Movies based on true stories — such as 1996’s White Squall — always pique my interest, no matter what the subject matter. I saw this film in the theater back when it was released (I was a big Party of Five fan at the time and loved Scott Wolf), but the details had grown foggy over the years. So when I saw the DVD box propped up in the “Adventure” section at my local video rental place, I figured I’d watch it again just for the heck of it.
Plot summary (with possible spoilers): The film opens with a shot of a teenager playing fetch with his dog in the backyard. A title card tells us that the place is Mystic, CT in the year 1960. We soon learn that the boy’s name is Charles “Chuck” Gieg (played by Wolf), and that he’ll be spending a year away from home to attend something called the Ocean Academy. This is a special program where boys can spend a year at sea working and studying on a boat called the Albatross. It’s the type of program intended to build character and give the boys the experience of a lifetime.
Chuck’s father doesn’t seem to be too enthusiastic about Chuck’s decision to join the Ocean Academy, but Chuck needs to catch a bus in the morning, so it’s a little late for objections. As a compromise, Mr. Gieg orders Chuck to keep a detailed journal of his travels.
Chuck travels to Florida where he meets up with the rest of his shipmates, as well as the adult crew, which includes the captain Christopher Sheldon (Jeff Bridges) and his wife Dr. Alice Sheldon (Caroline Goodall). The crew of boys consists of the typical teenage misfits you’d expect to find in an adventure saga like this one: the rich kid who struggles to fit in; the wisecracking bully who is hiding a secret and actually has a soft spot underneath the gruff exterior; the slightly unstable boy who suffered from a family tragedy and must learn to face his fears before all is said and done, etc.
As the film moves into Act II, we get numerous scenes of the boys at work, at study, and at play, both on the ship and at various ports of call throughout the world. This section of the film also serves to develop several of the characters a bit more, especially Gieg, Captain Sheldon, and the troublesome trio I mentioned above: Frank Beaumont (Jeremy Sisto), Tod Johnstone (Balthazar Getty), and Gil Martin (Ryan Phillippe).
The turning point in the film comes on May 2, 1961 when a white squall, a sudden, violent storm, hits with no warning at all. Captain Sheldon and the boys do everything they can to weather the storm, but in the end their efforts aren’t enough. The ship sinks, taking four crew members down with her, including Sheldon’s wife.
The surviving crew members are rescued the next morning by a passing ship and are able to return safely to the United States. Once there, however, Captain Sheldon must stand trial to determine whether or not he was negligent in the matter.
My Reaction: I remember liking this film when it came out a decade ago, but that probably had more to do with my being a Scott Wolf fan than anything else. This time around, I was able to see how uneven the movie really was and how the story wasn’t told very effectively.
Part of the uneven storytelling had to do with the way the filmmakers didn’t bother to set the audience up for the disaster. Up until the white squall hit, we were given virtually no scenes of Captain Sheldon teaching the boys actual sailing techniques, nor did we see any of the boys at the helm in less than idyllic conditions. So when the storm came up and the Captain was shouting orders, we had no way of knowing if he was negligent or not, which then made the courtroom scenes rather dull.
Contrast this non-setup with the way another disaster movie, Titanic, set up the crucial moment. Prior to any scenes on the actual ship, we got the benefit of an explanation of how the Titanic went down thanks to Bill Paxton’s character right at the beginning of the film. So when the luxury liner hit the iceberg, we knew precisely what was happening and who was to blame.
Besides the shortcomings in storytelling, I thought the characters were a bit too much on the standard-issue side of things. None of them stood out in the film, and I got the feeling that the whole lot of ‘em could have been transported to any other coming-of-age drama with similar results.
Overall, I thought White Squall was just an average film, so I feel compelled to give it an average rating of 5.0 stars out of 10. It definitely had the potential to be better than that, but several missteps along the way sabotaged the end product.