Even though she cost him all he had to lose

[sovay]

Since I still feel like a train fell on me, I curled up on the couch downstairs and watched first David Lean's Brief Encounter (1945) and then John Ford's The Long Voyage Home (1940). The former I found lovely and classic; the latter I want to own. It was the perfect film for me to watch right now. It's an Odyssey with no νόστος: the only real home for its sailors is either the sea itself or their awaiting deaths; the land is more alien to them than the water, but they all dream of it. It is not out of key with Kipling, either. And there are small points that the drama crests toward, the four one-act plays by Eugene O'Neill out of which the script was adaptated, but really it's one seam out of a narrative that starts nowhere and never stops; sea-like. But for others the long voyage home never ends. The film was made in 1940 and the action has been updated from World War I to II, but wartime is an incidental condition. It's the sea that calls you and the sea that never lets you go; it cuts you off and it binds you together. I don't mean the stories are nihilistic. People matter—who you hold on to, who you keep faith with, who you don't leave behind. (To be discussed in comments, if anyone wants to. I am too tired to deal with cut-tags and synopses that don't run on.) But the sea doesn't care. It was here first. You can swear to love till the seas run dry, but you can't outlive the ocean. I don't find this an upsetting thought. I think we've established already I'm not normal.

And some are drowned in deep water,
And some in sight o' shore,
And word goes back to the weary wife
And ever she sends more.
—Rudyard Kipling, "The Sea-Wife" (1893)

Comments

[seajules]

Currently it seems to exist on DVD only as a part of a John Wayne box set

Well, Spouse is a John Wayne fan, so if I have to pick it up that way, he'll doubtless appreciate the other movies in the set.

Also, I was very sad not to grab Something Rich and Strange before it disappeared from the bookstore shelves. Now it's a bit on the pricy side.

[sovay]

Well, Spouse is a John Wayne fan, so if I have to pick it up that way, he'll doubtless appreciate the other movies in the set.

I found it by itself—ordered from Amazon.com, will be shown to as many friends as I can keep from escaping. And then I will have "Gentlemen-Rankers" stuck in my head for another two weeks.

May Something Rich and Strange surface soon in a used book store near you.