The Sea Gypsies

This movie is filled with unintended laughs, starting with its title. Originally called "The Sea Gypsies," it was apparently renamed "Shipwreck" in order to attract cable TV viewers who enjoyed "Castaway." Fair enough. The two films have plenty in common. However, a more accurate title for this film would be "The Wilderness Family Washes Up on the Beach."

I missed the first ten minutes or so of the film, but its story seems simple enough. A young single father named Travis (Robert Logan) takes his daughters on a round-the-world cruise on his sailboat. This guy is the ultimate devoted father. There is no risk Travis wouldn't take to save his children from danger and there is no sacrifice he wouldn't make for their benefit. In fact, when things get desperate, it seems like he goes days at a time without eating, to ensure the children never miss a meal. What a guy. Best of all, Travis never loses his boyish optimism. No matter how bad things get, he's always grinning. When he's not busy hunting game (a problem for him, since he hasn't got the heart to kill critters that are cute) or fighting off wolves and bears, he's leading the family hootenanny or playing Tarzan on swinging vines. Yes. Travis is exactly the kind of character you would pay good money to slap.

Mikki Jamison-Olsen (in her only movie credit) plays Logan's obligatory love interest, Kelly. She's a journalist who hitches a ride on the boat to write a magazine story. She's attractive but bland; she does little more than hug the children when they're scared, scream when danger approaches, and be available when Captain Travis gets his horns up.

The final member of the cast is a young orphan (so he claims) stowaway named Jesse who isn't discovered until the boat is well on its way to the Aleutian Islands. Jesse persuades Travis's younger daughter, Samantha, not to reveal his presence to anyone else. Then, while everyone is eating lunch below deck, he proceeds to fall overboard when he leans over the side to fill a bucket of water so he can brush his teeth, I don't know why he's so anxious to brush his teeth; there's no reason to believe he's had anything to eat for days. In any case, he's a lucky guy, for Sam does three unlikely things:

First, she notices Jesse's missing and goes looking for him,

Second, she quickly concludes he has fallen overboard and sounds the alarm.

Third, she persuades her father to turn the boat around to search for a stowaway whom no one else has ever seen. Not bad. I wouldn't have believed her, if I had I been her dad.

After they find Jesse, everyone naturally welcomes him with open arms. They all make him feel so welcome that I was surprised that Travis didn't use his authority as captain to adopt the boy on the spot. More surprising, however, is how calmly Jesse takes his brush with death. Imagine yourself falling off a boat in the middle of the ocean, realizing that the only person who even knows you were aboard is a little girl who talks to her doll. As you watch the boat disappear over the horizon, what possible reason could you have for thinking anyone is going to save you? I don't know about you, but if that happened to me, I would still be having nightmares about it years afterward. However, that ain't Jesse's style. This boy's got nerves of ice.

Back to the plot: After a few more days at sea, the boat sinks in a storm one night, but everyone manages to get to a nearby shore safely in a liferaft. That stroke of luck raises a question: What the heck was Captain Travis thinking by having the boat under full sail so close to land in the middle of the night? Granted the storm blew the boat toward land; however, the storm scene was so brief, the boat couldn't have been far from the shore to begin. Frankly, I'm wondering about the guy's navigational skills. Besides, who the hell sails around the world by way of the Aleutian Islands? Let it go.

Everyone's ashore now, but they're short of equipment and supplies (no tools, no weapons, no food). Nevertheless, they seem to be tolerably well supplied with clothes and blankets. That's great because they're in a northern latitude, and winter is on the way. If you watch the film, keep an eye on the scene when they get on the liferaft and see if you can spot anyone carrying blankets or extra clothes.

This raises another question: There are lots of references to cold weather, and it even snows briefly, but no one really seems to mind the weather. Moreover, they all spend a lot of time in the water. They splash around trying to catch fish, they get chased into the surf by a bear, they even engage in purely recreational swimming. Yet no one is even shown visibly shivering. I don't get it. Aren't they supposed to be in Alaska on the threshold of winter? Why aren't they freezing their buns off? And how do they get dry? Do you suppose when they were filming the water scenes off the coast of Southern California, they forgot where they were supposed to be? Don't they know how cold the water off Alaska can get?

I mentioned a bear chasing the Sea Gypsies into the surf. He (or she) is the only real villain in the film. Until he appears late the story, our castaways have close encounters with deer, moose, musk ox, reindeer, sea lions. and even wolves, but the brown bear (apparently a Kodiak) doesn't appear until fairly late. Just in time to keep anyone who hasn't already fallen asleep awake. I think the bear was introduced for one reason: To force the people to leave where they are. After laying in a large stock of smoked salmon, they're all getting entirely too complacent with their situation. For people who are facing a life-and-death struggle, they spend in inordinate amount of time cavorting on the beach and admiring the sunsets. The situation was starting to remind me of "Swiss Family Robinson," which ends with Mr. and Mrs. Robinson deciding to stay put on their island when rescue is at hand. (I daresay that if their island had a few Kodiak bears, their decision would have been different.)

Incidentally, the trained bear in the film appears to have been heavily sedated because he's about the slowest-moving bear you'll ever see in a movie. Real bears can outrun Olympic champion sprinters, but this bear can't catch anyone. In fact, he's so slow, that the people he's chasing have to fall down a few times to give the poor critter a chance to catch up.

This is one of the best Stewart Rafill films. The plot and story are exciting and well written. The acting is well done, particularly the character played by Mikki Jamieson-Olsen. The location wilderness settings were beautifully photographed. An excellent and very memorable film.

Nice family adventure drama about a family that left today behind to discover adventure, fear, love and survival. A father (Robert F Logan) and a reporter (Mikki Jamison) and 3 children (Heather Rattray , Damitri Patterson, Shannon Saylor) begin sailing around the world. They are shipwrecked near an uninhabited isle. This island is full of wild animals and it is very perilous for them in the start. They live through a lot of marvellous adventure together and they become a big family. ...that one great experience is waiting...Suddenly the big adventure becomes a fight for survival...It began as a dream... and became an adventure of a lifetime.

The movie depicts a lovely family , formed by a father: Robert F Logan , and children who leave civilization for a dangerous journey throughout oceans . But they soon are shipwrecked and encounter troubles in a island and the wilderness. As they must escape some violently hungry animals and learn to survive , depicting the relationship between humans and wildlife . This is an enjoyable film filled with adventures , familiar feeling , beautiful songs as well as soundtrack by Fred Steiner, wildlife and breathtaking landscapes with majestic scenarios wonderfully photographed by cameraman Tom McHugh. The movie is plenty of animals such as musk ox, grizzly bear, moose or elk , deers , reindeers, raccoon , wolves , some of them are uncultivated and other tamed as a seal or a dog . Stars the handsome, good-looking Robert F. Logan who sadly passed away in 2024. Logan's career went into a lull after a full season playing frontiersman Jericho Jones on Daniel Boone (1964), but resurfaced in the early 1970s as the adventurous hippy star of the popular "back to nature" family drama The Adventures of the Wilderness Family (1975), which was written and directed by Stewart Raffill. Bob also starred in two other adventure films with a similar family Rocky Mountain theme, Across the Great Divide (1976) and this The Sea Gypsies (1978), and showed up in two other "Wilderness" sequels as well -- The Further Adventures of the Wilderness Family (1978) and Adventures of the Wilderness Family 3 (1979). All four films involved writer/director Stewart Raffill.

The motion picture was professionally directed by Stewart Raffill . Stewart supports the conservation of wildlife and has filmed grizzly bears, lions, tigers, orangutans, wolves, jaguars, and snakes in many of his action films. He's an expert on adventure genre, such as: ¨Across the Great Divide¨ , ¨Sea Gypsies¨ and science fiction as ¨Ice pirates¨ , ¨Mc and Me¨ and ¨The Philadelphia Experiment¨at his best.

The Sea Gypsies(1978) belongs to a wonderful series , these are as follows : ¨The Adventures of the Wilderness Family¨ (1975) by Stewart Raffill, ¨Further adventures Robinson family (1977)¨ by Frank Zuñiga from the producers of the first part and turns out to be a predictable retread ; ¨Mountain of Robinson family (1979)¨ in which the family is determined to return to wilderness and moves to the Rockies . In similar style and also offering a pleasant scenery are : ¨Across the great divide (1976)¨ in which two orphans must cross the dangerous snow-covered Rocky mountain in order to claim their inheritance , being based on facts happened in 1876 . All films are mostly starred by Robert F. Logan , Susan Damante Shaw and usual appearance as secondary actor the likable George Buck Flowers and Heather Rattray and being produced by Joseph Raffill (father of Stewart Raffill who habitually results to be the filmmaker of the series) and also financed by producer Arthur Dobbs . This family-oriented tale about modern-day adventurers who head for life in nature will appeal to wilderness buffs .

This film is a near technical disaster as city folk attempt to survive in the wilds of Alaska, yet the photography and the superb participation by the animals, as well as the credible acting of the human participants bring off a pleasant and suspenseful film for any family. Overlook the technical improbabilities and enjoy a thoroughly enjoyable film.

This is the second of Robert Logan classic films who star in The Adventure of Wilderness family back in 1975. Robert Logan plays the role a farther who lost his wife and decide to take his girls around the on a ship. Along comes Nancy Kyes who's a reporter who wants to go along to write a story on this boat journey around the world. Heather Rattray stars in her role as Courtney Maclaine the daughter of the father. Heather after this goes on to star in Robert Logan other two films and Heather pick up a role on the Young an the Restless later on. As the journey begins they fine another person on the ship a little boy named Jesse (Cjon Damitri Patterson) who jumps on the boat as it's leaving the dock. The journey starts out smooth until dark comes and that's when start to go wrong. This is a great film that the whole family can sit and enjoy and I will give this movie 8 weasel stars based on the beauy of he Island.