As If They Were Angels (2018)

• 96%
• 2018
• Documentary
• Terry Strauss

Two months after Pearl Harbor and the US entry into World War II, a pair of destroyers escort a supply ship through the treacherous North Atlantic to a base in Newfoundland. A brutal winter storm, combined with an officer's reluctance to trust his experienced navigator and newfangled radar, runs two of the ships aground on the cliffs of adjacent coves. More than 200 sailors on the USS Pollux and USS Truxton lose their lives, but nearly as many are rescued by local miners and townspeople, risking their own lives on the rocks and the raging seas. By the end of 24 hours of grueling rescue effort, at 2 remote locations, nearly every home has a sailor in the parlor. Director Terry Strauss, whose father was one of the survivors, plumbs a trove of photographs, documents, drawings, and interviews to recount a moving story of sacrifice, endurance, and heroism. The film hits an emotional peak with footage of the 1988 reunion between the American survivors and the Canadian townspeople who saved and cared for them. Peter Coyote narrates this remarkable saga with a blend of tender empathy and palpable amazement.