Boat U.S. - January 2008 - (Page 19) Will Scare You Silly, Whether You Sail or Not Dead Calm (1989) Directed by Phillip Noyce; Stars Nicole Kidman, Sam Neill, Billy Zane Couples dreaming about taking off to do some long-distance cruising might not want to watch this film. The unsettling success of “Dead Calm” is the deftness with which the filmmaker transforms an ordinary sailing trip from the idyllic to the horrific in the course of a day. One moment, a then-unknown, 21-year-old Nicole Kidman and veteran actor Sam Neill are trying to get over the loss of their child by taking an extended cruise, becalmed somewhere offshore, and the next they are surrounded by evil. Not the supernatural kind but the human kind, which makes the twists and turns of their Photo courtesy of www.moviescreenshots.blogspot.com ordeal all the creepier. Kidman, trapped on her own sailboat with the intruder, must play a very tense cat-andmouse game to stay alive. Think “Wait Until Dark” on a sailboat. Also unsettling is that their tormenter, bad boy Billy Zane of “Titanic” fame, is not unlike any flakey boat bum we have all met at marinas, waterfront bars or as part of sailing crews. There’s just something about him… In the annals of unrealistic sailing scenes, this film has at least one, but it’s a minor point. Since virtually every scene is on board a boat, there is plenty to authenticate the boating scenes, creative use of a flare gun notwithstanding. For major thriller/horror films that have tried to capture the cruising life, this remains one of the best. Best Documentary (Global Race, Bizarre Results) Deep Water (2007) Directed by Louise Osmond, Jerry Rothwell; Stars Tilda Swinton, Donald Crowhurst, Clare Crowhurst, Simon Crowhurst, Bernard Moitessier Many sailors, but few moviegoers, know the story of Donald Crowhurst. “Deep Water” is more than a traditional documentary as it weaves Crowhurst’s strange progression from a plucky Englishman cheerily setting about entering the first solo, nonstop, around-the-world race in 1968, to a severely disturbed man struggling to maintain his sanity during months at sea in a failing boat. So set was Crowhurst on achieving some success with his then-radical sailboat design, a trimaran, he ignored even the most basic red flags — his lack of experience, lack of preparation and lack of funding for such a campaign. Sadly, back then there were no qualifiers for entering such a race and no GPS, satellite phones, EPIRBs or other devices we take for granted today. Best Trip Back in Time — Life at Sea as it Really Was Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003) Directed by Peter Weir; Stars Russell Crowe, Paul Bettany, Ian Mercer Readers of the 20 Patrick O’Brian novels knew it would happen sooner or later: A made-for-TV special or a feature film was crying out to be produced. The late author’s esoteric brew of naval battles, heroes, exotic voyages and masterful plots was too rich not to give it a try. Most fortunate was the Photo courtesy of 20 Century Fox fact that Australian auteur Peter Weir (“Gallipoli”, “The Year of Living Dangerously”, “Dead Poets Society”) took on the enormous challenge of directing what has become the best sea saga in recent years. You don’t need a textbook on British naval history to know that the HMS Surprise was heading into dicey waters in its chase around the world of an enemy French warship. The complex relationships aboard the ship are expertly handled by Weir, and the underlying theme that the captain must always choose duty over friendship just adds to the tension. Sweeping sea sagas have been done time and again but almost always with the sheen of Hollywood. Here the gritty side of life aboard a warship in the 1800s is unglamorous despite the star presence of Russell Crowe (and even he looks a little rough). Cramped crew quarters, weevils in the food, roughshod seamen of a dozen nationalities and, of course, the sad results of battle. The beauty of a sea voyage and the terror of men in raging wind and waves are a combination that never fails when the acting and directing are top drawer. th Photo courtesy of IFC Films The film includes current-day interviews with Crowhurst’s wife, Clare, and one of his sons, who even today are haunted by what he did. Whether he was immersed too deep into his own hype to turn back or suffered from an emotional breakdown prompted by the months of solitude at sea, we will never know. ‘Round-the-world races continue today and some elite sailors become rock stars. But no one in recent decades went as far overboard as Donald Crowhurst just trying to prove something. BoatU.S. Magazine January 2008 19 http://www.moviescreenshots.blogspot.com
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