleeve art
• **FIRST PRESSING ONLY** Illustrated booklet featuring new writing by David Walsh, Toby Haggith, Patrick Russell and Steven Foxon.