White Squall (1996)

Teenage boys discover discipline and camaraderie on an ill-fated sailing voyage.

Director:

Ridley Scott

Writers:

Charles Gieg Jr. (book), Felix Sutton (book),

Stars:

Jeff Bridges, Caroline Goodall, John Savage

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Jeff Bridges	...	Captain Christopher 'Skipper' Sheldon
Caroline Goodall	...	Dr. Alice Sheldon
John Savage	...	McCrea, Albatross Crewman / English Teacher
Scott Wolf	...	Charles 'Chuck' Gieg / Narrator
Jeremy Sisto	...	Frank Beaumont
Ryan Phillippe	...	Gil Martin
David Lascher	...	Robert March
Eric Michael Cole	...	Dean Preston
Jason Marsden	...	Shay Jennings, Albatross First Mate
David Selby	...	Francis Beaumont
Julio Oscar Mechoso	...	Girard Pascal, Albatross Cook (as Julio Mechoso)
Zeljko Ivanek	...	Coast Guard Capt. Sanders
Balthazar Getty	...	Tod Johnstone
Ethan Embry	...	Tracy Lapchick
Jordan Clarke	...	Charles Gieg

Storyline

A true story about a group of American teenage boys who crew a school sailing ship to gain experience, discipline, or whatever their parents feel they lack. The voyage is a true adventure for them all but it has its downs as well as ups.

---

Plot Keywords:

sailing | ship | squall | 1960s | storm | 

---

Taglines:

The Adventure Of a Lifetime Turns Into the Ultimate Challenge of Survival!

---

Genres:

Adventure | Drama

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for some sexuality and a traumatic shipwreck

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Danish Spanish

Release Date:

2 February 1996 (USA)

Also Known As:

White Squall - Reißende Strömung

Filming Locations:

Beaufort, South Carolina, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$38,000,000 (estimated)

Gross:

$10,300,000 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Hollywood Pictures, Largo Entertainment, Scott Free Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

129 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Many sailors claimed no line squall existed. The derecho line thunderstorm that struck the USA Eastern Seaboard on 29 June 2012 is the kind of "line squall", that wrecked the actual sailboat on which the plot of the film is based.

---

Goofs

In the scene where the Albatross comes across the Cuban Military Patrol Ship, electronics on the Cuban ship, most notably the Radar System, weren't available in the configuration seen in the early 1960s.

---

Quotes

Chuck: The Albatross wasn't just a ship or a school, it was something that we made, something that's inside of us. That's who you are Skipper, what you gave us you carried us, now let us carry this together. Let us carry this together.

---

Connections

References Dead Poets Society (1989)

---

Soundtracks

"SOMETHIN' ELSE"
Written by Sharon Sheeley & 'Bob Cochran'
Performed by Eddie Cochran
Courtesy of EMI Records
Under license from CEMA Special Markets

User Reviews

could've been corny and preachy but is actually rousing and tough and formidably directed

White Squall is based on a true story; ultimately tragic but also of the 'inspiring' sort we get often at the movies. It could've been the kind of corny 'this is what I learned and now I'm blah blah' kind of storytelling that gets excruciating after a while in Hollywood movies. Apparently, thankfully, Ridley Scott knew this and took on White Squall as a challenge: take a character ensemble, the kind of 'male camaraderie' picture that with a few alterations (i.e. reduce some sexual content) could have been produced in the 50s or 60s with a Burt Lancaster or other as the lead, and make it mostly tough and sentimental only in that rugged John Ford sort of sensibility. He succeeded admirably as his film is what it wants to be, which is surprising considering the "it's Dead Poets Society at sea" criticisms I had read online. It's fairly old-fashioned in some ways, but its presented in all the ways that matter.

What's also impressive is seeing Scott attempt an ensemble based around character and, up until the last quarter of the picture, not really based on plot. He's done other pictures that have been ensembles, in fact a lot of them, but mostly they're wrapped around the story as it unfolds. In White Squall a lot of things happen, and characters come and go and lessons are learned and there are even a few tears, but it's based around character and it's fascinating to see Scott work with this nearly loose structure. Certainly his cast is a big help, as Jeff Bridges makes an equally formidable lead as the Skipper of the Albatross, the ship for a group of young men going for many months out to sea to "become men", or rather take the SATs and become a stronger community on a ship. While we only see snippets of how excellent he can be as an actor throughout until the final agonizing scenes during and after the ship wreck, the rest of the cast holds up just as well (Scott Wolf, Balthazar Getty, Ethan Embry, a really good Jeremy Sisto in an unpredictable 'rich kid' role, and John Savage as the older 'intellectual' type).

It goes without saying sometimes White Squall does run into some hokey or just some territory that is almost put in as an intentional INSPIRATION scene (in caps), like when the boys are at the remote island and run around up the hill to sign that buried book. Yet it's not what doesn't work but what does that makes the film impressive, and it holds up extremely well against its counterparts that don't have a keen eye for the facts in the story as well as making the characters not simply cardboard cut-outs. It's pretty conventional, but in the finest way imaginable, and has a pretty amazing climax out at sea with the title event (maybe not Perfect Storm but without computers all the more impressive).