The strongest force in nature is the will to survive...
OTHER TITLES: TORMENTA BLANCA (Spanish for WHITE SQUALL), LAME DE FOND (French for THE SURGE BELOW); REIBENDE STROMUNG (German for THE FIERCE STORM); L'ALBATROS-OLTRE LA TEMPESTA (Italian for THE ALBATROSS-BEYOND THE STORM); ANGRY SEA, SCORCHING SUN (Chinese/Mandarin); ESCOLA DE HOMENS (SCHOOL OF MEN (Portugal); DEN VITA STORMEN (Sweden, THE STORM OF LIFE)
I'm amazed. Ridley Scott is one of the most acclaimed filmmakers of our times. He created some of my favorite science fiction, such as ALIEN and BLADE RUNNER, as well as that kick ass chick flick THELMA AND LOUISE. He is still going strong today, with the superb war drama BLACK HAWK DOWN.
But something happened. One of his greatest films was completely ignored. This film was WHITE SQUALL. Could it be that everyone was turned off because of ONE bad apple in the bunch (that really bad Christopher Columbus movie starring that French guy I can barely understand)??? Usually people like movies that take place at sea. And Jeff Bridges is not exactly an unknown. Still, everyone ignored White Squall.
It's not the most perfect movie ever made, but it is an extraordinary movie all the same. It centers on a brigantine vessel serving as a school for boys. The adults aboard this ship are interesting enough: There is McCrea (John Savage), a cigar-chomping salt who teaches the boys English/Literature; Gerard Pascal (Julio Mechoso) a grouchy Cuban cook who warns the boys, "You wanna keep all your fingers, huh??? Then stay the hell outta my galley unless you're invited---and have clean hands!!!" Can't forget Alice (Caroline Goodall), the only female on board, the wife of the Captain, but also the doctor/science & math teacher, who dishes out sharp antibiotic-filled needles as well as she doles out lectures about botany and calculus. Then of course there's the Skipper, (Jeff Bridges) a crusty aloof guy with salt caked on him, a formidable leader who takes absolutely no malarkey, no guff, no insubordination from his young crew whatsoever.
As for the young crew, they are played by young popular actors whose talents vary. The brightest among them is Jeremy Sisto, (and no, it's not just because I think Sisto is the most delightful creature on the face of the earth. This is THE movie that got my attention directed his way!!!) who plays the role of Frank Beaumont, a teen who seems on the verge of crumpling under the burden of his obviously domineering and demanding father, to perfection. Like the other boys, Sisto sports a hairstyle true to the period, kind of short, greased back with Bryl-Creme or something like it. He is taller than his peers but appears extremely thin, and this seems to physically accentuate the frail state Frankie is in. It's true Sisto was in just the first half of the movie and then appeared again in the closing courtroom scenes, but I stand firm, his was the best performance in the movie. Frank Beaumont has been dubbed "Daddy's Rich Boy" by his mates, and they have no idea that his father has denied him any outlet for expression. Just that scene alone is worth its weight in gold, that scene where Frankie is lying in his bunk listening to Gil tell Chuck about his brother's demise and his parents loveless marriage. Sisto speaks not one word in this scene, but what Frankie is feeling seems to be screaming out at the viewer.
Ryan Phillipe, who does very well here, plays Gil Martin, a troubled soul living with a horrific memory of a beloved brother's untimely death. Phillipe's most intense scene is where Jeff Bridges forces him to climb and confront the fear of heights, but he broke my heart many times, especially while he was searching his flooded bunk bed for the ruined picture of the dead brother.
Scott Wolf as Chuck Gieg, whose memoirs served as the foundation for this movie, is all innocence, idealism and ambiguism rolled into a boy suffering from normal teen angst. For a character who did NOT have a death in the family or a nightmarish dad to cope with, Wolf was terrific, and Gieg served as the central character, a loyal, loving, supportive leader-type to his friends.
As the rebellious tough guy Dean Preston, Eric Michael Cole was pretty decent, although I've seen him do far better in later films. Still, he brought me a lot of amusement as the insecure one who hid behind his James Dean like exterior. I got a huge kick out of him beating the crap out of Sisto's character and the watermelon scene was priceless!!!
As for the rest of the boys, there is not enough said or shown to let you get to know them as well as the preceding four. Baltazar Getty plays Todd Johnstone, a sweet, wise cracking bespeckled boy who harbors a huge crush on Mrs. Sheldon and nearly dies of embarrassment when she has to give him a shot of penicillin right in the buttcheek. The adorable Ethan Embry, who plays a boy named Tracy Lapchick, is barely around, his only prominent scenes being the ones in which he gets his nuts squeezed by Big Bad Dean or acts like an ass to Gil about one of the boys getting expelled from the school. David Lascher is not seen enough, but what little you do see of him is unremarkable. The same goes for Jason Mardsen, who plays Sheldon's first mate, Shay Jennings.
The storm whose name the title comes from does not make its appearance until the last third of the movie, but its impact is jarring. Once again, I must say that Ryan Phillipe broke my heart. The way Gil Martin died is probably one of the most graphic and disturbing I've ever seen. Standing in chin deep water waiting to drown. If you want to know what it might have been like, dip your arm into a pitcher of ice water and try to keep it there for three minutes. Agonizing.
There are those critics who panned the courtroom sequence, calling it unneccessary, "tacked on", said it didn't match the rest of the film, but I thought it was probably the most profound and consummate sequence of all. How could they say such things??? Having a boat be destroyed by a freak storm, have several people on board lose their lives, and say "That should be the way it ended???!!!"
I think it's because, and you know I LOVE to say stuff like this, once the boat sank and once the people died and the storm blew on, the "action" was over and those in the audience who crave constant adrenalin lost interest. Who cares about the surviving members of the crew??? Action's over. I wanna go home and pop in something with more action, like PREDATOR!!!
So I insist, the courtroom finale was absolutely vital to the telling of the story of WHITE SQUALL to completion. Captain Sheldon had lost his beloved wife, Gerard, and two of the boys to this act of God and nature. The story could NOT end there!!! For it wasn't just about the storm!!! It was about the people on board that vessel!!! And not just the ones who died!!!
After the sinking of the Albatross, Captain Sheldon is forced to face the families of the boys who perished in a maritime hearing orchestrated by Frank Beaumont's father (a perfectly loathesome performance by actor David Selby) as a vengeful response to his son's expulsion for spearing a dolphin. I wasn't a bit surprised that the hateful, grudge-holding SOB didn't know or care that he in essence caused his son to have some sort of break from reality. I'm no animal hater, but I TOTALLY understood why Frankie killed the dolphin.
Unable to withstand the terrible memories stemming from the accusations that fly in the courtroom, Sheldon is ready to turn in his sailor's certificate and try to put it behind him. But Chuck Gieg angrily stands up in defense of the Skipper. "We all knew the risks we were taking going out there!!!" he cries, tears streaming down. "Bad things happen!!! It wasn't your fault!!!" When Sheldon tries to dismiss Gieg, saying, "You're young and strong, your lives are ahead of you. Let it go and go home," Gieg gently retorts, "You said where we go one, we go all. We lived by that, we believed it. And now you're saying where you go we can't follow." When Frankie stands up and rings the ship's bell, which was the only thing recovered from the scene of the fateful squall, Sheldon at last caves in under the tremendous pain, but the boys, who at the beginning of this journey looked at him as a emotionally distant workhorse, now love him as though he was their replacement dad, and they refuse to let him suffer such a burden of guilt and sadness all by himself. In this scene, Gieg, Beaumont and the other boys reveal the strength, courage and sense of loyalty that they have gained on their remarkable journey in such a way that if your heart is open, you can't help but sob and boo hoo as much, or even more perhaps, as you did during the WHITE SQUALL. How can anyone say this final closing climactic sequence was not needed??? Uninspiring??? "Tacked on"??? I went through half a box of Kleenex during this twenty minute scene!!! Sob!!! You critics suck!!! Sob!!! Sniffle!!!
CAST:
Jeff Bridges as CAPTAIN CHRISTOPHER SHELDON
Caroline Goodall as DR. ALICE SHELDON
John Savage as McCREA
Scott Wolf as CHUCK GIEG
Jeremy Sisto as FRANK BEAUMONT
Julio Mechoso as GERARD
Ryan Phillipe as GIL MARTIN
Eric Michael Cole as DEAN PRESTON
Ethan Embry as TRACY LAPCHICK
Jason Marsden as SHAY JENNINGS
David Lascher as ROBERT MARSH
and Baltazaar Getty as TOD JOHNSTONE
Directed by Ridley Scott
From: HOLLYWOOD PICTURES
Scott Free Productions
Largo Entertainment
Released in:
Argentina (Gativideo)
Brasil (Paris Video)
Nederlands and Belgium (RCV)
France (UGD-Fox)
Russia (West Entertainment)
LINKS
From Hundland.com, Todd Robinson's original draft of the screenplay. It's very interesting and fun if you would like to see how the film evolved from the first draft. This version of the script gives a little closer inspection of the troubled relationship between Frank/Phil and his father. Enjoy!
Eric Michael Cole yahoo! Group This group has a great collection of WHITE SQUALL photos
Pictures
Still Caps
BACK to SISTO ACT
Music: White Squall by Jeff Rona, from the motion picture soundtrack
All images are the property of Hollywood Pictures, The Walt Disney Company, and ScottFree Productions...All images, sounds, graphics, etc. are the property of the artists, photographers, filmmakers and musicians who created them. No copyright infringement is meant. Anyone claiming sole and exclusive ownership of any media is urged to email me.
WHITE SQUALL
