Based on a 1969 book by Max Catto, Murphy's War is a 1971 World War II drama directed by Peter Yates and starring Peter O'Toole, Siân Phillips, and Philippe Noiret.
O'Toole plays an Irish sailor whose ship is sunk by a German U-boat while conducting patrols in the rivers of South America. The submariners murder Murphy's shipmates at the conclusion of the battle, but he survives to seek revenge with the help of a local missionary doctor and the operator of a French trading post.
Tropes
- Affably Evil: Vought, the U-boat captain, gleefully has his men murder dozens of helpless enemy sailors and destroys quite a bit of vital supplies and buildings at the missionary hospital. However, he is quite chummy with his men, lets them engage in Screw the War, We're Partying behavior, and Wouldn't Hit a Girl, as he repeatedly spares the life of Dr. Hayden and her companions even though they could testify against him and have clearly been giving aid to his enemies.
- All Germans Are Nazis: The U-boat crew murders enemy sailors and then celebrates doing so while having a mock ceremony to award their captain a medal for the massacre, with the bunch also showing belief in their government back home. This is debatably Truth in Television, as the U-boat service did have a high percentage of Nazi Party members.
- Artistic License – Ships: Twice in the film the U-boat runs submerged in the river. Submarines never try submerging in rivers as there's rarely enough safe depth for large subs. The second time the U-boat captain does it, his sub becomes stuck to the bottom, trapping everyone within and giving Murphy a way to kill them all.
- Big Fun: The helpful, compassionate, and relaxed Louis is the most heavyset character in the film.
- Closest Thing We Got: Murphy does this to himself when he wants to use the Mount Kyle's seaplane to bomb the U-boat that killed his friends, but the pilot (the only other survivor of their ship) is bedridden after being wounded in the massacre up until he's murdered by the Nazis long before he would have recovered enough to fly the plane. As the plane's former mechanic, Murphy is convinced that he knows enough about the plane to fly it himself, and after taking a few practice flights, he does go on the mission of revenge himself.
- Contrived Coincidence: Lt. Ellis, the seaplane pilot, and Murphy, the seaplane mechanic, are the only known survivors of the sinking of the Mount Kyle and the massacre of the survivors.
- Death by Adaptation: In the book, Murphy and most of the U-boat crewmen besides XO Lauchs (who is solely responsible for the massacre in the book while his crewmates didn't know what he was doing until afterward) and one or two dozen others survive the final battle, but here, this doesn't happen.
- Guns Do Not Work That Way: The machine-gun and cannon fire that the Germans use against the barge fail to stop Murphy's approach. In reality such gunfire would easily kill Murphy and Louis huddled inside that unprotected boat cabin made only of wood, and fires would be ignited by the cannon shots.
- He Who Fights Monsters: Murphy starts as a sympathetic survivor of a dark atrocity who is trying to defeat a legitimately dangerous and despicable enemy, but he has the Fatal Flaw of wrath (which gets worse with each new Kick the Dog moment the Germans have), and continues his vendetta even after learning the war is over, before deliberately killing the Nazis while they are as helpless as he was, and shunning his sidekick Louis for trying to talk him out of it.
- Hide the Evidence: When the Nazis attack the hospital, Lt. Ellis hides his flight jacket so that the Nazis won't know that the people at the hospital have access to a seaplane (which Murphy is planning to use to attack the submarine).
- Hoist by His Own Petard: A two-pronged example occurs in the finale. Murphy kills the Nazis aboard the trapped submarine by picking up a live torpedo that they unsuccessfully fired at his boat with the boat's crane and dropping it on the submarine. However, the explosion also sinks the barge and traps Murphy, who drowns as well.
- Recurring Extra: The South American natives who hang around the field hospital and the submariners (besides Vought and his XO) are mostly interchangeable background characters who may do something important on occasion but rarely get names or dialogue and aren't listed in the credits.
- Sink the Lifeboats: After sinking the Mount Kyle, the U-boat crew destroys its lifeboat and then (strictly For the Evulz) machine gun the survivors in the water. The only survivors are Murphy (who dives underwater to avoid some barrages of fire and hides behind floating bodies at other points) and Lt. Ellis the seaplane pilot (who is shot down but survives). When the Nazis learn that there are survivors by eavesdropping on a radio message, they set out to kill Murphy and Ellis as well to avoid being prosecuted for war crimes.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Louis wades ashore and marches away from the final battle in a fury after learning that Murphy plans to murder the helpless Nazis.
