Film Festival By Tom and Lili McGee
to a safer spot on the river, she shames him
into pursuing a German warship. Perils,
exhaustion, heroics, and love ensue.
Captain Blood (1935) One of the
finest swashbuckling pirate films, “Captain
Blood,” directed by Michael Curtiz, and
taken from the Rafael Sabbatini novel of the
same name, stars a youthful, vigorous Errol
Flynn, an 18-year-old Olivia de Haviland,
and a villainous Basil Rathbone. When
Peter Blood, a physician, is wrongly convicted of a crime, he’s sentenced to slavery
in the West Indies, where Arabella buys
him. As Blood develops an escape plan,
Spanish pirates attack Port Royale, where
he’s been enslaved. Capturing the pirates’
ship with the help of fellow slaves, he
gains fame as Captain Blood, a righteous
pirate, then goes on to capture a ship with
Arabella aboard. A heated rivalry develops
over Arabella’s affections, resulting in a
rousing sword fight. Victorious, Blood sails
to Port Royale, to find France and England
at war, and that his pardon includes a commission in the Royal Navy, where he goes
on to change the world.
Captains Courageous (1937)
Based on Rudyard Kipling’s novel of
1897, one focus of this film, directed
by Victor Fleming, about fathers and
sons is on the men who fish near the
Grand Banks of Newfoundland; many of
its sailing scenes are superb. The cast
includes Freddie Bartholomew, Spencer
Tracy, Lionel Barrymore, Melvin Douglas,
and Mickey Rooney. A widowed, wealthy
businessman invites his malcontent teen-ager to accompany him from New York to
England via steamship. Harvey falls overboard, and is rescued by Manuel, a fisherman of Portuguese descent, from We’re
Here, a fishing schooner from Gloucester,
Massachusetts. Once aboard, Harvey tries
to intimidate the captain, alienating most
of the crew. The captain makes him a crewmember, placing him in Manuel’s charge.
Initially, Harvey is demeaning of Manuel,
then won over by his kindness and mentoring, finally regarding him as a good surrogate father. Harvey thrives as a seaman and
begins to mature, until disaster strikes.
Das Boot (1981) Originally filmed
in 1981, and augmented by a director’s
cut in 1997, this gripping realistic film,
written and directed by Wolfgang Petersen,
is about life aboard U-96, a German submarine, during World War II. Although
set in wartime, in many respects this film
strikes an antiwar stance. The story is told
by a young German lieutenant/war correspondent, and begins as the submarine
sails from La Rochelle, France. The voyage is filled with extreme tension as U-96
attacks enemy cargo ships, drawing punishing return attacks. Facing circumstances
that seem beyond human endurance, the
captain and crew survive intact. Following
several months in the Atlantic, they hope
to guide their limping sub back to La
Rochelle, only to learn that it is being redeployed to Italy. They enter the Med, where
U-96 encounters new attacks, nearly causing it and the crew to perish. They survive
once more, and return to La Rochelle,
only to be caught unprepared by a violent
surprise.
The Long Voyage Home (1940)
Directed by John Ford, this film, regarded
as one of the finest about men at sea, and
called a “modern Odyssey” by New York
Times’s film critic Bosley Crowther, has a
mostly male cast led by John Wayne and
Thomas Mitchell. The setting is the cargo
ship Glencairn as it sails from the West
Indies to Baltimore, and then returns home
to England. The main focus is on the crew,
their hopes and aspirations. These lonely
men see themselves as losers, drink heavily
and share a wish “to go home.” When the
