• the217
• Movies + TV
• White Squall

Related Media

Long before American Gangster and Gladiator, Ridley Scott’s White Squall was mostly overlooked and dismissed by critics and filmgoers in 1996 when it was first released. Like many hidden gems, White Squall is a thoughtful adventure film that deserves a second viewing for its strong ensemble of performances and Scott’s visual expressiveness of sea vistas that matches that of the Oscar nominated Master and Commander: the Far Side of the World.

Based on a true story of the Ocean Academy, a south Florida based shipboard school for maritime and secondary academic subjects, White Squall concerns the last voyage of the Albatross—a large windjammer, where a dozen high school boys and their crew bond and learn life lessons that no regular school can match.

Jeff Bridges plays Skipper Christopher Sheldon, the boys’ captain, guide to lessons of manhood, and all around father figure. In his opening scene he comes off as strong disciplinarian who declares, “This ship beneath you is not a toy—and sailing’s not a game…Nothing happens on this ship that I don’t know about. She speaks to me in the night; so don’t test me. Not even a little.” With this speech, the mood Scott creates is one reminiscent of a Hemingway adventure on the high seas.

Bridges’ soft-spoken, calm demeanor and strength is the core of a wonderful ensemble cast, which Scott guides almost effortlessly through this dramatic and at times thrilling film. Scott’s cast of mostly young men includes standout performances by Scott Wolf, as the introspective narrator Chuck Gieg; Ryan Phillippe, as the acrophobic Gil Martin; Eric Michael Cole as reluctant Dean Preston and the older John Savage, as the salty Mr. McCrea, the crews’ English teacher, who recites wisdom of the sea from Shakespeare and John Donne.

Awkwardly and wrongly referred to by some critics as “Dead Poets’ Society Goes to Sea”, White Squall contains a purposefully slow paced episodic exposition in the film’s initial hour. Todd Robinson’s screenplay, which was adapted from Charles Gieg Jr.’s The Last Voyage of the Albatross focuses on the dynamics of male bonding, conflicts over ship’s chores, fixing riggings, climbing masts and the joys of swimming with dolphins and visiting ports of call for more sensual pleasures.

The film’s most riveting highlights come later in the story concerning the controversial decisions made during a sea storm’s white squall, which capsizes the ship and kills a handful of the crew. Shot in the Atlantic Ocean near Granada, and South Africa’s cape, cinematographer Hugh Johnson captures the vivid naturalistic compositional conflict of a sea storm’s chaos. Waves of water slam the ship as the young men scramble to prevent the ship’s demise, with not a hint of computer generated manipulations like Peter Weir’s Master and Commander: the Far Side of the World.

Like several of Scott’s other underappreciated films, which suffered on initial release, Blade Runner and Someone to Watch Over Me, White Squall is a film with many fine aspects that will linger in your memories.

White Squall is available on Buena Vista Home Entertainment DVD.