Goliath Awaits

An ocean liner goes down during WWII and a number of passengers survive and establish a civilization under the sea in the wreck. The film starts out good with but then begins to wither. Too many little subplots are injected into the story, which sink it. (No pun intended) It begins to take on a Voyage to the Bottom of The Sea TV series episode type plot and the chilling Twilight Zone potential of the picture is lost. Christopher Lee does a superb job as the ship captain and is the only really interesting character. A man who has gone from captain of the ship to absolute God in his underwater kingdom. The other characters particularly the Navy personnel who discover the wreck are weak to say the least. John Carradine co-stars as a silent film star who was aboard the liner when it went down and is now revered by the younger generation as one of the `Elders'. Frank Gorshin is also aboard as an individual who serves the captain in much the same way Beria served Stalin.

I am reaching way back into my memory for this one, for I saw it on T.V. in 1981 and haven't heard anything about it since, except in 1992 when a co-worker and I got on the subject of shipwrecks and somehow we both remembered this movie from our pasts. We were so vague on the details we had both thought it might have been a dream until we corroborated each other's memory!

Brilliant how an "offshoot" society--a microcosm of our own, with all the various social strata--was represented. There was even a sub-sub-society, the "Bow People," who terrorized those in the main part of the ship.

Also, chilling how the ship's brass were "relieved" to find out that Hitler had been defeated--not even realizing that they had established their own police state far below the surface of the ocean!

I saw this when it originally aired as a 2-part TV movie. I really enjoyed the premise of people forming their own society while trapped in a sunken ocean liner for a generation. The moral theme about society despising the Nazis but still becoming fascist is also good. Christopher Lee and Frank Gorshin play very intriguing characters. Alex Cord, Jean Marsh, John Carradine and Eddie Albert make great supporting actors as well. Mark Harmon is okay as the hero. (Ironically, he appeared in another sunken ship film: Beyond the Poseidon Adventure.) The film also has one of Duncan Regehr's early roles, before he went on to roles in "Wizards & Warriors" and "V". Emma Samms is charming as a girl who grew up in the ship. http://tinyurl.com/cwcqarv She would later gain fame as Fallon Colby on "Dynasty".

The first half of the story explains the history of the ship and how it is found. There's a really shocking scene where the first diver enters the old sunken ship and we see barely see through his foggy diving mask that there are living people on board! The hauntingly iconic image of a diver seeing the lovely Emma Thompson's face through a watery porthole was used in the commercials for the movie and when the movie itself cut to commercial breaks.

The second half of the film deals with the cultural and political implications for this isolated society which has been stuck in 1930s culture. They have adapted their lifestyle and morals to survive. Do they want to be rescued?

After many years of searching for a video release, I was able to catch film on TV again, but it was HORRIBLY edited to make it 60 minutes shorter. The film was obviously sped up and many lines and dramatic pauses had been removed, which totally messed up the acting and script. It's hardly worth seeing if it's not the full 3 hour version.

When I saw this mini-series in 1981 I was very young and it made a real impact on me. The idea of a ship that sunk 42 years ago (1981-1939) and still had survivors is a great idea for a movie, or mini-series in this case.

As a viewer you have to buy a lot of unbelievable stuff to still enjoy it. First the enormous pressure at a depth of 300 meters to which the ship sank in matter of minutes. Somehow this pressure was no issue for all the people aboard but for the divers in 1981 it was because they have to compress and decompress for days! Then somehow the ship didn't leak at all at this depth and didn't so after 42 years in saltwater! Air, drink water, food and electricity made possible by the genius leader of the survivors. If you buy in to that, you are set to go. Oh, and there are the bow people who can survive by stealing from the others for years despite being hunted down with guns. How difficult would it be to just bar the entrances to the bow? Then, nobody - NOBODY- is happy to see the divers after 42 years. The leaders OK, they have their little empire to lose, but the hundreds of people who are treated as slaves? No cheers, laughs, clapping or happiness at all? And the first two questions what comes to mind, -who won the war and how is this rescue mission going to be organized- are addressed only after a day or so.

BUT, as a film lover you must have a flexible mind and then a very interesting en nice story will unfold. If some producer would remake this movie, it surely must address the plausibility I wrote above. The story of people stranded together making a new society with all the good and bad human qualities is worth any storytelling. Therefore it is after 35 still a good story to tell and to watch with good actors like a young Mark Harmon and Christopher Lee.

An ocean liner goes down during WWII and a number of passengers survive and establish a civilization under the sea in the wreck. The film starts out good but then begins to wither. Too many little subplots are injected into the story, which sink it. (No pun intended) It begins to take on a Voyage to the Bottom of The Sea TV series episode type plot and the chilling Twilight Zone potential of the picture is lost. Christopher Lee does a superb job as the ship captain and is the film only really interesting character. A man who has gone from captain of the ship to absolute God in his underwater kingdom. The other characters particularly the Navy personnel who discover the wreck are weak to say the least. John Carradine co-stars as a silent film star who was aboard the liner when it went down and is now revered by the younger generation as one of the `Elders' Frank Gorshin is also aboard as the captains sinister law enforcer.