And the Sea Will Tell

For a TV miniseries based on a true crime thriller, you'd expect standard movie-of-the-week fare. And The Sea Will Tell is instead a pretty taut thriller, well-written, well-acted and artfully put together. I'm convinced that this film isn't more well known because it had the misfortune to air for the first time the very night the ground campaign began during the first Gulf War. If you were watching CNN (and who wasn't), you missed it.

Rachel Ward, a highly underrated actress, is slightly miscast as the naive "hippie" waif Jennifer Jenkins, but she makes the best of a pretty meaty role, and her chemistry with Richard Crenna is spot-on. There's less chemistry between her and Hart Bochner, but his performance is excellent--he's certainly come a long way from his cartoonish portrayal of a slimy executive in Die Hard ("Hans...boobie...would I lie to you?"). The whole series, however, is stolen by James Brolin and Deidre Hall. The interweaving of flashbacks to the characters' time on the island with the courtroom scenes is skillfully done--something that, incidentally, Buglioisi failed to do well in the book this film is based on.

There's also some attention to detail here, and even (GASP!) some approaches at mise-en-scene. The Palmyra scenes, though colorful and lush, have a strange darkness and malevolence about them. I especially like the moody magic-hour sky in the oft-shown sequence of Ward and Bochner boarding their neighbors' yacht on the crucial night, and the rusty, moldering remains of military hardware that lurk in the underbrush. When contrasted with the chic mid-80s San Francisco in which the courtroom scenes take place, you definitely get the sense that the Rachel Ward character has come a long way. You don't see a lot of that kind of subtlety in a TV feature.

This is a story that probably should have been a Hollywood feature. Barring that, however, it's still an excellent film. Recommended.

An able cast and good direction do a creditable job in this film based on famed attorney Vincent Bugliosi's non-fiction book, which describes both the crime and the trial (he represented the defendants). But more than anything else, it's the story itself that will keep your eyes glued to the screen for three hours. Yuppie couple sail to an isolated mid-Pacific island. Later, so does a hippie couple. After that, the hippie couple are arrested in Honolulu in possession of the yuppies' boat and a weak story. Investigation does not turn up the yuppies, their bodies, or the hippies' boat. Some time later, back at the island, a box washes onshore that contains the bones of the yuppy woman. The details are too numerous and mystifying to list here! The "plot" may seem to meander and include many digressions -- but that's because it's from real life! Even at three hours (made for TV, two instalments) the film can't include all the baffling elements. (You really should get the paperback!) If you stick with it and pay close attention, you'll find it not only entertainment, but also a challenge: What really happened? Who did it? This puzzle will haunt you, keep popping back into your mind, long after the movie ends. (Get the book!!)

You may also be interested in the book, which was written by Vincent Bugliosi, author and former California prosecutor ("Helter Skelter" encompassing the Manson murder cases of 1969).

Richard Crenna, as usual, is very good as a high-profile attorney who actually ends up defending Jennifer Jenkins, an innocent bystander, who was involved with Buck Walker, in a murder case which occurred on the South Pacific Island of Palmyra. Rachel Ward is very believable as Jennifer, and Hart Bochner plays the dark and dangerous sociopath to the hilt.

Deidre Hall and James Brolin portray Mack and Muff Graham, a semi-retired couple who sail as a vocation- (Mack enjoys it, Muff does not) The ominous incidental music and clues into the treachery of the open sea are hinted at.

The Hawaiian and South Pacific photography is quite beautiful, you can imagine yourself living in such an environment, and assimilating into it. Buck Walker, an apparent sociopath, enjoyed the high life; while he could not afford it, he found other ways to attain it.

In a sense, the Buck Walker character is similar to Charles Manson. A sociopath with a sense of entitlement, he and Jennifer sail to Palmyra on a broken down make-shift boat, but he sees Mack Graham (and his million dollar boat) as fair game. Jennifer, while friendly towards the Grahams, does not ascertain the depth of Buck's envy and capacity for violence.

Since this story took place in the late 70's, Buck and Jennifer were considered by Mack and Muff Graham to be "hippies", harmless enough, who just happened to run out of food and supplies on the desolate island of Palmyra. As it turns out, nothing could have been further from the truth.

A very interesting story which will leave you interested in the true story, and Bugliosi's book. 9/10.

Told in flashback this true-crime mini-series is very hard to follow. Having read the book several years prior to viewing the movie was quite a help to me. The film does present some questions to the viewer in a very subtle manner, but upon closer inspection, one has to wonder if Bugliosi was just trying to salve his conscience for defending a murderer. The movie shows that Bugliosi is just as adept in jury manipulation as a defense attorney as he was as a prosecutor. This one is easy to pass up.

I saw this movie at 5am on a Friday morning, on EDrama. It has a cool vibe that pulls you in. Basically a good version of a Lifetime movie. The guy who plays Buck does a good job of playing a real creep. Movie takes place in Hawaii, and the scenes where they are out in the boat are pretty creepy, thanks to some good sound effects and camera work. Richard Crenna is good in this, but of course he basically always plays the same character in everything. Watching this straight through as a movie is a little weird, because every 10 minutes or so there is a weird break in the continuity due to the fact that it was originally made for TV. Rachel Ward plays dumb in this one, and it isn't that believable that she would be with "Buck". I do like Buck's style though; a mix of creepy cheap bar guy and Matthew Mcconaughey (or is that the same thing?).