Le bateau phare

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.

War is over some 10 years ago, the time of tragedy has passed by and has taken its toll on Captain Miller (Klaus Maria Brandauer, good), now currently dealing with his rebel teenage son Alex (Michal Skolimowski, the director's son), bailing out of the jail after another rebellious act of his. Miller takes his son to stay with him to live on a lightship, stranded somewhere, to help with the ships that come and go in that route. What the Captain couldn't predict was that this simple lightship and its small crew consisting of mechanical workers (Robert Costanzo and Tom Bower), a cook (Badja Djola) and one military (Tim Phillips), would be taken by two armed and menacing robbers (Arliss Howard and William Forsythe) and their smooth-talking leader (Robert Duvall), rescued after they boat had some problems and they take the ship for whatever reasons, forcing everyone there to stay cool and don't fight back. Miller is bound to do that, but will the crew and even his troubled son, already conflicted with his father during his absence during the war, will be able to conform and not react against the invaders?

"The Lightship" breaks from the routine of being a simple thriller by giving us a wit duel between two opposite poles on the same coin: the honorable Captain Miller, peaceful more than ever after surviving a terrible tragedy during the war; and Calvin, the group leader, also making the possible to preserve the life of his crew but knowing exactly what he's doing in the boat. While both men share their life's stories and try to find weaknesses and strengths in one another, both of their teams are about to collide and tragedy may ensue. And that's when the movie finally takes off, after some unexplained points, half constructed dialogs which carry little significance, and we wonder how much of the film was cut or rushed (that's why the narration by Miller's son from time to time).

The dramatic exercise works sometimes with all the mystery surrounding Captain Miller and his strict decision of not fighting back (even that his crew is eager to follow him, and there's guns hidden in the ship, not to mention they can improvise more weapons). But the exchanges between him and Calvin are far from right, usually lost in substance or without causing interest in the audience, more concerned in the eventual clash between the men from both sides. And that doesn't disappoint. "The Lighsthip" is a heart-stopping thriller with one sequence better than other. The ship's takeover was a disappointment, probably some scenes were cut from the film (one minute there's an argument between Bower and Forsythe, and in the next shot, the robbers are breaking the radio); it was confusing just as much as a reason of why they're there - probably running from the police, as some say, and now they need a new boat to escape. But the cook's revenge against one of the lunatics, during the storm, is terrifying and powerfully made.

The thesis proved here is that intelligence and wisdom must follow a whole set of actions, and good intentions must be thrown away when the rules are changed. If only they knew...8/10

After reading all the reviews for this '85 re-make, it's very clear few people read about, or research, the true origin of a good work.

This story 'Das Feuerschiff' written by a prominent German novelist is actually a semi allegorical tale. It intelligently uses symbolism to demonstrate the bullying tactics of war mongers. The writer, Siegfried Lenz (a modern humanist) has set up a brutal modern crime scenario, that symbolically parables the destructive effects of controlling regimes (ie: Nazi, or any other source of enforced power) exposing the devastating effects they inflict on innocent by-standers.

Lenz thoughtfully sets up a situation that illustrates the adage: 'Evil triumphs when good men do nothing'. The original film version of this classic story was made in Germany in 1962 (not long after the book was published) and directed by multi talented, Austrian-Hungarian born Ladislao Vajda. I saw it under the American/English title of: "Crime on the High Seas" (AKA 'The Lightship')

For my money the earlier film far outshines the poorly constructed 1985 version listed here on IMDb. It seems a great pity in the days of DVD the Award winning original has escaped a wider release. If you want to check the IMDb listing you will need to add the German title 'Das Feuerschiff' or the date ('63) after the title. The 1963 version also won awards in the Berlin Film Festival of its year.

The original version also had the distinction of being one of few films to feature the instantly recognisable Londoner (of Scottish descent) James Robertson Justice in an important dramatic lead. Robertson was a reasonably good choice for the role of Captain of the Lightship, having himself experienced Nazism while serving as a Policeman with the League of Nations, in a region under German governance.

Klaus Maria Brandauer was also a good choice as Captain in the '85 Jerzy Skolimowski vers, but the somewhat over the top performance by Robert Duvall as the homosexual leader of the criminals was somewhat unfortunate to say the least. Perhaps the screenplay writer and director must shoulder some of the blame for this. Much of the original stories depth, and the overall handling of this project, seemed unfortunately lost at sea. Often it appears as if directors and screenplay adapters may get hung up on their own sexual obsessions, sometimes loosing their grasp on the original stories main themes. The voice over narration, added later in post production, was an attempt to add story cohesion - this did not help much, if at all.

Maybe someday we'll be rewarded with the now rare, b/w German original. Find it if you can!

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!

There isn't much new in this gangsters-take-ship-and-crew-hostage drama, except that it takes place on a floating Light Ship. Having endured 14 months of duty on one of these floating torture chambers myself, I can tell you that nothing this exciting ever took place. All we ever did was bounce up and down and listen to a fog-horn, day and night. Too bad Duvall wasn't out there then, we could have keel-hauled him for making this very inaccurate flick!