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It's a pity this oceangoing adventure wasn't fully appreciated during its theatrical release in 1996, if only because its climactic storm sequence (hence the movie's title) was awesome on the big screen and inevitably less impressive on video. Mixed reviews also curtailed its box-office potential, but as you might expect from Ridley Scott--the director of
Blade Runner and
Thelma & Louise--this is a beautifully photographed movie that will thrill anyone who is drawn to the romance and danger of the open sea. The story is a rite-of-passage adventure for a group of high school boys who spend their senior year as the crew-in-training on the
Albatross, a sailing vessel skippered by an experienced sailor and schoolmaster (Jeff Bridges) who teaches hard lessons of teamwork and individual responsibility. As they sail to the tip of South America and back, the young men face many challenges that will shape their character, in addition to the carnal pleasures of shore leave in exotic ports of call. It's a traditional story, and Scott doesn't bring anything particularly new to this sailboat variation of
Dead Poets Society and
Scent of a Woman. But as a coming-of-age drama
White Squall is professionally crafted and filled with vital energy, featuring a talented cast of newcomers (led by Scott Wolf of TV's
Party of Five) who rise to the demands of this rousing and life-changing adventure.
--Jeff Shannon
The dramatic and visual centerpiece-a big, loud, scary storm at sea-is a tour de force of high-adventure moviemaking. The director, Ridley Scott, a wizard with a wind machine, conveys the pure, eruptive force of elemental chaos with extraordinary immediacy. Unfortunately, this grand-scale action scene, like the squall itself, seems to come out of nowhere: a freak occurrence that hits, without warning, near the end of a long, tedious, and largely uneventful voyage. The screenplay, by Todd Robinson, is based on the story of a real-life shipwreck in 1961, but, since the vessel also serves as a kind of prep school, the movie plays like standard coming-of-age fiction-"Dead Poets Society" on a boat. Until the storm strikes, you're afraid that the title refers not to a meteorological event but to the deafening sounds of middle-class teen-agers complaining about bad dads. With Jeff Bridges, Caroline Goodall, and Scott Wolf. -Terrence Rafferty
Copyright © 2006
The New Yorker
