Sunday, July 1, 2018

MOVIE: "White Squall"

Sunday, July 01, 2018

I have not seen this film, but perhaps I should.   Here is a little snippet from the script, where the skipper of the sloop Albatross is educating his crew about what to expect as they set sail:

SKIPPER:

You know what's out there? Wind and

wave and rain. Endless glassy pools

that'll hold a sailing ship for

weeks and then spit her out into the

eye of the kind of hurricane. A

blow that could knock the bridge off

a battleship. Reefs and rocks and

sandbars that'll tear the belly from

her and enough fog and night to hide

it all.


He spits into the water. The crew sheepishly throw

glances to the horizon.


SKIPPER:

So look out there... and explain to

me why any man in possession of any

sense at all, would take on the sea

with sail?


Skipper turns his gaze back to the boys. There is a fire

in his eyes. Nobody dare answers.


SKIPPER:

Because there's something else out

there. It beckons in the wind and

sings in the shrouds. Voices.

Whispering...


His ear to the wind.


SKIPPER:

They're voices of men. Calling. Men

you don't even know. Men you can't

even imagine. It's a seed, a wish,

that part of you and I that aches to

be alive, that was banished by

everything we've ever been taught or

told. It's a part of us that can

only be found on mountain tops and

deserts, in the deepest caverns,

smoking battle fields and... across

oceans.


He turns back to the sea, dark.


SKIPPER:

Out there, is where it all waits.


OLDER CHUCK (Voice Over)

He was everything I had expected,

part Ahab part Queeg and even Bligh.

He spoke in whispers and answered

all queries with efficiency and

directness. He had gone to sea for

the first time at fifteen, the same

age as Bill Butler. And as he

looked upon us that first day it

must have been as though he were

staring into a mirror.


Skipper manages a sobering look and climbs on top of the

chart house. He pats a small brass sign that is welded to

the main mast and reads the inscription.


SKIPPER:

(reading)

"Where we go one, we go all."


P-B

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