The Lightship

Unlike the other commentator, I am not interested in lightships. I didn't even know what a lightship was until I saw this film. However, I am interested by this film. I saw it on BBC 1, a few months ago, in their late night film slot, a slot usually reserved for B Movies.

The Lightship could easily be a B movie, only it stars two great actors, Robert Duval and Klaus Maria Brandauer, putting the actors in what could easily be a conventional thriller scenario. Brandauer is the captain of a lightship, thus a man of law, thus a good guy. Duvall is a mysterious, shady figure who seeks refuge from the sea, possibly a man on the run, thus a bad guy. So a battle between good and bad, order and disorder, is played out.

This actually happens in the film. Not a great film, or even a very good one. But odd. About as odd as finding your grandmother is into S&M. For both men become fascinated with one another, and their respective occupations. To illustrate how odd this is, there is a scene where Brandauer finds Duvall taking a bath in his bedroom. Instead of being taken aback, Brandauer puts his hand in the water, playfully, like a lover, and they talk. They talk a lot in the film. Moreover, the film set a few years after World War II, yet Brandauer is playing a German (in charge of an American boat)and Duvall is a real sweet, gent of a southern lawyer, who is also a dangerous, psychopathic criminal, in charge of a couple of hoodlums.

All this weirdness is not that surprising, after all the director is that Polish guy with the weird (if you're not Polish) name, Skowlimowski, who has directed some strange films in his time.

I didn't like the fact the narration or the eighties-ness about it (ie soundtrack). But the kid was OK.

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.

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!

This is one of the great movies from the eighties, however unjustly underestimated and forgotten.

Brandauer plays the captain of the lightship that's constantly anchored at the same place. It's only purpose is to warn other ships for dangerous waters. Robert Duvall enters the scene with his men and his one ambitions. It is also a generation drama about the relation between the lightships captain and his prodigal son.

A brilliantly hermetical story about the thin line between order and chaos, and about relations between people. An excitement that lies not in action but in the trial of strength and the mostly implicit violence, that sometimes breaks out in uncontrolled outbursts.

It also tells the story about the kind of courage that almost looks like cowardice.

Don't miss this one!

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