Sea Wolf [VHS]
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VHS Movie Reviews of Sea Wolf [VHS]
Movie Review: We're Still Looking for the Captain
Summary: 2 Stars
You don't need the summery of Jack London's story about Captain Wolf Larsen aka `'The Sea Wolf' and two survivors of shipwreck Humphrey Van Weyden and Flaxen Brewster. Other reviewers have already done it, so please read them. I only add my feelings about the made-for-TV production, which I think could be better with different casting.
There are two things that I cannot understand about the production. Charles Bronson might be an ideal choice for the Captain if the film had been made during the 70s or 80s, This film was shot in 1993, which means Bronson is already over 70 years-old, while Christopher Reeve was just over 40. It is clear that if it really comes to the hand-to-hand battle, there would be no chance for Bronson or his character to win it especially with some other hostile crew around him, ready to avenge the brutality of the Captain. The camera cannot hide the fact; it rather gives stress to it when Reeve who is much taller than Bronson stands by him, and the difference of physique is painfully obvious.
The other disappointing thing about the production is its hasty ending, which betrays the lack of money invested in the production. Director Michael Anderson (known for `Logan's Run') describes the crucial part of Captains' fate in the laziest way typically found in low-budget movies, that is, the lines the characters deliver who would "explain" what is happening or happened for the audiences who cannot see the event itself. Larsen and his complex personality deserves better treatment.
I read the book years ago, and I cannot remember the details of it, but perhaps as another reviewer points out, Reeve might be more appropriate choice for the Captain. As the greatest asset of the film should be the conflict between two types of value, Reeve who did Superman might fit in the role of Captain Larsen, curiously intriguing mixture of tyranny and intelligence.
It is often said that Edward G. Robinson's version is much superior though I haven't seen it yet. Whatever the truths may be, if you're looking for thrilling action or riveting drama, it is not this film.
Movie Review: You need a European actor!
Summary: 2 Stars
First of all, it takes a European actor to play Larsen. An ex-cowboy like Chuck Bronson with his "howdy-partner" diction just won't do. Larsen is an old-world European, a melancholic Scandinavian, with an angular, Germanic face. Bronson just doesn't cut the mustard. If you don't have a strong European actor to play Larsen, the movie is pretty much doomed, since it's so character-centered.Movie Review: Bronson, Reeves PLUS Catherine Mary Stewart!!!
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie is a remake of the 1941 Classic based on the Jack London book of the same name. It is about a sadistic Sea Captain (Bronson) who rules the waves and his ship with an iron fist.This movie has drama, adventure on the High Seas PLUS some romance . What more could you ask for? Sadly , Christopher Reeves and Charles Bronson are no longer with us but they both did leave us with a legacy of very good movies and this is one of them.Movie Review: The Sea Woof...
Summary: 2 Stars
The Sea Woof... because it's a bit of a dog!I have the Jack London book of the same name, upon which this film is based and decided to check the film out before I read the book in it's entirety. The film is a typical two and a half star, B grade, tele-movie type drama from 1993. The director has even managed to make 1993 look more like 1983 due to the style of the filming, and the editing is so ham-fisted it telegraphs the ad breaks like you wouldn't believe!
As to the performances, Bronson is looking old and flabby cheeked, and doesn't really seem all that menacing, as the demonic Wolf Larrson should have been. Nevertheless I always loved Bronson and he turns in a passable performance, but not one of his best. It seems to me that Wolf Larson as I understood the character described from the book was on qualudes with Bronson playing the role. Reeves as Hump, well described by other reviewers here so I won't go into it, is excellent as usual but one gets the feeling he is miscast also, even though he does justice to the role. The woman, Flaxen(?, is rewritten as a thief and becomes the token bit of lace on board, but never has anything important or revelatory to say, and/or offer to the story so one gets the feeling that she was better left to drown in the San Fransisco bay right from the first!
The whole thing feels a bit weak and lumpy and never lives up to it's full potential for all kinds of reasons. Worth a look if it's ever on late night TV though don't expect anything grand. Certainly don't bother buying this film, the ending was a joke!
Movie Review: Another miscasting of Wolf Larsen . . . yawn.
Summary: 2 Stars
If Edward G. Robinson was miscast as Wolf Larsen, then Charles Bronson was a miscarriage. In fact, when I saw the previews to this, I thought that Reeves would make a great Wolf Larsen. Little did I know . . .Who is Wolf Larsen? He is a man with the body of Schwarzenegger and the mind of Hannibal Lecter. As a captain he is up there with Nemo, Ahab, and Blithe. He is Jack London's embodiment of Nietzsche's Superman, a demigod in mind and in body.
London describes him thus:
"As I have said, in the masculine sense his was a beautiful face. Smooth-shaven, every line was distinct, and it was cut as clear and sharp as a cameo; while sea and sun had tanned the naturally fair skin to a dark bronze which bespoke struggle and battle, and added to both his savagery and his beauty. The lips were full, yet possessed of the firmness, almost harshness, which is characteristic of thin lips. The set of his mouth, his chin, his jaw, was likewise firm or harsh, with all the fierceness and indomitableness of the male; the nose also. It was the nose of a being born to conquer and command. It just hinted of the eagle beak. It might have been Grecian, it might have been Roman, only it was a shade too massive for the one, a shade too delicate for the other. And while the whole face was the incarnation of fierceness and strength, the primal melancholy from which he suffered seemed to greaten the lines of mouth and eye and brow, seemed to give a largeness and completeness which otherwise the face would have lacked." (Chapter 10)
London's description of his superman is better played by Superman Reeve who fits the sculpted and statuesque mould of the mega-man.
And of Larsen's mind:
"Later in the morning I received a surprise of a totally different sort. Following the cook's instructions, I had gone into Wolf Larsen's state-room to put it to rights and make the bed. Against the wall, near the head of the bunk, was a rack filled with books. I glanced over them, noting with astonishment such names as Shakespeare, Tennyson, Poe, and De Quincey. There were scientific works, too, among which were represented men such as Tyndall, Proctor, Darwin, and I remarked Bulfinch's 'Age of Fable,' Shaw's 'History of English and American Literature,' and Johnson's 'Natural History' in two large volumes. Then there were a number of grammars, such as Metcalf and Reed & Kellogg; and I smiled as I saw a copy of 'The Dean's English.' I could not reconcile these books with the man from what I had seen of him, and I wondered if he could possibly read them. But when I came to make the bed, I found, between the blankets, dropped apparently as he had sunk off to sleep, a complete Browning. It was open at 'In a Balcony,' and I noticed here and there passages underlined in pencil. Further, letting drop the volume during a lurch of the ship, a sheet of paper fell out. It was scrawled over with geometrical diagrams and calculations of some sort. It was patent that this terrible man was no ignorant clod, such as one would inevitably suppose him to be from his exhibitions of brutality. At once he became an enigma. One side or the other of his nature was perfectly comprehensible, but both sides together were bewildering. I had already remarked that his language was excellent, marred with an occasional slight inaccuracy. Of course, in common speech with the sailors and hunters, it sometimes fairly bristled with errors, which was due to the vernacular itself; but in the few words he had held with me it had been clear and correct." (Chapter 5)
This beauty of body and mind enhance the terror of Larson, becasue his viciousness is as powerful and beautiful as he is. Blake spoke of a tiger's "fearful symmetry," and the tiger-man Larsen has this lethal beauty and summitry.
Dante observed that when intelligence is combined with brute power and evil will, we are powerless (Inferno, XXXI) Wolf Larsen brings this terror alive. Karloff's Frankenstein is a lumbering clod--any teenager on a ten-speed can outrun him. And Hannibal Lecter is only dangerous out of the mask and straightjacket. Larsen is free to roam the seas and his ship, Ghost, is more of a slave ship than a whaler. Eat your heart out, Ahab!
Read the book, and meet the real Wolf Larsen!