The ‘Finest Hours’ captures old school Semper Paratus

Disney's "The Finest Hours" tells the story of a Coast Guard motorboat crew dispatched into an Atlantic storm after two 500-foot tankers break apart in 1952.

The crew is led by Boatswain's Mate Bernard Webber, played by Chris Pine. Webber is second string, the junior ranking boatswain assigned to Chatham lifeboat station in Massachusetts.

The senior boatswain leads the rescue effort to the first tanker reported broken in the storm, the Fort Mercer. So when a Coast Guard plane spots the broken Pendleton, it falls to Webber and a few volunteers to attempt to rescue the 33 survivors in a small motorboat.

The movie does a good job of showing the perils of a rescue at sea in a severe winter storm. The waves crash onto a deadly sandbar with ominous booms, the boat is flipped in the waves, and the compass is ripped from the boat by a severe wave crash.

Crossing the sandbar was one of the most dangerous parts of the mission. Attempts to cross it could have easily destroyed the boat and left the crew drowning in the icy waters.

These details and others come from the factual book the movie is based on, and they're brought to life by Craig Gillespie, the film's director who spent his young life near the ocean.

"I grew up on the water in Australia, and I have a lot of respect for the ocean," Gillespie told We Are The Mighty. "I sailed, I grew up surfing.

"When there's a huge swell, you can hear it a mile and a half from the ocean, and it's scary," he said.

While the movie depicts the events on the boat and the Pendleton largely right, it takes more liberties with the story of Webber's girlfriend, Miriam. During the real rescue, Miriam and Bernard were already married and Miriam was too ill to comprehend when told of Bernard's mission.

But the movie Miriam is healthy and attempts to aid Bernard from the shore. She first argues with his commanding officer. When that doesn't help, she seeks ways of ensuring that Bernard, if he's successful in the rescue, will be able to make it home without a compass or any visible stars to follow.

Actress Holliday Grainger shaped her portrayal of Miriam after speaking to the Webber family and spending time at Chatham lifeboat station that the Coast Guard still operates.

She said that Miriam's journey in the movie is about learning what it takes to be a Coast Guard wife.

"He will always be in danger," Grainger told We Are The Mighty when discussing Miriam's attitude toward Bernard, "and if she wants to be with him, she has to live with that, because he does it for the greater good. He can't always put their family first. He has to put others lives first."

"The Finest Hours" deftly weaves Bernard and Miriam's stories, breaking up the chaos at sea with the tension on the coast.

"The Finest Hours" opens in theaters nationwide on Jan. 29.