It’s 1961, the world holds its breath as the Cold War takes root. Vietnam is a distant land with no real connection to the USA, and a dozen teenage boys set sail on the Albatross, a school ship crossing the oceans led by a masterful captain played by Jeff Bridges.
For this week’s edition of ‘Globetrotters Month’ find your sea legs and climb aboard White Squall. The wind is fierce so be careful when you are on deck.
The Plot
Chuck Gieg (Scott Wolf) sets out to join the American school ship Albatross. Led by the experienced Captain Christopher Sheldon (Jeff Bridges), Gieg meets a dozen other teenage boys who are looking to find their place in the world through a semester at sea.
It’s 1961 and the world is in a difficult spot. The Cold War is a constant threat, and the boys on the Albatross are all facing an uncertain future after high school. Some were sent to toughen up, while others came to the Albatross for personal growth. They are trained to sail and attend daily classes on board the ship with McCrea (John Savage) and Alice Sheldon (Caroline Goodall) as their teachers.
Gieg makes friends with some of his peers like Gil Martin (Ryan Phillippe) and Tod Johnstone (Balthazar Getty). As the ship crosses the equator and oceans, the boys find their strength and skill and some hope for the future. That faint moment of joy is shattered when a rogue wave capsizes the ship, killing students and adults.
Rescued, the remainder of the crew is brought to Florida where the assembled group of boys are witness to a Coast Guard hearing convened to investigate the disaster. Several students are cross examined about what happened on the day the ship sank, and while Sheldon has offered the excuse that a rogue wave or ‘White Squall’ is what caused the disaster, the Coast Guard prosecutor believes it was Sheldon’s fault.
Sitting through the testimony, Sheldon can only take some much of the interrogation. He interrupts the testimony of one of the students who is trying to take the blame for the accident. Admitting that whatever happened on board is his fault alone, Captain Sheldon turns in his master seaman’s certificate and walks out of the courtroom. Before leaving, the captain and the crew are united by Gieg for one final moment. The future is yet to be written for all who survived.
Cinematic Compliments
Jeff Bridges is fantastic in the role of Christopher Sheldon. He has the swagger and the intensity to play a hardened sailor, but also the range that allows him to jump from the taskmaster to the teacher. The scenes that he shares with Scott Wolf at the wheel are touching, but also show the audience how much of a complicated character Christopher Sheldon is to portray. Bridges shifts his ability after the disaster and remakes the character in the form of a broken man who is barely holding it together as life comes undone in front of him. The silent rage and misery that Bridges gives Sheldon during the court scenes are brilliant.
Ridley Scott knows how to make an epic film and White Squall has all the trademarks of a Scott blockbuster. From shooting at sea with real camera work as the boys learn to sail, to the landscape views that fill the screen with the beautiful blue water, viewers are in for a visual treat.
Cinematic Complaints
The film shows a significant tone change in various parts of the movie that seem disjointed. I believe the movie should have started out with the courtroom scene where we know that a disaster has happened, and as each member testifies flashbacks could have shown how each person came to be at this disaster. I would have rather seen Chuck Gieg begin the movie testifying than at his home getting ready to meet the Albatross.
The film is one linear story which is okay, but by the time we get to the investigation the courtroom drama feels anticlimactic. There is nothing worse that could happen to Sheldon, or to the families of the boys who died on the ship. No verdict will ever take the pain away from the victims.
The movie also fails to explain why the boys are on the ship. Gieg often states throughout the film that the boys are there to toughen up and that their parents sent them to learn how to be men. That statement doesn’t match with the opening scene of Gieg at home. His father questions the need for him to join the Albatross and states that the school credits he will receive from the program are not recognized by colleges. It’s Gieg who wants to join the Albatross. Other than Jeremy Sisto’s Frank Beaumont we see no dynamic of the kids with their families and lose out on understanding why these boys are there in the first place.
Fun Film Facts
- The real Tod Johnstone has a small part in the film playing his father.
- While the ‘White Squall’ or line squall has been a controversial weather phenomenon, an actual line squall struck the East Coast of the United States in June 2012.
- While the average age of the boys on the ship was supposed to be in their mid-teens, Scott Wolf was 27 playing the 15-year-old Chuck Geig.
- The real Chuck Geig and Tod Johnstone would go on to serve in Vietnam only a few years after the Albatross disaster. They would return home safely.
- The total death toll from the real incident was six fatalities, four of them being students with two adults killed.
- Ridley Scott would have a double connection to the Getty family starting with White Squall. Scott would direct 2017’s All the Money in the World about the kidnapping of John Paul Getty III, father of White Squall star Balthazar Getty.
- While much of the film was shot on the open ocean, the storm scenes were filmed in Malta in a giant water tank.
- The real Captain Sheldon stated that it was the suddenness of the storm that capsized the boat. An analysis of the Albatross suggests the boat was top heavy which affected the stability of the boat. The movie White Squall only focuses on the storm as the cause of the sinking.
- The real Christopher Sheldon would go on to work for the Peace Corps in Latin America. He would die of pancreatic cancer on October 5, 2002.
- Chuck Gieg would write an account of his time on the Albatross titled The Last Voyage of the Albatross.
- Gieg was also a member of the film’s production as the movie is based on his book.
The Golden Popcorn Bucket Award
I remember going to see this movie in the theaters in 1996 and the cinematography was as wonderful then as it is now. You can’t help but get caught up in the wonder of sailing around the Caribbean in 1961. When I left the theater, it was a bit of a letdown because the trailer on television didn’t accurately represent the film.
When Alice Sheldon dies, that scene is powerful because of the facial expressions of Bridges and Caroline Goodall. That was the most horrific moment of the sinking for me when I saw the movie in the theatres in 1996, and still is. While Bridges and Goodall are powerhouse, it was and still is hard to connect with the true horror of the sinking when you struggle to remember the names of most of the boys who died on the ship.
White Squall gets a 2 Golden Popcorn Bucket rating. The imagery is fantastic, Jeff Bridges is perfect in the role of Christopher Sheldon, but the execution of the story lacks any real punch for the viewers to feel anything remotely what we should be feeling by the credits.
Coming Attractions
Next week, ‘Globetrotters Month’ takes a most unusual trip that brings us beyond the confines of Earth. We hop aboard The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Production Credits
Directed by Ridley Scott
Produced by Hollywood Pictures/Scott Free Productions
Starring:
- Jeff Bridges as Christopher Sheldon
- Caroline Goodall as Dr. Alice Sheldon
- Scott Wolf as Chuck Gieg
- John Savage as McCrea
- Jeremy Sisto as Frank Beaumont
- Ryan Phillippe as Gil Martin
- Balthazar Getty as Tod Johnstone
Release Date: February 2, 1996
Budget: $38 million
Box Office Gross
Domestic: $10,292,300