Le loup des mers

Admittedly, this film is well done. It narrates the story of a ship under the leadership of Rolf Larssen, a violent, mentally-ill man. When a ship wreckage of another ship happens, the survivors are taken aboard, and the unholy cruise begins. Harmstorf, a bad actor, who in his career was allowed only to play scumbacks, muggers and robbers, does not play Larsson, he is Larson. Once in a while, his furious attacks of mental pain are so real and scary, that the movie gets a realistic touch that goes far beyond imagination. But, it also plays to the gallery by showing a seaman crawling around after his legs having been bitten off by a shark, with all other seamen standing around, cheering and laughing. Although such scene of graphic violence are rare, the movie is not for children. Harmstorf, who committed suicide after a long and drawn-out suffering of Alzheimer, sets down a figure that is so real that we can deduce from that his real nature : a lone, psychopathic man, prone to violence.

I was 10 years old when this originally aired almost 40 years ago and i always loved it. This is still one of the finest hours of German (public) TV with a great script (discard the confusions about the mix of stories, i felt that it added something to the core Seawolf Story) and a strong direction. I had the chance to see it again several times and it doesn't have lost anything. None of actors came to any great fame, even R. Harmstorff remained in the shadow of his role until his death, but sometimes the whole is truly more then the sum of its parts. Wolfgang Staudte deserves special praise. It compares well even with todays best provided from HBO.

This is the best version of the Sea Wolf I have seen. There are excellent production values, believable characters and the general feeling of a major production is present throughout. It does not betray its TV origins.

Best of all is Raimund Harmstorf in the title role as Wolf Larsen. He manages to create an aura of intimidation and mystery around his character that has never been matched by other productions of Jack London's story. And, of course, there is the potato-squeezing scene.

This series made Harmstorf a star (at least in Germany), but he could never quite repeat this performance. Strangely, his natural voice was not deemed tough enough for this role at the time and so another actor was chosen to speak his character in the German dubbed version.

A great movie that shows also excellent two philosophical points of view. Social Darwinism (Wolf Larson) vs. the peaceful coexistence of individuals(Louis). A lot of different themes are mentioned.

This adaption of Jack Londons "Seewolf" is the best ever shown. The characters have been chosen very wise and Raimund Harmstorf played the role of his live.

The story depends not only on the novel "Der Seeworlf", Ulbrich, the director of the four part movie, included several other novels and short stories from Jack London (all the "historic" scenes do not take place in the original novel, they have been taken from "Joe and the pirates").

Harmstorf himself did a good job as Wolf Larson, the captain of the "Ghost" and he was identified by this role since his early suicide. He took place in other great roles such as "Der Kurier des Zaren" (Michael Strogof).

All in all, if you will ever have a look on a Seewolf-movie, try this one!