“The Good Shepherd” by C. S. Forester is a great book. The book was republished under the new title “Greyhound” after the movie came out. That was something I’ve not seen before.
The rapid mental math gets a lot harder when you’ve been on the bridge for 36 straight hours, you are freezing to death, everything on the bridge is coated in ice, and your body is taking a physical pounding in the rough North Atlantic seas.
As you point out, it is a great story of bold, conservative values when ordinary men are thrust into very un-ordinary circumstances.
I don’t remember the captain praying so much in the book, though. I wonder if Hanks added that to the movie.
I haven’t read the book so I can only speculate about what Hanks might have added. Obviously books and films are two different critters. Actors in a film adaptation will perform all manor of stage business that no author would put into the text. They will also keep acting in the background, even when the camera’s attention is elsewhere.
Hank’s character saying grace might be a good example. It’s not a point of emphasis in the film. There is no buildup or staging involved. The story is about a 50 hour run through the no-air cover danger zone. The captain is on his feet almost continuously. He catches a couple of short naps but basically is going without sleep. He’s chugging coffee but is too stressed to want to eat. The stewards are bustling around trying to get him to eat something. Every time he does sit down to eat a few bites, he pauses, bows his head, and is obviously saying grace, though he remains silent.
The whole sequence only takes a few seconds each time. It’s exactly the sort of stage business that an actor might add in projecting his character in a visual medium. It’s just there. It’s entirely natural. It’s an automatic, reflexive behavior. If Forester at any point established the captain as a religious man, an actor would say, “what does this translate into visually?” Nothing needs to be said.