The broken oar and the gear of foreign dead men

[sovay]

So I feel like I owe writeups of several things, including Readercon and the movie I saw last night, but what you're getting right now is a list of different movies altogether. Over dinner tonight, derspatchel and I were pipe-dreaming the program for a festival of maritime film. (I don't even remember. I think we were talking about John Ford.) Inevitably, it's kind of a list of our favorites. So far we agree on—

Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), dir. Frank Lloyd

Captain Blood (1935), dir. Michael Curtiz

Captains Courageous (1937), dir. Victor Fleming¹

The Long Voyage Home (1940), dir. John Ford

The Cruel Sea (1953), dir. Charles Frend

The Caine Mutiny (1954), dir. Edward Dmytryk

Moby Dick (1956), dir. John Huston

The Secret of Roan Inish (1994), dir. John Sayles

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), dir. Gore Verbinski²

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003), dir. Peter Weir

We very regretfully did not include either 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) or Treasure Island (1950), although James Mason and Robert Newton are deservedly classic and inimitable in each.³ I am uncertain whether A Night to Remember (1958) counts as maritime film or just a disaster movie that occurs aboard a ship, albeit a wrenching and excellent example of the form. (You will notice Cameron's Titanic (1997) is not on this list.) I am also not sure I can count Splash (1984), formative sea-movie of mine though it is, and I know I can't count Pacific Rim (2013), although somehow it feels like one should. There are no documentaries; there should be some. Some more recent films couldn't hurt. And something non-American. Also it has not escaped my notice that this list of directors is kind of a dickfest and I cannot believe women never make movies about the sea. Tell me what we're missing!

1. If, as my husband stipulates, the audience remembers that the very last lines are terrible.

2. The first movie remains the best example of swashbuckling I have seen since Errol Flynn. I love so much about the second and third, but they are so wildly inconsistent I cannot in good conscience include them. Davy Jones and the Flying Dutchman and Calypso/Tia Dalma: fantastic. Elizabeth Swann coming into her piracy: could've used more, but that's why we have fanfic. The cannibal island and whatever the hell was going on with Singapore: naaarp.

3. Newton's Long John Silver is extremely imitable, but that is part of his glory.

Comments

[larryhammer]

Kon-Tiki (the original 1951 documentary, not the 2012 movie).

---L.

[sovay]

Kon-Tiki (the original 1951 documentary, not the 2012 movie).

Thank you! I have not seen that.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Hmm. The long-drowned patriot in me wants to advocate for In Which We Serve, and also for The Yangtze Incident (possibly the first movie I went to see without either parent in tow; it was a birthday treat, in a bizarre double bill with one of the St Trinians movies, and I forgot my then-very-new glasses and had to watch the whole of the first film in a blur, until my dad came hurrying down the aisle with my specs and Alistair Sym leaped suddenly into focus). The first of course is about a ship being sunk, and the second is about a ship being stranded mid-river and having to retreat: both continuing that splendid British tradition of finding triumph in defeat.

I might also want to make a case for The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou or possibly The Boat That Rocked, just because frankly this list could use a giggle.

[sovay]

in a bizarre double bill with one of the St Trinians movies, and I forgot my then-very-new glasses and had to watch the whole of the first film in a blur, until my dad came hurrying down the aisle with my specs and Alistair Sym leaped suddenly into focus)

I can see that being very unsettling if you weren't prepared for it. I say this as someone who grew up on Scrooge (1951).

The first of course is about a ship being sunk, and the second is about a ship being stranded mid-river and having to retreat: both continuing that splendid British tradition of finding triumph in defeat.

Heh. I've seen the first, but not the second. Oh, hey, I could have included We Dive at Dawn (1943). Except I really like about the first three-quarters of that movie, and then it turns into an action flick and that's a lot less interesting. I love Eric Portman in it, though.

[edited for tangent] Have you seen The Battle of the River Plate (1956)? It's one of the few by Powell and Pressburger I haven't. Speaking of the Archers, I'm not sure The Silver Fleet (1943) is maritime enough, but I loved it.

I might also want to make a case for The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou or possibly The Boat That Rocked, just because frankly this list could use a giggle.

Go for it! So The Boat That Rocked was good? It had a fantastic cast, but it played here for approximately a weekend and I couldn't tell from the reviews.

I actually consider The Long Voyage Home a comfort movie, but I recognize that I may be the only person who feels that way about it, including Eugene O'Neill and he wrote it.

[fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com]

I don't know if Das Boot fits your criteria well, although it has some astonishingly beautiful sea photography.

[sovay]

I don't know if Das Boot fits your criteria well, although it has some astonishingly beautiful sea photography.

Absolutely fits: I've just never seen it. Thank you!

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

I was going to ask whether submarine movies counted, or whether they had to stay on top of the water. :-) I have a peculiar liking for the unfortunately-titled U571, although I recognize that it takes the work done by a lot of British people in actual history and mashes it into the story of an American submarine crew instead.

So much fondness for Pirates of the Caribbean. I rewatched the whole trilogy recently (what can I say, I was craving ship porn), and yeah -- uneven in the latter two installments, though the third one mostly manages to skate past its issues by going CRAZY IDEAS YAY FULL STEAM AHEAD.

(Or all sail ahead. Or whatever.)

[rosefox]

We very regretfully did not include either 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)

But... but... Peter Lorre!

[sovay]

But... but... Peter Lorre!

. . . okay. For Peter Lorre.

(My primary feelings for that film are founded on James Mason and the Nautilus. When I try to recollect most of the movie plot beyond the giant squid and the nuclear finale, I come up with a lot of eh.)

[rosefox]

Plot shmot. PETER LORRE

[gwynnega]

Alas, I don't think Outward Bound (1930) would fit, but it's what springs to my mind, since it features Leslie Howard and is fairly awesome.

[sovay]

I was going to ask whether submarine movies counted, or whether they had to stay on top of the water.

Nah, I like submarines.

I have a peculiar liking for the unfortunately-titled U571, although I recognize that it takes the work done by a lot of British people in actual history and mashes it into the story of an American submarine crew instead.

Hm. That may be the kind of historical substitution that interferes with my watching a movie, but I will keep it in mind all the same.

(Or all sail ahead. Or whatever.)

DAMN CONTINUITY FULL SAIL AHEAD.

I think if it were possible to synthesize the second and third films into one installment, or at least two tighter and more coherent installments minus a bunch of racism and unfinished plot threads, I would consider the trilogy one of the great achievements of fantasy on the screen; as it is, I really like the pieces I like, and I've been wanting to rewatch the whole thing since the beginning of this summer and probably will if I can assemble the DVDs, but I wish the scriptwriters had just put a little more thought into it before they started filming. Just a little. It wouldn't have taken much! Finishing the script before shooting is perfectly normal!

[sovay]

Alas, I don't think Outward Bound (1930) would fit, but it's what springs to my mind, since it features Leslie Howard and is fairly awesome.

And it's a Leslie Howard I haven't seen, which makes me especially curious. Is the sea thematically important to it, or just part of the setting?

[gwynnega]

The ship is vitally important to the story more than the sea is.

[gwynnega]

Maybe Lifeboat would fit? (Hilariously enough, the ship movie I've seen the most times is undoubtedly The Poseidon Adventure, but I don't think it qualifies!)

[sovay]

Maybe Lifeboat would fit?

I thought of Lifeboat (1944), but the sea isn't so important, the isolation, the privation, and the political allegory are.

(Hilariously enough, the ship movie I've seen the most times is undoubtedly The Poseidon Adventure, but I don't think it qualifies!)

(Hee. I am afraid I agree with you.)

[desperance.livejournal.com]

I liked The Boat That Rocked enough to watch it on a transatlantic flight and then buy the DVD. It's very much an ensemble piece, and if you like that ensemble, you're going to like the movie. And then I also came of age in the time of pirate radio ships, so.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

I approve this message. Also I am interested in your ideas and wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Yup, I loved The Battle of the River Plate also. Basically, give me big ships beating shit out of each other, I'm happy.

[sovay]

It's very much an ensemble piece, and if you like that ensemble, you're going to like the movie.

w00t. I'll check it out.

[rosefox]

No newsletter, but we do have a theme song.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

That may be the kind of historical substitution that interferes with my watching a movie, but I will keep it in mind all the same.

I don't think it's too egregious? It's about the efforts during WWII to acquire Enigma machines and/or code books so they could break the German cipher, and the scroll text at the end lists off something like a dozen missions that contributed to making this happen, because it isn't the kind of thing you actually do in one fell swoop. The movie is a single incident, I think largely fictionalized, that does more in one go than any of the real missions actually did -- but that's to be expected in a movie. The biggest issue is that most of the real missions were done by Brits, though I think a few were American.

I recommend it to your attention in large part because it is definitely a submarine movie, rather than a war movie that takes place on a submarine. Many of its plot elements are predicated on the fact that the characters are in a small tin can deep underwater, surrounded by people who want to make that can either explode or implode -- a task which is frighteningly easy to accomplish.

but I wish the scriptwriters had just put a little more thought into it before they started filming.

Yeah, that sums it up pretty well. #3 in particular sort of feels like a balls-to-the-wall first draft -- which is great, except that usually first drafts get revised, y'know? But on rewatching, I do appreciate the number of times they nod toward the most obvious thing to do, and then do something else. Elizabeth Swan is not Calypso. Jack Sparrow does not become the Pirate King. Nor does he become the captain of the Flying Dutchman. All of these are good things, not because they would be bad things otherwise, but because it's more fun when the narrative dodges the obvious bullet.

I deeply regret the way the fourth movie just . . . didn't work. Jack Sparrow needs a straight man to be the "protagonist" while he careens around doing his thing; he doesn't work as the sole central character. And the film was too Tim Powers to be properly Pirates of the Caribbean, but also too Pirates to be properly Tim Powers.

[rosefox]

I was going to try to make more suggestions but then I got stuck thinking of a nautical-themed pashmina afghan and that's it for tonight.

[sovay]

I recommend it to your attention in large part because it is definitely a submarine movie, rather than a war movie that takes place on a submarine. Many of its plot elements are predicated on the fact that the characters are in a small tin can deep underwater, surrounded by people who want to make that can either explode or implode -- a task which is frighteningly easy to accomplish.

Okay. That is valid and useful to know!

Elizabeth Swan is not Calypso. Jack Sparrow does not become the Pirate King. Nor does he become the captain of the Flying Dutchman.

Oh, yeah. I would have been surprised and disappointed in the film had any of those been the results. (I was banking on Norrington becoming the captain of the Flying Dutchman, but once the film disposed of him, Will was the only convincing alternative—and obviously going to be good at the job.) I don't actually argue with where the story ended up; I just wanted it to flail around less getting there. My initial thoughts on At World's End are here, by the way, in case I haven't inflicted them on you before. 2007, wow.

And the film was too Tim Powers to be properly Pirates of the Caribbean, but also too Pirates to be properly Tim Powers.

Despite the presence of what looked like excellent mermaids, I avoided the fourth movie like a supernally contagious plague.

[sovay]

but then I got stuck thinking of a nautical-themed pashmina afghan and that's it for tonight.

There are ways in which, if you have only ever seen Andy Samberg in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, this video is deeply confusing. And then there are ways in which it is probably more or less the way Jake Perralta would behave if given the chance at a cruise ship.

Also, mermaid.

Wow.