What are your favorite seafaring films?

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and Treasure Island.

I’m a fan of all the books about Captain Jack Aubrey and his sidekick, Dr. Stephen Maturiin and really enjoyed Master and Commander; The Far Side of the World.

I just found this in a review of M and C by James Berardinelli, which was also my take, as a mature (read “old”) viewer. Source

”. ..The two films (Pirates and Master and Commander) have little in common except that both involve seafaring ships. One is pure fantasy; the other (although not based on a true story) takes rigors to be historically accurate. One is designed to please popcorn munching crowds of distracted teenagers; the other has been made for adult viewers who are interested in what it might really have been like to live on a tall ship.”

Muppet Treasure Island.

Cabin fever, aahh!

Also, not sure how much this counts, but I loved Shackleton with Kenneth Branagh in the titular role.

Waterworld.~

^ Ha. I was going to say that, but it was too sarcastic even for me.

I don’t know. Watching it is a sure-fire cure for insomnia.

Mutiny on the Bounty (Brando/Howard)
The Bounty (Gibson/Hopkins)
Jaws
Crimson Tide
Shark Tale
Finding Nemo

I remember reading a book in sixth grade, about a girl who became a deckhand on the ship she was traveling on. I remember hoping that it would be made into a film. I think it was a Newberry winner. Urgh… what was it called?

My first favorite was Captains Courageous. I can’t count the number of times I watched that while a boy.

Since then, perhaps The Caine Mutiny, which, like Captains is about a lot more than going to sea and sailing in ships.

Can’t possibly leave out one of my all time fave obscure films, The Light at the Edge of the World.
Quirky pirate larks with a kick arse cast Kirk Douglas/Yul Brynner.

Found it. Newbery Honor, 1991. The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle.

The winner that year was Maniac Magee. Good, but Charlotte was better, in my opinion.

Holy cow! Danny DeVito is making the film! Pierce Brosnan and Morgan Freeman are slated, and DeVito is looking for a girl to cast as Charlotte.

‘The Perfect Storm’ with Clooney and…..somebody else….was pretty good, as I recall…

I got Waterworld beat, Poseidon (2006) was genuinely fucking terrible.

Two of mine are The Sea Wolf and “Mutiny on the Bounty”, both this version and this one.

Ulysses with Kirk Douglas

The Old Man and the Sea with Spencer Tracy

Das Boot

Run Silent Run Deep

Cast Away

by the way, I like Waterworld

^^The first half is actually quite good, Hopper & his fish fucks for friends then ruin it.

Despite the bad reviews, I liked Kevin Costner’s Waterworld. The features on that cat of his were awesome.

I don’t think that I’ve ever seen the movie, but one of the best books I ever read about naval warfare (merchant marine convoy escort duty across the Atlantic, on the Murmansk Run in WW II) was The Cruel Sea. In fact, it was one of the best seafaring and most realistic novels about war that I’ve ever read. And aptly named.

Finding Nemo!
And Perfect Storm, especially because it’s a story that happened in a town nearby.

Thanks, everyone.

@gailcalled: I agree. Master and Commander is definitely on of the best films of this genre ever. Among other things, it gives one a very good idea of the violence and horror of a close quarter duel between ships, the effects of broadsides. I’m not crazy about the Pirates of the Caribbean series. I find the fantasy ridiculous. Much of the footage was taken off Dominica, however, and you see how beautiful this place is. I liked Waterworld for its post-apocalyptic survival with passive energy, etc., but got a little weird with Dennis Hopper’s gang at the end. The Caine Mutiny was good, but I like anything with Bogart. I really liked the Horatio Hornblower series. Excellent production and acting. They were faithful to Forester’s great epic which was loosely on the life and carreer of Nelson.

Any more? I need some films to show around here.

There is another American sailor down here with a boat cat that lost his eye in a fight. The locals call the cat Captain Ron.

Billy Budd
Moby Dick

If it’s ever made into a movie, I’ll be in line to watch Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken. What an awesome story of survival that only starts with floating for weeks across the Pacific in a three-man life raft into Japanese-held islands in the Western Pacific, and then moves to Japanese POW camps in WW II.

Does Open Water count? It’s a hard movie to watch, but a good one.

Just saw the new Tom Hanks film ” Captain Phillips” very good!

@CWOTUS Me, too!!!

I dig The Perfect Storm, too.

Joe vs. the Volcano
Jaws
The Sea Hawk
Titanic (sue me)
The Pirate Movie

Man, Open Water and The Perfect Storm are a couple of my least favourite films – I don’t want to leave spoilers, but they suffer from exactly the same problem (which has nothing to do with them being about ocean voyages).

@Pachyderm_In_The_Room Not Lifeboat? ;)

The Enemy Below.

The Hunt for Red October

@Rarebear Read your posting as ” The ENEMA below”...that damn vitamin in the Colon sharing a week or so ago has really effected me. Make it stop! lol

correction: AFFECTED

“Das Boot” by far.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iMWb8nEOG4

And while I expected it to be a hit and more of the stories to come, I loved Master and Commander. ”..the lesser two weevles”

Sure, @glacial, certainly Lifeboat, and Life of Pi too—but notice I said “two” of my favorites in my original comment because this is the kind of question that I’m never able to answer definitively the first time. ;-) I also love Caine Mutiny and the original 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (goofy today but great fun watching when I was a kid. Tonight I’m going to see Redford’s All Is Lost, and I’m sure that will be another fave.

@Pachyderm_In_The_Room Caine Mutiny was such a great film – and Bogart’s performance was brilliant. However, I don’t think I could see it again… I had such pity for his character, it was difficult to watch. I think re-watchability is an important part of what makes a “favourite” for me.

I hadn’t heard of All is Lost – I’ll have to check that out. :)

Does ‘Voyage of the Dawn Treader’ count?

Carry On Cruising…not!

Open Water? Really? I mean…really? Horrible, pointless, boring movie.

I like all of the Pirates of the Caribbean films. Cast Away is another favorite of mine. Oh, and Titanic. I’m a 90’s kid, after all.

I’m going to say Point Break.
It begins & ends in the sea, they’re surfers & even the title points, hahahahahahahaha, to the sea.

Alien actually.

@MadMadMax:

Das Boot was incredible.

Thinking of it’s punchline is giving me chills right now.

(its)

The ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ films were all the same movie, as I recall it. Just like all of the ‘Lord of the Rings’ movies were….

“Please be over now…..PLEASE be over now….........OK, OK…...NOW…...

^ Blasphemer!

It’s Johnny Depp…as if the plot needs to be a masterpiece.

@OneBadApple I swear I tried to watch (which one, the second one? Think I could tell the difference?) three times, and fell asleep each time. And I like Johnny Depp. Awful films.

@glacial Not to worry about falling asleep. The second one ended exactly like the first one. And also the third one….

@glacial I think I would’ve given up after the first time falling asleep during a movie. It’s never happened to me though – I turn it off if I’m that bored.

I’ve always liked and admired Johnny Depp in pretty much everything he is in, and to me he is one of the few reasons to hang around until the end of any of the ‘Pirates’ franchise movies…..so far…

His likeness is in the Mme. Tussaud’s wax museum in Vegas. It is so realistic that you think he might breathe or blink at any moment. My wife completely agrees with me on that…and she rarely agrees with me on anything….

Does Jaws count? Because I really like that series, all four movies. Granted the first one is probably the most intelligent one, at least as far as killer shark movies go, but I find that the other three have their charm. And it’s funny in number four, how the shark travels halfway across the globe just to catch up to the family.

And lol, roaring shark.

And this part is probably the funniest one ever…big shark comes after the guy, and that’s his reaction? Oh shit? If that was me, I’d be like, nooooooooooooooooooooo haha.

…........There’s a “number four” ??

…aye. It’s dumb enough to be funny, yet since the tried real hard, there’s lots of good special effects. But by then, the story is completely bonkers. In fact I don’t quite recall, but that one movie ignores most of the others.

I guess not every Johnny Depp movie can be Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas.

(sigh).

@SecondHandStoke Not a pirates fan, are ye? Aaar. erm

In the late 80s I worked for an engineering company in Orlando which designed and installed the ‘Jaws’ ride at Universal Studios. The design guys walked me through the huge pits before there was water in them, and described what “gag” (as they are called) was going to occur at each location. It all sounded so AWESOME.

The park has its Grand Opening in July 1990 and almost no ride works correctly. Very embarrassing, especially since they invited all of these celebrities and national press for the opening.

Six months later, our company folds and I am out on my ass in the street.

Anyway, that’s my ‘Jaws’ story…

…damn. That blows. :( My guess is you might not be a fan of the movies then. So this was a park with a bunch of rides and one was a Jaws one, or a whole Jaws themed park?

Oh no, they have many rides, some others on which our little company worked, including ‘King Kong’, ‘Earthquake’, both of which are closed and replaced now. I think that ‘Jaws’ has also gone to that motion-ride graveyard in the sky. Universal Studios is doing massively well now. Night and day beyond that pathetic opening.

It was kind of fun while it lasted.

A huge flatbed tractor-trailer arrives in our parking lot.

Driver: “Hey, where do you want this ?”
Me: “What do you got ?”
Driver: “Uhhhh…..let’s see….....King Kong arms…”

lol I looked it up real quick, seems that in 2001 they had another Jaws ride up, but they closed it permanently to make room for the Harry Potter theme. bah

Hey! The Harry Potter theme area is bitchin’!

Huge replica of Hogwarts castle and everything. My son’s first roller coaster was there, too. Flight of the Hippogriff.

Next time I go, I’m totally getting a custom wand at Ollivander’s

Island of the Blue Dolphins

^ LOVE THAT BOOK!

Did they make that into a movie? How did I miss that?

@Seek_Kolinahr Looks like it’s on YouTube if you have the patience to watch it in 10-minute pieces. :)

Haha. Patience to watch at normal speed, but not on this godawful connection. I’ll look for it in the library system.

That’s really cool, though. I read that book several times when I was a kid.

Perfect Storm.

@glacial, I agree about Bogart’s character. His disintegration IS painful to watch. But the character I’ve grown to like best over the years is Lt. Barney Greenwald, the lawyer. José Ferrer’s performance is so compelling, especially in the last scene when he tosses a glass of champagne into Keefer’s face (Fred MacMurray was a great casting choice).

I saw Ferrer just the other night in his FIRST film, “Joan of Arc.” Great.

Dead Calm.

sam neill, nicole kidman, and billy zane circa 1989? what’s not to like?

Oh, my gosh! How did I forget Life of Pi!

@Blondesjon You get to see a quick flash of Kidman’s tits too, never a bad move.

^ Then you’ll want to see this film

I just might as well.

@ucme

There’s tons of Kidman nekkieness in Eyes Wide Shut before she let her face be knifed on by a doctor or two.

Stanly Kubrick’s skill as a still photographer really shows here. Lots of stunningly beautiful lighting, flawless parallel sets. “Exteriors” of Manhattan are shot on a lot that evokes a strange feeling.

While watching keep in mind that the story’s message is very much up to the viewer’s interpretation.

Get back to us on what you think it is.

@SecondHandStoke I agree she was way better looking back in the day, sexy biatch in Dead Calm. As for Eyes Wide Shut, never seen it, don’t intend to either.

^Interesting.

Why?

There is no why, other than it’s not my cup of tea.

Titanic
Deep Blue Sea
Pirates of the Caribbean

Thank you ALL. My wish list now includes:
The Light at the Edge of the World
The Cruel Sea
Billy Budd
Captain Philips
The Enemy Below
The Life of Pi
The Caine Mutiny
All is Lost
Island of the Blue Dolphins
Dead Calm
Deep Blue Sea (1999 or 2011 version?)

I have never heard of most of these films. IMDB and Wikipedia give exciting synopses for them. I only have a terabyte of storage, so I have to be somewhat discriminating. With over 100 Noir and 600 modern feature films and classics (Zorba, Lawrence of A, ) plus my hardrive back up files, things are getting tight (I saw one feature film the other day, a 1080p, that took up 39 friggin Gigs! That’s obnoxious.).

I’m eagerly awaiting The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle and Unbroken to come out. Thanks again. This has been very helpful. Luuurve.

@Espiritus_Corvus

Deep Blue Sea (1999)

I think I’m going to love the currently showing seafaring film All Is Lost.

‘Deep Blue Sea’ was pretty entertaining.

Samuel L. Jackson had only a small role, but was still gre

@OneBadApple Yeah, I liked it a lot. It wasn’t one of those pointless shark movies. It’s one of my favorites, besides Jaws, of course!

“You’re gonna need a bigger boat….”

Just the other day I watched a YouTube clip, “Top 100 unscripted movie dialogue moments” and it said that Roy Scheider made that up on the spot….

I’m surprised nobody has listed The Poseidon Adventure or Run Silent, Run Deep.

@Yetanotheruser I mentioned Run Silent, Run Deep! Look way up there!

Oh, yeah…wa-a-ay up there!