GamerTab That was an excellent one.

VividSimon Simply Perfect

Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Donald Seymour This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

evanston_dad A smashingly entertaining swashbuckler from work horse director Michael Curtiz that reunites him with Errol Flynn in another Robin Hood-esque story, this one set on the high seas. Flynn leads the Sea Hawks, a group of English sailors who disrupt the tyrannical pillaging of Spain, which has designs on the English throne and wants to take over the world. There are a whole bunch of exciting set pieces, high production values, and a healthy dash of wit, and the whole thing moves briskly by to an exciting conclusion.Curtiz's "The Adventures of Robin Hood" from two years prior, also starring Flynn, has cemented itself more firmly with today's audiences as the classic to be remembered, but I thought "The Sea Hawk" was better.Claude Rains stars as the dastardly Spanish ambassador, and Flora Robson has a ball as Queen Elizabeth. A final speech extolling the bravery of the English navy turns the film in its last moments into a bit of WWII propaganda.Nominated for four Academy Awards but winning none: Best Art Direction (Anton Grot), Best Scoring (Erich Wolfgang Korngold), Best Sound Recording (Warner Bros. Studio Sound Department), and Best Special Effects (Byron Haskin and Nathan Levinson).Grade: A

Filipe Neto This film revolves around the Invincible Armada and the attempted Spanish invasion of England during the reign of Elizabeth I. The main character is the daring Captain Thorpe, an English privateer obviously inspired by the historical figure of Sir Francis Drake. It's inevitable to look at this movie and make comparisons with "Captain Blood", a very similar film, which also speaks of piracy and also has Errol Flynn as the protagonist. Most people seem to think that "Sea Hawk" loses when compared to it, and and I agree. Brenda Marshall never establishes a credible chemistry with Flynn, her romantic partner (not to mention that Olivia de Havilland is much superior as an actress) and the plot is not very interesting nor captures public's attention. However, Flora Robson does very well as the English queen and Claude Rains is very well as the Spanish ambassador. The scenes in the sea are good, the ships are beautiful, as well as the scenarios, thought to the detail. Of course, the film has several very good fencing scenes.In summary, this film is a classic swashbuckler movie, full of humour, action and romance. It can be seen by the whole family easily and deserves a friendly place on the shelf of any good movie lover.

Mikel3 I continued revisiting my favorite Errol Flynn movies last night with 'The Seahawk' (1940). The story was good and the acting was excellent. I heard in the DVD's interviews that Mr. Flynn and Flora Robson (Queen Elizabeth) got along very well and liked each other. I believe that shows in their scenes together. It's interesting to note that Flora Robson also did an excellent job playing Elizabeth in 'Fire over England' (1937). According to the commentary, that influenced her getting the part in this film. I do feel the movie would have been even better in Technicolor. What a shame those wonderful sets and costumes could not be seen in their full glory. Yes, I appreciate the art of B/W film too, yet after seeing the glorious colors in 'The Adventures of Don Juan' the other night I was a bit let down seeing this the next night. It used many of the same beautiful sets and props from 'The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex' (1939) another Flynn movie where he plays a man who serves Queen Elizabeth. Only it was Bette Davis that time as the queen. I did once view a colorized version of 'The Seahawk' and I enjoyed that, the technology for colorization was still lacking at that time it was colorized. I would love to see a version where that was done with updated technology. Yes, I know many film lovers are against that, to me it's okay as long as it's made clear it was not the intent of the original creators of the film and the original version is not replaced. The TCM Errol Flynn collection DVD was sharp and crisp. I also enjoyed the extras where the film was discussed by Robert Osborne and others. One film expert said that Erich Wolfgang Korngold had written the best swashbuckler music of all time for this film...after hearing it again...I may just agree with that assessment. The verdict is still out for me. It's a wonderful film all around except for the lack of Technicolor as in 'The Adventures of Robin Hood' and 'The Adventures of Don Juan'.

richard-1787 This movie is so wonderful in so many ways.But, having watched it again for the nth time tonight on TCM, it is still the opening sea battle that most gets my adrenaline going. Everything works. The action. The direction. Very definitely Korngold's masterful score. It is a spell-binding scene.The rest of the movie is wonderful as well, of course. Flynn is magnificent as the swashbuckling, never-too-serious privateer. His duel with Henry Daniell near the end is actually very good, though it still falls short of the superb one between Flynn and Basil Rathbone at the end of Robin Hood.Brenda Marshall is certainly very beautiful, but she doesn't have the personality of Olivia de Havilland.Everything works here. Every actor is perfect. So is the script. And the score. The Star Wars movies come right out of this, but as good as they are, they never get this good.This is truly a masterpiece!