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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