Das Feuerschiff

Unlike the other commentator, I am not interested in lightships. I didn't even know what a lightship was until I saw this film. However, I am interested by this film. I saw it on BBC 1, a few months ago, in their late night film slot, a slot usually reserved for B Movies.

The Lightship could easily be a B movie, only it stars two great actors, Robert Duval and Klaus Maria Brandauer, putting the actors in what could easily be a conventional thriller scenario. Brandauer is the captain of a lightship, thus a man of law, thus a good guy. Duvall is a mysterious, shady figure who seeks refuge from the sea, possibly a man on the run, thus a bad guy. So a battle between good and bad, order and disorder, is played out.

This actually happens in the film. Not a great film, or even a very good one. But odd. About as odd as finding your grandmother is into S&M. For both men become fascinated with one another, and their respective occupations. To illustrate how odd this is, there is a scene where Brandauer finds Duvall taking a bath in his bedroom. Instead of being taken aback, Brandauer puts his hand in the water, playfully, like a lover, and they talk. They talk a lot in the film. Moreover, the film set a few years after World War II, yet Brandauer is playing a German (in charge of an American boat)and Duvall is a real sweet, gent of a southern lawyer, who is also a dangerous, psychopathic criminal, in charge of a couple of hoodlums.

All this weirdness is not that surprising, after all the director is that Polish guy with the weird (if you're not Polish) name, Skowlimowski, who has directed some strange films in his time.

I didn't like the fact the narration or the eighties-ness about it (ie soundtrack). But the kid was OK.

I served on the Columbia River lightship and I can say, without a doubt, it was the best duty I had in the Coast Guard. Sometimes monotonous, we did get plenty of fishing and managed to poach a crab pot or two. And getting two weeks off after a month aboard without touching your 30 day annual leave surely made up for the semi-isolated duty that transpired. Also, the ride back and forth to the beach across the Columbias River Bar certainly was worth the price of admission. My lightship was WLV-605 which was homeported at the Coast Guard Bouy Base inside the Ballard Locks. Little enlistedman's bar, I remember poor-boy night; the night before payday when schooners of beer were 25 cents. A Coastie with five bucks in his pocket was popular. I also remember playing a dice game, Ship Captain Crew, for beer. After refit, we would steam up Puget Sound, around Tatoosh Head and down the Washington Coast to station. Boy, I wish I cold turn back the hands of time and have just one more rotation on that Galloping Red Ghost of the Pacific Northwest Coast.

Indeed, as my headline says, refreshing. This movie that goes back 37 years as of today is the complete antidote to the hyped up super hero action movies of today. Heroes and villains alike are no indestructible super beings. Just a solid movie with good actors and a plausible story without any unrealistic and illogical happenings. After seeing a couple of the latest "action" movies where the lead characters would put Batman and superman to shame in their ability to survive barrages of bullets and other bone breaking events, it is refreshing to see that before people actually cared about a plausible plot when making a movie that didn't make you feel like an idiot watching it.

The US Coast Guard Captain Miller (Klaus Maria Brandauer) brings his estranged teenage son Alex (Michael Lyndon) on board of his anchored lightship and introduces him to the crew. When they see a boat with three men adrift, the crew brings them to the boat. The leader Calvin Caspary (Robert Duvall) introduces the deranged brothers Eddie (Arliss Howard) and Gene (William Forsythe) to Captain Miller and his crew and soon they overtake the command of the lightship. Alex and the crew is in larger number and wants to resist but Captain Miller has a trauma from his past and wants to protect his men.

"The Lightship" is a boring, annoying and overrated film about a US Coast Guard ship that is overtaken by criminals and the lack of action of her captain that does not want to endanger his crew. There is also a conflict between the captain and his son that believes he is a coward. There are many situations where the crew could easily defeat the criminals that the movie is ridiculous. The duel between the traumatized captain and the nihilist boss of the gangsters is also terrible. The motives of the criminals are not clear. My vote is two.

Title (Brazil): "Ataque em Alto Mar" ("Attack in High Sea")

I want to address the only comment I found on this film first. The reviewer mentions Duvall's bad performance. Well, I think he did watch the film a long ago, and does not recall well. Robert Duvall's character and performance is worth the effort of seeing the film if you ask me. By far the strongest point to make one watch it! Albeit the story line is a bit scarce and linear and stock, the character build is worth any excellent stage play. It was conceived as a stage play, so it is not so appealing to movie watchers. The diabolic, malicious calm and easy Duvall displays is the key impetus for developing all the other characters by way of their reacting to his unnerving energy. In conclusion (my battery is running out), please make this film have more echo then it does, and some worthy critic extend the wikipedia article on it please!