Der Seewolf

I would strongly recommend to those, who haven't read the novel by Jack London yet, to do so. It is only about 1500 times better than this movie. Despite its good intentions, the movie is a very light, short and mediocre version of the book with significant changes and cuts. It's watchable but easily forgettable. Charles Bronson is one of my favourite actors, but he is not convincing as Wolf Larsen who is supposed to be a fascinating and gracious predator, a tiger in human flesh at the prime of his physical strength. The character growth of "Hump" (Humphrey Van Weyden) here is just skimming the surface, while the book provides much more graduate, believable and interesting transformation of his personality. The love interest is also entirely different from the one depicted in the movie.

I guess TNT had a little Christopher Reeve tribute this past weekend. Caught the end of "Superman 2" and then got sucked into this slightly better than average "tv movie." Good acting from Reeve and Marc "Beastmaster" singer. Bronson wasn't very believable though and his acting was as lousy as ever. All and all, not bad for a flick made for tv, but there's a reason it's just that -- "made for tv." The ending was particularly unnerving - seems that they said "hey we've only got 5 minutes left of tv time - let's wrap this up with 4 different plot points." I gave it a 7 of ten but more along the lines of 6 and a 3/4 (my ratings are like school grades 7= C) -- check it out if you're a Reeve fan, but Bronson is no Lex Luthor.

When I stumbled upon the 1993 TV movie "The Sea Wolf", by random chance here in 2024, and seeing that the movie had both Charles Bronson and Christopher Reeve on the cast list, of course I had to sit down and watch it. In fact, I didn't even know that the movie existed prior to finding it by pure luck.

And imagine my surprise when I saw that the movie also had Marc Singer, Garry Chalk and Catherine Mary Stewart on the cast list. That was just some sweet icing on he cake.

I had no expectations to the movie or to writers Jack London and Andrew J. Fenady, as I virtually had no idea what I was in for, as I sat down to watch "The Sea Wolf". So in a sense, the writers had every opportunity to impress and entertain me.

The storyline in "The Sea Wolf" was good, writers Jack London and Andrew J. Fenady put together an enjoyable and entertaining script. It was a storyline that had a nice progression to the narrative, and one that was laced with some nice elements of character development, storytelling, suspense and drama.

"The Sea Wolf" has a good and interesting character gallery, so writers Jack London and Andrew J. Fenady did manage to pen down some nicely detailed characters for the movie and aboard the Ghost.

The acting performances in the movie were good, and it was definitely nice to see the likes of Bronson and Reeve acting opposite one another, because they both put on good performances and brought a lot of flavor to the movie.

The movie is nicely directed by Michael Anderson and also nicely shot with great cinematography, which definitely made it feel like the audience were right there alongside the sailors aboard the Ghost.

While "The Sea Wolf" definitely is a good movie, it is hardly a movie that warrants a second viewing, as the contents of the script just doesn't have enough contents to support multiple viewings.

My rating of director Michael Anderson's 1993 movie "The Sea Wolf" lands on a six out of ten stars.

The film narrates how a cocky young (Christopher Reeve) and a beautiful girl (Catherine Mary Stewart) are shipwrecked and picked up by a ship called ¨the Ghost¨commanded by captain Larsen (Charles Bronson) , a ruthless but clever seaman , reader of Shakesphere , Nietzsche , Darwin and Milton (The lost time). The couple become themselves in accidental passengers confronting wits and taking on brutal sailors (Clive Revell) and only helped by an alcoholic doctor (Len Cariou) and a good seaman (Mark Singer).

The picture is a fine television adaptation of the famous homonymous novel by Jack London scripted by Andrew J. Fenady (producer too , along with Ted Turner). The film has intelligent character studio , showing on the various main-support roles and stunningly playing the tale . Thus , Charles Bronson is magnificent as the obstinate and brutal captain who's really obsessed to track down his brother . One of the few times Charles Bronson performed a villainous person since he became a top international star in the early 70's , at the time he generally played vigilantes in Michael Winner and J. L. Thompson films . Christopher Reeve (recently deceased) as his contender with too much wishes to escape is splendid . Catherine Mary Stewart is enjoyable and enticing . Special mention for secondary cast, Len Cariou as the kind boozy doctor is excellent and Clive Revell as the nasty cook who mistreats to Reeve is outstanding. The black and white classic version novel is the greatest and was directed by Michael Curtiz in 1941 with Edward G. Robinson (Larsen), Alexander Knox (Reeve's role), Ida Lupino (Catherine Stewart's role) and John Garfield (Singer's role). The flick will appeal to seafaring adventure genre enthusiasts and of course Bronson and Reeve fans. Rating : 6.5/10 . Well worthwhile seeing.

I didn't really buy Charles Bronson as this brutal sea captain.He reminded me of a few people I know that have been through a lot in life but survived & because of it, it made them stronger & tougher.They act hard & mean but once you truly get to know them & they let you in, you find out they're actually nice people.He also reminded me of an old person/boss that is tough in front of people but behind closed doors, they're completely different.Maybe I'm too used of seeing him as a hero or vigilante that it's hard for me to believe him as a violent sea captain.This is also the 1st movie I've ever seen him cast as a villain.Anyways..... I never knew The Sea Wolf was based off a book but after watching this movie, 1 of these days I might check it out.I might check out the other versions of the movie someday as well.This version of The Sea Wolf was pretty decent especially for being a TV movie.I wouldn't tell somebody who's thinking of seeing it to skip it.It's good enough that it will keep you entertained while it's on but I don't think you'll give it a rewatch for another couple of months after.Watch it & stick around for the ending.It's worth it