What is the worst movie about sailing ever?

GreenLight · Oct 14, 2010

Not the worst movie by a long shot... I have not been able to find a video of Twilight for the Gods (1958) based on the (outstanding) book by Earnest K Gann.

Allegedly the boat featured in the film and owned by Mr Gann, eventually became the actual school ship Albatross that was the subject of "White Squall."

If anyone comes across a video version please let me know.

HukilauMike · Oct 15, 2010

GreenLight said:
Not the worst movie by a long shot... I have not been able to find a video of Twilight for the Gods (1958) based on the (outstanding) book by Earnest K Gann.

Allegedly the boat featured in the film and owned by Mr Gann, eventually became the actual school ship Albatross that was the subject of "White Squall."

If anyone comes across a video version please let me know.

I had no idea Twilight had been made into a film. I really loved that book too. Now I have to find the movie as well.

Cpt. Jon · Oct 15, 2010

HukilauMike said:
I just remembered that Adam Sandler's character in 50 First Dates was restoring a sailboat to take to the arctic. There are some early scenes with him sailing disasterously, but later in the film, the now-beautifully restored boat has been sailed to some stunning scenery in Alaska.

I really like that movie...

DianaOfBurlington · Oct 18, 2010

I happened to have liked 'Wind' a lot since at least it had something to do with sailing. The discussions about aircraft and sailboat design having similarities and yet differences were spot-on. The political machinations that go on behind the scenes in AC racing were, if exaggerated, at least believable.

(For a Matthew Modine film in which everything was unreasonably exaggerated, way more than in 'Wind', see 'Memphis Belle'.)

I liked Grey's character being a mathematician/sailmaker and the detail given to her role as a developer of both strategy and design (and I liked her much better before the nose job too).

The scenes of the dinghy racing were priceless (and NOT exaggerated in speed like so many sailing scenes are!).

And the 'Geronimo' chanting at Perth was WAY cool; the t-shirts were cool, the face paint was cool, not out-of-place at all among AC racing of the pre-Aussie period and an enthusiasm sorely lacking in much of modern racing.

Lastly the Aussies would not have insisted the 'whomper' be DSQ'ed since at the start of the final race both skippers agreed to hang the rules and just race boat-for-boat. I find a lot of merit in that today and would advocate a more Corinthian AC series in which mainly local amateur crews 'run what they brung'. It would replace sponsorship and computer-engineered monstrosities with fun, good sportsmanship and seaworthy, good-looking boats.

I also happen to like 'Dove' and lament that it has not been available on DVD.

Freedom77 · Oct 18, 2010

In response to the Aussies giving a by to the Yanks. Class rules would prevail no matter what the parties agreed to. It was a nice touch in the film though. I agree that the Corinthian spirit is deaddd in most sports. Look at the Olympics. Dinghies were Austrailian 18 footers. It's amazing how much sail they can hoist on such a small hull. I got to crew on one once, much younger then. What a rush. If you'd like to see a great film contact Australian Embassy and request film, Australian 18 footers" We showed it our YC a number of times. Don't know if it is on DVD. Bigggest hazard sailing them in Sydney is the Great White!

Fair Winds...

druid · Oct 18, 2010

I watch Wind for the dinghy sailing part and the tacking duel at the end - I thought they captured the excitement of a race where the competitors are going under 50mph.

I liked Cap'n Ron. I loved the line about "Good News! We must be close to <destination>. I calculated we'd have just enough fuel to make it... and we've just run out of fuel!!"

The worst in my book was Dead Calm. The scene where the guy was trapped in the old schooner as it filled with water. With the interior COMPLETELY filled, he goes out the bottom... and the boat's still floating! (iirc with water actually coming OUT the deck...). Then there's the heartwarming scene where his lady grabs him off his sinking raft... nice MOB procedure, lady!

There was a movie supposedly in the Carribean where they're pulling a guy off a dinghy in a "storm" and the buckets of water thrown on them is pretty obvious, and the waves are about 6" high...

druid

Joe · Oct 19, 2010

Freedom77 said:
In response to the Aussies giving a by to the Yanks. Class rules would prevail no matter what the parties agreed to. It was a nice touch in the film though. I agree that the Corinthian spirit is deaddd in most sports. Look at the Olympics. Dinghies were Austrailian 18 footers. It's amazing how much sail they can hoist on such a small hull. I got to crew on one once, much younger then. What a rush. If you'd like to see a great film contact Australian Embassy and request film, Australian 18 footers" We showed it our YC a number of times. Don't know if it is on DVD. Bigggest hazard sailing them in Sydney is the Great White! Fair Winds...

Although I love the Aussie 18 foot skiffs... they are not an Olyimpic class. The 49er, a 16 foot high perfomance skiff has a crew of two. The current version of the Aussie 18 footer features a three man crew. It is my understanding that the same guy (Braithwaite?) designed both boats... with the 49er based on the well established 18 footer and specially designed to be added during the Sydney Olympics.(or was it Athens? hmm.)

There's a lot of cool stuff on the internet if you're interested... YouTube etc. I posted a number of links a month or two back.. search archives here or google for it youself.

By the way, "class rules" in AC racing is, or has been, very flexible.... they are designed to permit new technology and innovation. For instance, many believe the reason we lost the cup to the australians in the first place was their innovative winged keel/bulb design. If you recall it was kept underwraps at all times when the boat was out of the water and wasn't displayed to the public until afterwards. Hell, even the most recent AC match pitted a trimarran with a fixed, or solid, wing against a catamaran with traditional sails.... so the "whomper" was a perfectly logical interpretation of the AC spirit.

Scott T-Bird · Oct 19, 2010

All the technical detail aside ... what a great scene when the Aussies look back and see that giant Geronimo face bearing down on them! It's too bad that they ruined the scene by pulling some BS maneuver to rip the sail. But the tacking duel soon made up for it! (I guess they had to make the Aussies the villians somehow and they also had to find some way to make it clear that the whomper would have overcome the Aussies lead, yet they needed to end with a tacking duel ... so, what would have been a better solution to the problem from a cinamagraphic standpoint?)

BTW, I thought the ending scene with everybody celebrating at the dock was great. I think they pulled it off just right.

Sailm8 · Oct 19, 2010

Loved the music in Wind and paid a fortune for the rare cd. Many of the cuts are unfinished.

Joe · Oct 19, 2010

RECESS said:
Watched Captain Horatio Hornblower with Gregory Peck while on a four day sabbatical with the family in the land yacht on St. George Island. Master and Commander is still my favorite but that one Hurrrr hurrrrr hurrrr-ump gets a close second place. I love it he screwed up and gave the Spanish ship to the lunatic.

That first segment of the movie, "Beat to Quarters" is the first book written in the series.. and still my favorite. In the middle segment, where he sacrifices his ship and is captured by the French is called "Ship of the Line" and the final segment, where he and Bush escape through France, find the rest of his crew, steal a lugger and escape to england where he is reunited with Lady Barbara is "Flying Colors"..

The Hornblower movie stays very close to the storyline... perhaps because CS Forester was still alive and probably wrote the screenplay. "Master and Commander" however, is supposed to be influence by two of Patrick O'Brian's books... M&C (the first book of the series where Aubrey gets his promotion to command) and "Far Side of the World" where he embarks on an assignment to the west coast of South America.... There is very little in the movie that relates to any of these two books. Rather, it is a culmination of insights into the saga...... so, storyline aside..... the movie stays true to the spirit of the books, concentrating on relationships, etc. and that makes it a great movie, IMHO.

Freedom77 · Oct 20, 2010

For those who are interested, the ship that was used in Master and Commander is moored in San Diego next to the Star of India and a Russian Sub. You can even charter her out. Yeah! Fair winds...

mark_swart · Oct 21, 2010

I think the absolute worst was a movie called "Visitors" -- about an Australian woman sailing around the world alone on something that looked like a Jeaneau or Beneteau 37. She gets becalmed, thinks she's seeing the ghost of her dead mom, talks to her cat (and the cat talks back), and I'm pretty sure she hallucinates setting the boat on fire. All kinds of crazy crap. Awful Awful Awful!! I'd watch Wind for a day straight before I suffered through Visitors again!!
And although I think most of us are overwhelmingly on the same page, I think if Captain Ron and Summer Rental don't make you want to sail, then nothing will!! I even like the "lost" Buffet song at the end of Summer Rental!

mark_swart · Oct 21, 2010

Gail R said:
You all have forgotten What About Bob? Bob the patient crashes on his shrink's vacationing family at their lake house. The kids tie him to the mast and get under way and he's out on the lake screaming "I'm sailing, I'm sailing!"

Bob Wiley: Isn't this a breakthrough, that I'm a sailor? I sail? I sail now?
Dr. Leo Marvin: Keep sailing, Bob!

That was actually filmed on Smith Mountain Lake in Virginia, where I grew up sailing!! The best part of filming was when they blew up the house, they tried to keep it a secret but word got out and the lake was half full of spectator boats watching it go up in flames!

spadaforaj · Oct 21, 2010

Not necessarily sailing - but related - try "The Pirate Movie" done in Australia with a very young Christie McNichole - not only the worst sailing movie ever, but perhaps the absolute worst movie ever. Starts with the classic dream sequence, goes in an out of musical mode and degenerates from there - and yes - the antagonist is "the pirate king"

Freedom77 · Oct 22, 2010

I forgot about Visitors. I never actually got all the way through it because I went out to the garage to hang myself rather than sitting through the rest of it. I'm sure the credits included the LSD supplier. Fair winds...

PotomacDaysailer · Oct 29, 2010

Rented Captains Courageous and Captain Horatio Hornblower (there's a great video rental outfit in DC which has just about everything ever put out on DVD or VHS) the other day after reading this thread. I'd seen Hornblower once a long time ago but never Captains Courageous. I really enjoyed both, particularly the schooner sailing scenes in CC. The special effects in Hornblower were no doubt state-of-the-art in 1951 but after the CGI in Master and Commander, I'm spoiled.

One of the worst movie sequences for anyone who knows anything about sailing was a scene I remember from some low-budget version of Treasure Island. You see the ship "drifting" into the wind with her flags streaming straight aft. I believe I remember a scene with her "sailing" with the sails flat aback, too, but perhaps I am exaggerating the awfulness in hindsight.

For reading in the historical naval fiction genre, Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin IMHO is far and away the best. I am in the process of reading the entire series through for the third time. After O'Brian, I loved Forester's Hornblower and Nordhoff and Hall's Bounty trilogy (btw the Mel Gibson version of Mutiny on the Bounty is my favorite; being male, I particularly applaud the authenticity in depicting the Tahitian women's attire). The others mostly suffer from being too obviously knock-offs of the classics, or overdone with the swashbuckling, or both.

stpabr · Nov 3, 2010

For What It's Worth.....

THERE ARE NO BAD SAILING movies....
Just not enough of them..

Just my 2 Cents..