Sunday, February 21, 2016

Hollywood's Ten Best Sailing Movies

Share on :
By Kathleen Brooks


Whether it's curling up on a rainy day in front of the television to view a film classic, or venturing out to the cinema to soak up atmosphere from the other moviegoers, there's nothing like an adventure at sea. One of the most popular types of film are sailing movies. These may be subdivided into several different categories.

"Das Boot, " a German WWII series released in 1981 tells the claustrophobic tale of wartime life inside a submarine. Available in the original German with English subtitles, as well as an English language version, the film held viewers gripped for weeks. Made 20 years later but in a tale from a different century was "Master and Commander, " starring Russell Crowe in 2003. The British captain, played by Crowe, pursues a French warship in the middle of the Napoleonic Wars.

Another category of sailing film includes stories about hapless souls having misadventures at sea. Excellent examples include, "Adrift, " a nail-biting thriller from 2006 about a group of men and women who go diving off their boat without making sure there was a ladder or other means of getting back on board. In "White Squall, " set in the 1960s, a group of teenage boys embark on the sailing trip of a lifetime, only to confront the storm of a lifetime.

The perennially popular five-feature film franchise, "Pirates of the Caribbean, " began with the "Curse of the Black Pearl, " and concludes (or does it?) in 2017 with, "Dead Men Tell No Tales." A sixth film is under consideration. The series is masterminded by the legendary Jerry Bruckheimer, the brains behind television hits such as "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, " and adventure movies, "The Rock, " "Con Air, " and "Top Gun."

Then there are the films about tough fishermen on a quest to pit their wits against the ones that got away. Examples here are "The Old Man and the Sea, " a dramatization of the book of the same title by Ernest Hemingway. There are now three versions of the fishy tale: the original 1958, featuring Spencer Tracy, a popular 1999 remake starring Anthony Quinn, and a 20-minute animation version, which was directed by Alexander Petrov.

"All is Lost, " is a harrowing 2013 film starring Robert Redford. The film has no dialogue, which is hardly surprising. Redford has enough on his plate colliding with a shipping container in furiously stormy seas without having to make idle chit chat.

Equally nerve-shattering to "All is Lost, " is "Dead Calm, " a romantic tale gone horribly wrong. Sam Neill and Nicole Kidman set out on the cruise of a lifetime which changes tack considerably when they take on the shipwrecked psychopath, sailor Billy Zane.

The sea lends a dramatic backdrop to any type of story, lending an added dimension to the characters and the action. With seagoing vessels tending to be relatively confined spaces, it allows the director the chance to develop characters and story lines without distractions of wardrobe or complicated scenery. Claustrophobic scenes aboard submarines allow the viewer to experience new levels of autonomic nervous system symptoms.




About the Author:



0 comments:

Post a Comment

 
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...