There is something about a great performance that can even elevate above the film itself: films like Madonna’s W.E., Lars Von Trier’s Antichrist, Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi, Tony Richardson’s Blue Sky; all have defects as films go but do have a central performance that is worthy of accolades and in the case of lead actor Jeff Bridges in Ridley Scott’s White Squall, this case is no exception. The story itself (based on a true story) takes place in 1961. A group of impressionable young boys all apply for a school sailing trip on the SS Albatross under the command of Jeff Bridges’ ship captain Dr Sheldon or ‘Skipper’ as he is referred to by his crew. He is fiercely tough and strict but does bond with them over time as they do to him. The young lads project on their voyage, their own personal issues and insecurities that originally stem from their home life on land – one lad in particular comes from a upper-class family whose parents don’t want him to follow his own example and instead has him secretly under their watchful eye wherever they sail to.
One lad deals with the loss of his brother and to top it off has agoraphobia, one scene in particular has Skipper ordering him to climb at the top of the mast to get over his fear. These scenes like that are clearly there to set up character development and introduce the audience to identify with these characters through use of tropes, the rebellious James Dean type lad who acts tough but opens up later on about his illiteracy, the lad with the troubled past and has to show his worth, the lad who is bound to a rich and dominating family but wants to break away from all of that, the lad who acts as the sympathetic ear to the rest of them; all of which is basically tickboxing. I said before that the lead performance can top everything else about a production and with Jeff Bridges it’s true.
His performance as skipper is confident, charming, tough, charismatic and dominates the scenes that he is in, I just love watching him on screen and it’s easy to see why the his entire crew would back him all the way; his performance is the film’s strongest element. When the inevitable tragedy occurs later in the film involving ‘The White Squall’, a tidal wave of incredible size, inevitably hits the crew, they all fight to survive within a boat that threatens to capsize. This sequence itself is incredibly well done and is very tense. The survivors make it to land and the film ends with a court scene that puts Skipper on trial. At this point the film becomes more melodramatic and contrived as the scene plays out, trying to balance subtlety and contrivance all at the same time, whilst telling the story and so it comes out a mixed bag.
The film overall struggles to find a consistent tone to tell this tragic story and really the events themselves probably deserved a more subtle approach, but Jeff Bridges and even the young cast give it their all. Worth seeing it just for their performances and the sequence with the White Squall which is tense and well-done but really not a complete success.
3/5
Filmlife 