The Arctic Convoy Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		4.0

The Arctic Convoy Blu-ray Movie Review

Death from above.

Reviewed by Randy Miller III December 3, 2024

A tense and well-crafted WWII drama that emphasizes slow-burn thrills over all-out action, Henrik Dahlsbakken's The Arctic Convoy (AKA Konvoi) is a Norwegian import worth reading subtitles for. (An English dub is also included on this Blu-ray, however.) It follows the crew of a cargo ship, one of 35 vessels tasked with delivering much-needed supplies to the Russian port city of Murmansk inside the Arctic Circle. Flanked by support from British allies to guard them against German threats in the air and sea, the crew is shocked to receive a coded message just one week into their voyage informing them that the British are pulling away. Alone and unaided, they still have a mission to complete.

Or do they? What makes The Arctic Convoy tick isn't just the fear of German forces looming underwater or overhead, but the very different opinions of its two main leaders: grizzled ship captain Skar (Anders Baasmo) absolutely won't consider retreat under any circumstances, whereas his new first mate Mørk (Tobias Santelmann) insists they return to Iceland instead of needlessly risking their lives and ship for a near-impossible mission. Skar is the boss for now, so off they go. (I'd probably side with the more pragmatic Mørk, but that wouldn't make for a very exciting movie.) As the inevitable threats make their presence known, The Arctic Convoy deepens its mostly character-based drama with a few other faces, including chief radio operator Ragnhild (Heidi Ruud Ellingsen), seasoned engineer Erik (Olav Waastad), and gunner Johan (Adam Lundgren). Unlike the majority of war dramas, these folks offer a bit more substance than their surface-level character traits, neatly filling in several long gaps between sporadic moments of combat.

As implied earlier, The Arctic Convoy is very light on traditional action set-pieces: there are a few brief but memorable encounters such as when the ship literally navigates through a minefield, sending at least one of the younger crewmen into frigid waters, but these are few and far between. In fact, the closest thing to a high-octane climax actually comes right around the halfway point, when a pair of German planes rain a hail of bullets on our heroes in an extended back-and-forth sequence that's tightly edited and very intense. This leaves the characters to do most of the heavy lifting and they're mostly up to the challenge, keeping The Arctic Convoy chugging towards a surprisingly subtle conclusion that might have been better served with an actual on-screen coda rather than just lots of expository text. Elsewhere, the only other minor infraction is a few post- Saving Private Ryan clichés; these include a mostly muted palette, a close-up operation sequence, and at least one moment where the intense audio becomes muffled to briefly disorient the viewer. These are a fair trade-off for the film's strengths including its ability to tell a compelling but lesser-known story, but I'd love to see more war movies try and avoid the overly familiar A/V tone of their more popular peers.

Riding a recent wave of strong and tonally diverse releases including Thelma and What You Wish For, Magnolia Pictures has recently issued The Arctic Convoy on Blu-ray armed with solid A/V specs, including dual original and dubbed audio mixes, but the unfortunate lack of bonus features doesn't sit well with its current price point. Regardless, this is still very much a disc worth seeking out for genre fans... and especially so once that number goes down a little.

The Arctic Convoy Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Arctic Convoy looks quite impressive on this Blu-ray from Magnolia Entertainment, with the film itself encoded quite capably on a single-layered disc that has just over 90 minutes of total content to its name. Image detail is tack-sharp in ideal conditions, with outdoor footage -- including plenty of spectacular aerial wide shots -- showcasing clean and crisp visuals from edge to edge. Close-ups reveal similar amounts of fine detail, very little of which is hindered by the film's intentionally muted color palette and other aspects of its visual aesthetic. Black levels don't run especially deep, again apparently by design, but contrast is well-handled and also adds to the film's specific type of atmosphere. More dimly lit indoor shots occasionally look quite a bit soft and overall detail at darker ends of the spectrum obviously dips a bit in direct comparison, but nothing outside of reasonable expectations for this kind of production and subject matter. Overall, it's a solid effort indeed and one that should look quite satisfying on all but the largest displays; as of this writing, there's unfortunately no 4K option available anywhere, including the film's native Norway.

The Arctic Convoy Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Perhaps even more impressive is the film's DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio, which is available in the original Norwegian as well as an English dub. (Just for the record, I listed to the Norwegian in full and only sampled the latter during a few scenes.) To my ears, both mixes showcase an equal amount of fidelity and overall sonic weight, which as expected makes every effort to place viewers in the middle of the action from start to finish. The Arctic Convoy's palpable sense of dread is maintained quite well here, from typically cramped ship interiors to exterior blasts, careening bullets, stray explosions, and the original score, which likewise contributes to the overall atmosphere in a heightened but still realistic way. Although a Dolby Atmos track would've been ideal here (especially during the sporadic aerial scenes), these like-minded lossless 5.1 mixes are perfectly capable and extremely engaging at all the right moments.

Optional English and SDH tracks are offered during the main feature; neither perfectly match the English dub, so I'll assume they were created for translation purposes only. That's fine by me, although both would have been nice.

The Arctic Convoy Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in a keepcase with poster-themed cover artwork. Sadly, no extras are included.

The Arctic Convoy Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Henrik Dahlsbakken's The Arctic Convoy is a compelling wartime drama that's well-crafted and intense, even earning few bonus points for telling a character-fueled story that's rooted in reality but lesser known in the history books. That said, it's light on action and the original audio mix is in Norwegian, although neither should stop you from hunting this one down. Magnolia Entertainment's recent Blu-ray offers rock-solid A/V merits including an optional English dub for cowards, although the lack of bonus features is certainly unfortunate. Regardless, The Arctic Convoy is a solid movie and that's the real selling point, so curious genre fans should pick it up when the price is right. Recommended.