**SPOILERS** True story of the disaster that struck the USS Iowa when it's #2 16 inch gun turret exploded in a test firing in the Caribbean Sea. The result of the explosion cost the lives of 47 members of the USS Iowa's crew. It also put the final nail in the coffin to the US Navy's use of dreadnoughts or battleships in any of its future military operations.Desperately trying to find a scapegoat in order to blame for its shabby treatment, in letting the ship go to pot, of maintaining the USS Iowa the Navy brass came up with this bizarre story of a homosexual affair gone bad between two members of the Iowa crew. One of the sailors killed in the explosion Clay Hartwig, Dashell Eaves, had made out an insurance policy to his good friend and fellow sailor Ken Truitt, Jamie Harrold, and it was this flimsily piece of evidence, if you can call it that, that was supposed to be the reason for the deadly gun turret explosion! Trying to implicate the disaster to a broken up gay love affair, between Hartwig and Truitt, was the very hight of stupidity on the Navy's part since there was absolutely no proof that the two sailors were, actively or not, gay! In fact the Navy went one step farther in their gay angle by saying that it was Truitt recent marriage to his wife Carol, Kate Hemblen, that had his "gay lover" flip out and commit suicide, by blowing up the ship, as some kind of insane act of revenge!The movie has Lt. Dan Meyer, Robert Sean Leonad, buck the system and take the side of the now suspected of mass murder as well as deceased Clay Hartwig. Knowing that Hartwig was nowhere near turret 2 Lt. Meyer a man with navy blue blood flowing in his veins wouldn't let him, as well as the alive Truitt, hang for something that he didn't do. ****SPOILERS**** In the end it was the Iowa's skipper Capt. Fred Moosally, James Caan, who broke with tradition in blindly going along with what his superiors tell him to and came, together with Let. Meyer, to seaman's Hartwig & Truitt defense. In a quite and forceful voice Capt. Moosally told a packed Senate Committee hearing room that he'll never go against the men who serve loyally under him to protect rear ends of his superiors in the Navy. Even if it costs him the command of his beloved ship the USS Iowa! Capt. Moosally emotionally packed testimony was so honest and heart wrenching that it not only left his supporters without a dry eye in the Senete Commitee room but had his superiors in the Navy back down, mostly in shame, in disciplining him for his brave and non a** kissing or suck-up, to them, statements!P.S It was later brought out that the turret gun explosion was the results of an accidentally overstuffed gun powder charge not, as at first suggested, sabotage and suicide on the late Seaman Hartwig's part. But by then it was too late for Hartwig friend the happily married Seaman Truitt who's life in the US Navy became a living hell where even the suspicion of being gay was, at the time in 1989, a career ending experience.

Enjoyed this film because it clearly shows the American public that all Military Forces have a slogan, which is simply: CYA in more ways than one. In this film there had to be a fall guy for a problem of this magnitude, where many lives were lost, and the gay sailors took the brunt of all the blame and were not able to defend themselves. In the picture a Navy Officer clearly pointed out the many problems that existed; the sailors in the gunnery section were taking parts from one place to repair another problem. The Navy was not allocating any funds for these old Battleships from World War II. James Caan,(Capt. Fred Moosally did an outstanding acting role and stood up for all the enlisted Naval Personnel and made the stink go away. However, the big wigs in the Naval Department in Washington still stood their own ground. The American public cannot be fooled any long by such incidents and the truth will come out today without any cover ups. Great picture, but very graphic and maybe it needed to be shown.

Wow! I rented this on DVD the other night because I am a HUGE fan of James Caan. This movie blew me away. I never knew all this stuff about the Navy. I feel sorry for the guys who were on that ship. The movie is really, really well done. I can't believe I didn't see it when it was on TV.

Easily on of the most inaccurate movies I have ever seen.*Possible spoilers - I don't think they are, but you might.*From improper hull numbers on ships, medals and other uniform insignia that are nothing like the 'real thing' and calling sailors "soldiers" - this movie is an extravaganza of technical errors and goofs.Combine those inaccuracies with the lopsided perspective of an officer out to make himself look good, an author who should be writing fiction not investigative non-fiction and a special effects department itching to show what an explosion can do to the human body...And you get the worst possible reenactment of April 19, 1989 and the events that followed.The only accurate information I can find in the movie is the date of the explosion, the name of the ship's captain, and the portrayal of the NIS as brash, insulting, bullying thugs.If this movie is your only source of information on the explosion aboard the USS Iowa, I suggest you do some more research.