Plot: What’s it about?
Director Ridley Scott doesn’t make many bad films, in my opinion. The man behind such classics as “Alien”, “Blade Runner” and “Thelma & Loiuse” took great pride in making this real-life story about the Albatross.White Squall is the true story of 12 boys, all of whom have chosen to forego their Senior year of high school, to live on a boat known as the Albatross. It was no picnic, they had to study, take the SAT’s, had chores and were all living in very tight quarters, but they bonded and learned to work together and ultimately had the time of their lives. The stroy follows real-life capain and master seaman, Christopher Sheldon (Jeff Bridges, in one of his better roles). Sheldon is a “tough but fair” captain, who constantly challenges the young crew and encourages them to push their limits, to see what they are capable of. “We’re only as strong as our weakest link” he says to another crew member “…and I don’t want to find that out the hard way”. While his methods seem a bit controversial to some of the boys parents, they have been proven to “work” and upon completion of the voyage, they emerge a crew, rather than the spolied rich kids that they were when the trip began. While the boat contains a crew of 12, plus the first mate, Sheldon and his wife and two other deck hands, the story really only follows a few of the boys. Chuck Gee (Scott Wolf), a resident of Mystic, Connecticut has decided to take his last year of school and board the Albatross, he is insecure about himself and feels that he always has to try and break out of the shadow of his older brother. Gil Martin (Ryan Phillippe), in my opinion, has a bit of a death wish. One of the first things out of his mouth to Chuck is the story of how his older brother died. He says all of this while grasping the only picture of his brother. Dean Preston (Eric Michael Cole), the resident “bully” who is always looking for a fight, especially when someone calls him “stupid”. Lastly, Frank Beaumont (Jeremy Sisto), Frank has one of those fathers that has always told his son what to do, where to do to it and how. Frank is starting to have some real problems with this, and it doesn’t help that his parents show up unexpectedly at ports to “check up” on their son…after all, it makes fitting in with the crew that much harder. I don’t think that I’m giving away anything when I say that the climax of the movie is the White Squall. The mother of all sea storms. By this point in the movie, Frank has been kicked off the ship for shooting a dolphin, the trip is more than halfway over and they’re heading back towards home. By this time, the crew has become a close-knit team, they have helped each other through thick and thin, received their SAT scores and know that college (and being at home again) is looming. They don’t want it to end. The White Squall changes all that. White Squall is another gem in Ridley Scott’s crown, as this was a lot less commercial than some of his other films, it’s no less as terrific. Jeff Bridges turns in another fine performance and it’s nice to see a movie set back in the early 60’s when the world seemed a lot less complicated. Of course, I say that but in the course of the movie, they touch on subjects such as the Cuban Missle Crisis, Bay of Pigs and witness Alan Shepard’s space launch. If you havnen’t seen White Squall, I’d give it a look. It’s a very overlooked movie, has a great cast and enough action to keep you intrigued for over 2 hours.
Video: How does it look?
Released back in the day when Disney wasn’t even condisering doing 16:9 transfers, and not a whole lot has really changed since then. Still the 2.35:1 image is very clean, and the daytime shots of the ocean look very, very sharp. I saw a few points of artifacting, but nothing too bad. To me, the film looked as good as any other non-anamporphic transfer, but it got knocked down a few points for a few scenes that I felt could have been better.
Audio: How does it sound?
The audio is a different story, the White Squall sequence alone will have your subwoofer and any other element that has bass attached to it, working overtime. Waves crashing, sails flapping and that little sound that ropes make when tension is applied are all sounds that you’ll hear in the rear surrounds. Dialogue is clear and has no distortion at all. And there’s even a few songs that sound good coming through all 5.1 channels. A nice job of sound, here.
Supplements: What are the extras?
Disney comes up short again, a trailer is included and a 5 minute featurette are included. I have to admit that the featurette was interesting, but just when I was starting to get into it, it ended. I can’t tell you how interesting a Ridley Scott commentary would be. Guess I’ll have to listen to the ones on Thelma & Louise and Alien…Still, this movie is worth watching.
