BlazeLime Strong and Moving!

Micitype Pretty Good

FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Staci Frederick Blistering performances.

clanciai The novel is all realism with no real plot and drama of an almost documentary character, while the film is more like the stuff of Jack London, Wolf-Larsen, Nordhoff & Hall and Kipling's "Captains Courageous". The most important feature of the book is also in the film, though: the humanity on board in spite of all the hard knuckles of inhumanity.Richard H. Dana is in the film on board the ship all the same, and his part is no less interesting than in the book but taken from another angle, which makes his part even more interesting. He is the only one to enlist on the "Pilgrim" voluntarily while many of the others are shanghaied, and he volunteers for a very specific purpose.Howard Da Silva plays expertly the part of the cruelly insensitive captain provoking a mutiny at any cost, it would seem, sacrificing sailors' lives for the sake of sailing records, William Bendix is always fascinating and raises every film some points, but here he is the brutal first mate with a double edge. Brian Donleavy is Dana and perfect together with Alan Ladd, who makes the main character and a very interesting one. To all this comes Victor Young's irresistible music, always golden, and the splendid thorough hands-on realism all the way, with fascinating insights into life on board. Barry Fitzgerald is the cook, directly out of "Wolf-Larsen" it would seem, and supplies a portion humour and lyricism. There are even some ladies, more prominent and attractive than in the book. The scurvy problem, which is not in the book, brings the drama.

Robert J. Maxwell It's been years since I read the book but as I remember it there was no Allan Ladd figure in it, a ne'er do well who is shanghaied aboard the cargo ship Pilgrim. There was just Richard Henry Dana who had dropped out of Harvard because of faulty vision and signed aboard because he thought it might help clear his sight. He didn't go back to college but he left an enduring and compelling account of his trip in the 1840s from Boston to the California coast, and his return aboard the Alert.The record wasn't only accurate. It was colorful and even lyrical. Herman Melville acknowledged it as an inspiration for Moby Dick. It's an amazingly evocative narrative. Dana Point in southern California is named after him. He and his mates stood atop the cliffs and flung cow hides down to the sailors below, to be loaded aboard the ship.California at the time was a province of Mexico, and places like San Francisco ("Yerba Buena") and Los Angeles were villages surrounded by large Spanish land grants and ranches. Dana was a humanitarian and, coming from New England, an anti-slavery activist. His purpose was to leave an accurate record of the life of sailors aboard American ships, documenting their characters and their mistreatment.That's about what I remember from the book. The 1946 movie with Allan Ladd seems to owe a good deal to Jack London's "Sea Wolf", the story of a wealthy young shipwreck survivor picked up by a ship and coerced into working as a members of the crew by a captain who was a madman. This skipper, Howard Da Silva, isn't nuts but insists the men carry out his wishes as if they were the word of God. Maybe Captain Bligh was the inspiration here.Life on the Pilgram is a rough life. Ladd is assigned the most menial of duties on the deck force while a very young stowaway is appointed cook's helper. In terms of working hours, cooks have one of the roughest jobs of all. They don't strain their muscles, as we had to on the deck force of a Coast Guard cutter, USCGC Gresham, but they have to get up before any of the rest of the crew and start preparing breakfast. And they don't stop working until they've finished cleaning up after the last meal of the day, hours after the day workers have stopped. The deck force is no picnic either. Everyone on my ship knew the story (possibly "fake news") of the boatswain's mate on a neighboring ship who slapped a seaman across the face and gave him a bloody nose, then made him get on his knees and holystone the blood off the wooden deck. The Chief BM on the Gresham went no farther than raising fist over me and threatening to belt me. Oh, it was rough duty. The blond young Swedish maids helped ease the pain.Where was I? Yes, no sea duty today compares to what these guys go through -- twenty lashes for looking cross-eye at an officer, and so forth. What's always puzzled me is, if they're going to administer lashes, why do they always rip the shirt down his back? Why not ask him to take it off? Brian Donlevy plays Richard Henry Dana, writing the book in his spare time. The book, as I say, was a literary gem. Dana captured the experience of working on a sailing ship, including the floggings and the scurvy. (Viz: "Limeys.") Beyond that he gave us treats on landfalls, storms, and ice bergs. Da Silva is the uncompromising and humorless captain. William Bendix is the brutal First Mate Amazeen who gets to belt Ladd on the face. If the producers needed someone to beat hell out of Ladd, more than once it was Bendix. The two men were friends, despite a temporary falling out over Ladd's lack of interest in enlisting during the war.In Pernambuco, the Pilgrim acquires a passenger -- a beautiful young woman, what else? Compare this to The Sea Wolf, which also picks up a pretty young girl and Jack London's prose turns to mush. Actually, here, Esther Fernández as the requisite romantic role, is quite attractive and gives a respectable performance. Her career flourished in her native Mexico.I don't think I'll give away the ending except to say there is a violent clash, some deaths, and a victory of sorts. You'll probably enjoy the move. It's aglow with resentment and tension.

robertguttman This is a pretty fair movie about the mistreatment of seamen during the early 19th Century. However, it bears almost no resemblance to "Two Years Before the Mast". For a start, the credits say that the film is "based upon the novel by Richard Henry Dana". That, alone, is a pretty clear indication that nobody involved in the production of the movie had ever read the book because it was definitely NOT a novel. Dana was a college student at Harvard who took a sabbatical to ship out on a vessel belonging to the father of a friend of his in order to regain his health. The book was an account of his experiences, and it was NOT a work of fiction. There was no mutiny nor was anybody on board murdered. As a matter of fact, Dana did not even return on the ship started out on but on another ship that was homeward-bound, because the ship he sailed over on remained in California. Dana returned to Harvard, where he completed his studies and became a lawyer. During the course of his career he not only became an outspoken advocate not only for the rights of seamen, but for freedmen and fugitive slaves as well. For the benefit of those who may wonder about the peculiar title, the term "before the mast" is an old term used on merchant ships to denotes sailing as a member of the crew, rather than as an officer or a passenger. The officers and passengers lived aft, in cabins. The crew lived up forward , not in cabins but in a single compartment that was originally called the "fore castle", but which was generally shortened to "focs'l". The "focs'l" was located at the forward end of the ship, forward of the masts, so that to sail "before the mast" was to be a seaman. Incidentally, although modern seamen live in individual staterooms, to this day many still refer to their stateroom as their "focs'l". Of course, none of the above applied to Navy ships, in which the officers lived in a "wardroom" and where there was no such thing as a "focs'l". As a swashbuckling adventure movie "Two Years Before the Mast" compares favorably with others of that genre. However, those interested in the contents of Dana's book would be recommended not to take anything from this movie as representative of it.

dougdoepke In the 1830's, the foppish son of a ship owner is shanghaied aboard his father's ship where he experiences the harsh realities of a brutal captain.Leonard Maltin gives the movie a 1 & ½ out of 4. Shame on him. Sure, the film is no Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), and the script could be sharper. But, it's still a riveting shipboard drama, thanks to a fine cast, a good story, and a strong moral lesson. In the movie's pivotal role, Ladd transitions from a spoiled fop to a man among men in convincing fashion. The actor was never one to emote; at the same time, his low-key manner blends in well with the macho crew. And a heckuva crew it is—such forceful types as Dekker, Bendix, Donlevy, and, of course, a fearsome Howard DaSilva as the brutal captain. Mix and stir and you've got the ingredients of a highly combustible drama.Of course, old Hollywood always created its own version of history. It's no secret the studios habitually bent fact in return for commercial appeal. So its not surprising that Paramount took liberties with the Dana book. For example, the script works a woman (Fernandez) onto the ship, which is not in the book. I expect they did that to burnish Ladd's appeal as a leading man and to widen audience appeal to include women-- never mind the facts of the book. As some anonymous wag put it-- never let the facts stand in the way of a good story.Fortunately, it is a good story, even if the ship never leaves the sound stage. However, I wish director Farrow had made better use of close-ups to underscore dramatic high points. He's too impassive in what amounts to a very involving story. That aside, the movie certainly rates far better than a 1 & ½.