B****** sailing films

snowleopard

snowleopard

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Just been watching Master and Commander again. How can they go to all the expense of creating realism then throw it all away by having idly flapping sails in every shot? There they are in a gale off Cape Horn and there's a sail flapping like a curtain at an open window. I reckon anyone directing a sailing film should do 2 years before the mast!

Having said that, O'Brian himself is sometimes guilty of crass mistakes. Just read The Ionian Mission and he has the channel fleet heading for the shelter of Torbay in an easterly!
 
In that film,

I like the truly authentic shot of the sailor squatting at the heads and the truly unauthentic wake from the propellor.

And what was that Pacific/Australian film with the MOB (Sam Niel) being picked up at 7 knots ? (He later fires a flare into the bad guys mouth, great scene that.)
 
We only watch M&C when actually IN a gale, or similar! It hides the cinematography errors amid the fears of the anchor dragging...

Its mostly the same with flying films too, crass errors that only aircrew notice.
 
I know the film you mean and I am pleased to hear it wasn't just me shouting at the screen about that pick-up which would have pulled his arm off! Ok, maybe I was the only one shouting then!
Master and Commander is one of the better ones though (the lesser of two weavles?) - what was the one where the guy steps off the top of the mast as his 'sinking' boat (which has to be at least 40 feet below hiw) glides up to a pontoon?
 
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Master and Commander is one of the better ones though (the lesser of two weavles?) - what was the one where the guy steps off the top of the mast as his 'sinking' boat (which has to be at least 40 feet below hiw) glides up to a pontoon?

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-> Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

"You are without doubt the worst pirate I've ever heard of." ... "But you have heard of me."
 
Quote "what was the one where the guy steps off the top of the mast as his 'sinking' boat (which has to be at least 40 feet below him) glides up to a pontoon?"
I had 20 metres of water below my pontoon in Marmaris!
(I think the film was Pirates of the Caribbean, which I remember also had ghosts in it!)
 
The scene of the gale off cape horn is not a staged shot. A camera crew were pklaced aboard HMS Rose ( a reproduction of a frigate of the same name) in order to take some atmosphere shots while the ship moved nearer to where they needed her . They had to go round the cape and got caught in bad weather. The camera crew used up all their film and this is what is seen in the movie
 
I did wonder how they got the pictures of the storm that were so convincing, CG isn't that good yet. Unfortunately it was intercut with close-ups where a sail was flapping idly right beside the actors. A sail in that position would have to be a course that would never be set in those conditions anyway.
 
Rose was the ship used in the film - but the Cape Horn seascape was filmed from the replica of <u>HMS Endeavour</u> when she was on passage to Blighty a few years back.
Some great shots, but one or two during that sequence in the film didn't look quite right: it wasn't until I saw it on DVD that I realised that in a couple of 2-second shots the sea is actually going backwards!/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif
Everybody nit-picks about the occasional sail flapping: but it is only really obvious at the point where Barrett Bonden (the helmsman) says that he can't hold the course, so perhaps it was deliberate.....
Even with these, it's still easily the best maritime film in 30 years, and the books are practically unique in NOT concentrating completely on the officers: unlike CS Forester, Alexander Kent et al, the lower deck is (for once) populated by real characters rather than cardboard cut-outs.
 
There's a VHS video available from the National Maritime Museum called "Windjammers of the 1930s" [or something like that]. That shows real working sailing ships such as Passat, Parma, Viking, Joseph Conrad. Black and white, and not much of a plot, but authentic!
 
I seem to recall an episode or two of "The Onedin Line" (?sp) where the ship was going forward but the sails were backed /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif
 
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and the books are practically unique in NOT concentrating completely on the officers: unlike CS Forester, Alexander Kent et al, the lower deck is (for once) populated by real characters rather than cardboard cut-outs.


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not fogetting Stockwin and his hero of the lower deck - Kydd
 
Get hold of some of the Allan Villiers footage! That's the real thing. Mostly only B/W of course as it was shot in the 1930-50's when only the rich could afford colour film.
"Square Riggers of the 1930's" published by NMM is excellent and also includes footage by other people on real sailing ships on long haul passages.
 
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