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White Squall (1996)
Starring Jeff Bridges, Caroline Goodall, Scott Wolf, and Ryan Phillippe. Cinematography by Hugh Johnson and Stephen Smith. Editing by Gerry Hambling. Produced by Rocky Lang and Mimi Polk Gitlin. Written by Todd Robinson. Directed by Ridley Scott.
Christopher Sheldon (played by Jeff Bridges) runs a prep-school for wealthy teenage boys. But Sheldon’s institution isn’t a conventional one; it’s the Albatross, a brigantine ship that acts as a classroom during his eight month session. Sheldon’s feeling is that the discipline learned while working as part of a ship’s crew can turn a troubled boy into a respectable man.
In the spring of 1961 Sheldon and three other instructors shove off with thirteen students to sail to the tip of South America and back. Six of them would never return. After many days of hard lessons, and a few nights of fun, Sheldon and his crew encounter a deadly “white squall” which sinks the Albatross and kills four students and two teachers. Upon his return Sheldon is subjected to an intense investigation that wreaks havoc on his already guilty conscience.
After production on The Hot Zone fell apart, Ridley Scott was eager to get back into the director’s chair. Two options quickly presented themselves. The first was an original 1940’s crime drama by Pete Dexter called Mulholland Falls. The second was an adaptation of Charles Gieg Jr. autobiographical novel The Last Voyage of the Albatross, written by screenwriter Todd Robinson under the name White Squall.
After some consideration, Scott found that he felt more closely attached to the later and eventually secured the White Squall script for production (Mulholland Falls ultimately found a home with filmmaking veteran Lee Tamahori). After hiring the amazing Jeff Bridges and a crew of talented young men, including Scott Wolf, Ryan Phillippe, Jeremy Sisto, and Balthazar Getty, Scott and his production team were off to the Caribbean to shoot his picture.
A “white squall” is defined as a sudden unexpected windstorm in tropical waters resulting in extremely turbulent waters. In effort to effectively capture the ferocity of this destructive weather anomaly, Scott used almost twenty five percent of White Squall’s schedule shooting the film’s title sequence. It is rumored that he even hoped to shoot some of the sequence during a real live sea storm, but had to search for more a controllable environment when no suitable natural conditions presented themselves.
The sinking of the Albatross was eventually staged at the Mediterranean Film Studios on the island of Malta. The aquatic set piece is truly an incredible cinematic experience, but it apparently wasn’t enough to save White Squall from box office obscurity. Despite some decent reviews, White Squall took a financial dive during its short theatrical release. It’s defiantly a good film, and most certainly worth a viewing, but will likely be eventually forgotten in future discussions about the career of the great Ridley Scott.
Budget: $38,000,000
Total US Gross: $10,229,300
Genre: Drama
Runtime: 129 Minutes
US Release Date: 2/2/96
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Awards: none
Tagline: The Strongest Force In Nature Is The Will To Survive.
Quote: “The Albatross wasn't just a ship or a school; it was something that we made, something that's inside of us.”
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