Le bateau phare

If you are tempted for any reason to rent this in, do not give in, as you will not be rewarded.

Duvall is interesting, as always, thought I wouldn't say GREAT.

Brandaur is... HOT (to my way of looking), and fine, but big deal.

The kid playing his son looks like a rejected member of A-Ha and acts about as well.

This is a thriller that is not remotely thrilling, and is very slow and wooden. It seems like there were a lot of ideas and subtext in the novel that they just didn't manage to get across in the film, so you're left with a curiously unemotional experience. There were precious few moments that made much of an impression at all.

I only watched this because I bought the video cheap and I'm into lighthouses and lightstations. If you are... still, trust me, avoid this.

Had potential, but... there are lots of other videos out there.

--- Check out website devoted to bad and cheesy movies: www.cinemademerde.com

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")

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!

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.