Le bateau phare

I served on the Columbia River lightship and I can say, without a doubt, it was the best duty I had in the Coast Guard. Sometimes monotonous, we did get plenty of fishing and managed to poach a crab pot or two. And getting two weeks off after a month aboard without touching your 30 day annual leave surely made up for the semi-isolated duty that transpired. Also, the ride back and forth to the beach across the Columbias River Bar certainly was worth the price of admission. My lightship was WLV-605 which was homeported at the Coast Guard Bouy Base inside the Ballard Locks. Little enlistedman's bar, I remember poor-boy night; the night before payday when schooners of beer were 25 cents. A Coastie with five bucks in his pocket was popular. I also remember playing a dice game, Ship Captain Crew, for beer. After refit, we would steam up Puget Sound, around Tatoosh Head and down the Washington Coast to station. Boy, I wish I cold turn back the hands of time and have just one more rotation on that Galloping Red Ghost of the Pacific Northwest Coast.

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!

I want to address the only comment I found on this film first. The reviewer mentions Duvall's bad performance. Well, I think he did watch the film a long ago, and does not recall well. Robert Duvall's character and performance is worth the effort of seeing the film if you ask me. By far the strongest point to make one watch it! Albeit the story line is a bit scarce and linear and stock, the character build is worth any excellent stage play. It was conceived as a stage play, so it is not so appealing to movie watchers. The diabolic, malicious calm and easy Duvall displays is the key impetus for developing all the other characters by way of their reacting to his unnerving energy. In conclusion (my battery is running out), please make this film have more echo then it does, and some worthy critic extend the wikipedia article on it please!

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")

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.