1996 Director: Ridley Scott 129 min
The fictionalised version of a real event which occurred to the schooner-come-brigantine Albatross in 1961 resulting in the death of four student cadets, the skipper’s wife and the cook when she was laid over and sunk by a “freak” squall between the Florida Keys and the Bahamas. The film will remind some of a similar incident with the Tall Ship Marques, in which 19 crew died when she was driven over (and under) by the weight of her canvas by a squall, which could have been a waterspout, en route to Bermuda in 1984.
White Squall is a beautifully-shot coming of age story, with Jeff Bridges playing the charismatic captain Christopher B Sheldon who offers his teenage male crew the chance to live like upper yardsmen from the age of sail, developing physical fitness, self-reliance and inter-dependence on a blue-water cruise of adventure. It’s a film about how a team develops under leadership and at times it feels more like Dead Poets’ Society than Hornblower, though there are scenes that remind you of Lord of the Flies, and a courtroom ending that is as emotionally charged and well acted as that of A Few Good Men.
The ship used in the film was the Eye of the Wind for various sailing scenes in the Caribbean while a large tank in Malta (with the sea behind as a horizon) was used for the squall scenes. DH
Trailer: