Educational Media Reviews Online

Sara Vladic’s, USS Indianapolis: The Legacy is a well done documentary that was ten years in the making and captured 104 interviews with survivors, family, and supporters. Vladic deftly combines her interview footage with generous amounts of historical photographs and film and tells the incredible, true account of the ship, her crew, and her captain. Vladic never loses focus on the main narrative: the survival and rescue of the ship’s crew. However, within that narrative, there are multiple facets to the Indianapolis’s story, which all blend to make one riveting whole.

Vladic begins her documentary with a brief history of the ship which is helpful to illustrate her stature within the U.S. Navy. The U.S.S. Indianapolis was President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Ship of State, conducting Roosevelt on a goodwill tour down to South America after which she became the flagship of the Fifth Fleet. The Indianapolis saw action throughout the Pacific, fighting in the Aleutian Islands Campaign, as well as providing support for the landing on Iwo Jima. However, given the brief length of the entire film, this part of the documentary would have benefited from a narrator to succinctly and accurately provide the background information. Instead, Vladic has opted to use only the interview footage to provide the information.

The main action in the documentary starts when the Indianapolis is hit by a Japanese Nakajima Ki-43 bomber offshore of Okinawa. She survives sinking, and we follow the Indianapolis back to port for repairs and onto her next mission: delivering to Tinian the parts and enriched uranium for Little Boy, the atomic bomb destined for Hiroshima. After this mission, Vladic comes to the story that is best known: the sinking of the Indianapolis on July 30,1945 en route to Leyte by two torpedoes fired from a Japanese submarine and the harrowing ocean survival of her crew. The majority of the film is spent on the next five days and documents the trials of the 880 men who survived the initial torpedo blasts and the sinking.

While the early part of the documentary would have benefited from narration, this part shines with Valdic’s choice of having the sailors tell their stories. The survivors are able to tell us what happened and their points of view on the events: the denial of destroyer coverage for the ship, the lack of sonar equipment for the ship, and the three distress calls which went unanswered. But, most importantly, we hear detailed accounts on the events of the five days, they spent floating in the South Pacific without shelter, little food or water, being picked apart by sharks, and of their miraculous rescue. Three hundred and twenty men were rescued, and 317 ultimately survived. The sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis still accounts for the largest loss of life in United States naval history.

The final part of the documentary rushes through the aftermath stories: the court martial of the ship’s captain, Charles McVay and the effort to exonerate him after 40 years.

The film would have been helped by a narrator to tie the many voices together and to provide background and context. However, this is a very small flaw in film which is telling an amazing tale that has had very little coverage. Valdic’s extensive interviews with the survivors of theIndianapolis, as well as relatives of those who died in her service or afterwards that make this documentary special. These men loved their ship, their country, each other, and their captain.

USS Indianapolis: The Legacy is highly recommended for audiences ranging from high school through general adult. It would supplement any course or discussion relating to World War II. Additionally, it would complement discussions on the military judicial process and justice.