I last saw this film in the 1970s and on the copy I saw recently the colour has deteriorated quite a lot since then. Back then I saw it just before I went exploring the Welsh countryside for several weeks myself and was pleased to find the reality just as rich and lovely as it was in the film and putting the story to one side, there was something about how the film captured the quiet but dramatic atmosphere of this part of Wales that wasn't artifice. That factor is much less obvious watching the film today, where it tends to look a lot more artificial (it is at one point in the film for obvious reasons!), and with the Welsh road network vastly improved since then, Aberdovey is no longer the back of beyond that it it felt back then. Kieron Moore makes a convincing Naval Officer and though that part of the backstory is a little thin, his efforts to get to grips with a random group of youths is (from my own personal experience) much more true to life than many other films of this ilk. In School kids can be a nightmare, but take a small group and stick them in a strange environment and it rarely turns out like Lord of the Flies.
Review of Navy Heroes
