‘Western Approaches’ is among the two or three outstanding British films of the war period. It is a triumph of intelligent direction over the difficulties of using ‘naturals’ instead of professional actors. ‘Western Approaches’ comes unscathed through the gorgeous technicolour, in spite of many sequences being stiff with visual falsehoods, in the picture-postcard conventions of Messrs. Raphael Tuck & Sons. The film is full of magnificent sequences, true and convincing, and provides the composer, Clifton Parker, with many opportunities of contributing to it even within the scope of the naturalistic drama. This is, I believe, Clifton Parker's most important film score to date. It is highly effective and is always apt, and it reveals quite a new side of a composer who had previously been known—and far less known than the quality of his music merited—only as a composer of light music. To his task in ‘Western Approaches’ Parker brought a fine sense of orchestral colour, plus skill and taste in handling his medium. Although it seemed that his music broke little new ground it nevertheless was always vital and significant.