In Harm’s Way: More Than a War Story

In Harm's Way is about the aftermath of the Pearl Harbor attack. After the devastating Japanese attack, a veteran naval commander, Captain Rockwell Torrey, is assigned to command a small fleet of Naval vessels. His mission to retaliate against the Japanese initially ends disastrously. He must juggle the complex relationships between his lover, friend and son while leading the attack on a chain of Pacific Islands held by the Japanese (In Harm's Way, 2019; Preminger, 1964).

            Though not your typical romance or true relationship movie, In Harm’s Way exhibits the five of the course concepts of I-Thou (Wood, 2016, pp. 13-4), dismissive attachment (Wood, 2016, pp. 52-3), self-serving bias (Wood, 2016, pp. 82-3), Eros love style (Wood, 2016, p. 312), and emotions (Wood, 2016, p. 193).

            The most important concept from In Harm’s Way that Wood goes over in the text is I-Thou, this is a form of human dialogue where each person affirms the other as cherished and unique. I-Thou is also defined as the full, direct, mutual relation between beings (I-Thou, 2017).  During the movie Captain Torrey meets a Nurse Lieutenant Haynes and they instantly start a relationship. As both characters are older, her late-30s and him early-50s, they instantly realize that each of them is unique in the budding days of the World War II. They begin a very adult relationship. They treat each other with mutual respect and are very direct with each other. When it comes time for her to ship out she is very direct and visits Torrey in the bachelor officers’ quarters and pretty much indicates that it’s now or possibly never for them to be together (In Harm's Way, 2019; Preminger, 1964). They will meet several more times during the movie but this direct attitude and how they treat each other with mutual respect will play on their relationship.

There is only one other character in the movie that he uses this style on, that of his roommate, an intelligence officer, who he shows true respect for and listens to the advice of. Throughout the movie he listens to his roommate about dating Nurse Haynes and planning an offensive in the Pacific. He truly does respect what the Officer has to say and takes everything to heart.

            During the movie Torrey meets his estranged son Jeremiah or “Jere”, during a deployment in the Pacific Theater. Jere has taken an assignment on a PT boat in Torrey’s command, but has filed for a new assignment assisting a congressman-turned-public relations officer (Preminger, 1964). Jere has a very dismissive attachment attitude towards his father. He has a very positive view of himself and a low regard for Torrey (Wood, 2016, pp. 52-3). He is very untrusting of why his father has shown up to speak with him at this moment in his life, and very defensive as to what his fathers’ motives might be. It is revealed in the movie that Jere’s mother had taken him away from Torrey when he was a baby, and Torrey let it happen and had distanced himself from the young child. Jere’s motives for joining the PT squadron, which was a volunteer assignment, was to have his resume look good. This assignment leads him to the new one he wanted and the political clout he might get from the new assignment.

            During the initial scenes with Jere, Torrey has a very self-serving bias that since he is in charge he knows what is best (Wood, 2016, pp. 82-3). He has come to see what this young Officer has to complain about. He initially does not know that it is his son, because Jere is using his mother’s last name. Jere calls him “father” almost immediately and Torrey realizes by the last name that it is son (Preminger, 1964). During the conversation Torrey tries to justify to Jere why he was such an absentee father, siting his job and the fact that his ex-wife’s family was so stuck up that they never thought he was good enough.

            He again shows a self-serving bias when he when the congressman-turned-public relations officer leaks details of Torrey’s strategy for conquering the island to an indecisive Admiral. Torrey sends his Executive Officer, Eddington, to throw them off island. Though we don’t actually see Torrey give the order, it is implied that because of his relationship with Eddington that he did.

            Torrey has a very Eros type of love style. Eros is a powerful, passionate style of love that blazes to life suddenly and dramatically (Wood, 2016, p. 312). This style shows up dramatically with how he treats Nurse Haynes. He almost immediately falls in love with her when they meet in the hospital after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Their relationship moves rather quickly as the war ramps up and they start to head their own direction. Torrey also exhibits this style for Eddington, who has been with him for years. He does almost anything he can to try and protect him. Again, the Eros comes out when he is passionate about the way his son treats a young nurse. Even though Torrey himself isn’t in love with the nurse he protects her just as if he was.

            Another character in the movie that exhibits the Eros relationship style is Torrey’s executive officer, Eddington. We first see this in Eddington when he finds out that his wife has died during the attack on Peral Harbor. He is informed that she was found with another officer while he was out to sea. You can see the Eros in him as this shocking news drives him to drink. In another scene he quickly falls in love with a young nurse, the same nurse Torrey’s son is seeing. He becomes very passionate for her and even gets extremely jealous when he sees her flirt with another man.

            Torrey shows a great deal of emotion during the movie. Emotions are our experience and interpretation of internal sensations as they are shaped by physiology, perceptions, language, and social experiences. (Wood, 2016, p. 193). During the seen with his son, Jere, Torrey shows a great deal emotion when talking. As he relates his reasons for being absentee and that of his ex-wife’s family he has a lot of contempt. While he is discussing his sons transfer and the reasons for that he shows anger. When Torrey finds out that Eddington has done a terrible act and a young Nurse has committed suicided over it he shows a great deal of anger towards Eddington.

Whenever Torrey is talking to Nurse Haynes you can hear the respect and love in his voice, for the woman. In another scene when the congressman-turned-public relations officer gives away details of a plan that Torrey has come up with, he is so angry that he sends Eddington to physically slap the Officer and tell him he has to leave the island.

From the above examples you can see how the movie In Harm’s Way exhibit the I-Thou (Wood, 2016, pp. 13-4), dismissive attachment (Wood, 2016, pp. 52-3), self-serving bias (Wood, 2016, pp. 82-3), Eros love style (Wood, 2016, p. 312), and emotions (Wood, 2016, p. 193) key concepts discussed during the course.

            There are several different things that Torrey could do to improve his communication style. When he is communicating with Nurse Haynes he is using the I-Thou style of relationship in his communication. If he was to use this style more often with the other characters he would be a more effective communicator. If he treated Eddington with the same respect, then Eddington probably would not have gone the route he did in movie. Eddington became more of an attack dog at the end, and eventually sacrificed himself in combat.

            Torrey later in movie does develop a secure attachment style towards his son. He begins to respond in a consistently attentive and loving way towards Jere. He also starts to move forward in this direction with Eddington, but it is already far too late.

            We also watch Torrey’s family go from a protective family style, in which they avoid conflict, and are expected to adhere to the values, beliefs, and decisions, of their superior (Wood, 2016, p. 345) to a more consensual family style, where communication tends to have substantial depth and breadth. Superiors encourage others to express their ideas and feelings, yet once everyone has had their say, they expect and encourage others to adhere to what they order (Wood, 2016, p. 345).

            By the end of the movie Torrey’s communication style has actual evolved. He has become a more open and communicative person. We truly get to see him fix his own issues in communicating with other people.

References

Camp, B. (2016, June 01). IN HARM'S WAY (1965): Underrated Pearl Harbor Film. Retrieved June 26, 2019, from Brian Camp's Film and Anime Blog: https://briandanacamp.wordpress.com/2013/12/09/in-harms-way-1965-underrated-pearl-harbor-film/

In Harm's Way. (2019). Retrieved June 26, 2019, from TV.com: http://www.tv.com/movies/in-harms-way/

I-Thou. (2017, June 20). Retrieved from Encyclopædia Britannica: https://www.britannica.com/topic/I-Thou

Preminger, O. (Director). (1964). In Harm's Way [Motion Picture].

Wood, J. (2016). Interpersonal Communication: Everyday Encounters (8th ed.). Boston MA: Cengage Learning.