Wolf Larsen is the captain of a seal-hunting ship called Ghost. Larsen has a bad reputation (deservedly so) and the only way he can get people onto the ship is to work with a bartender who is willing to slip a mickey into unemployed job searching sailors' drinks. This is almost done to George Leach, but he catches on to what the bartender is doing; however, due to having problems with the police, he tells the Ghost recruiters that he'll join up anyways.
Humphrey Van Weyden and Ruth Brewster end up on the ship for a different reason. They're on a ferry that collides with another vessel. They get picked up by the Ghost. Instead of returning them to shore, Larsen continues on his journey. Van Weyden is an educated individual who writes for a living while Brewster has a similar background as Leach. In fact, she is an escaped convict who was located on the ferry by the police, but the collision prevented the police from carrying out the arrest. She unfortunately is seriously injured and spends a significant part of the movie in quarters (which honestly is probably best for her as the crew is not made up of the most outstanding citizens).
Due to the nature of how Larsen recruits his crew (slipping mickeys, refusing to return shipwreck survivors back to shore, taking on criminals), his crew is not exactly the loyal type. And knowing this, he also mistreats his crew. There is a constant manipulation of those on board the ship where it is hard for anyone to really trust each other. It is really just a situation of attempting to survive. An example of this is when there is an attempted mutiny. It fails by luck, but instead of protecting the person who informed on those who started the mutiny, he tells all who the informant was.
This movie has a psychological edge to it. Larsen believes that the educated man Van Weyden will eventually descend towards the nature of the other sailors onboard the ship. At the same time, you have someone like Leach who is looking for an opportunity for a new start in life. His desire to protect Brewster from the others on the ship drives him forward. The psychological warfare and debate on human nature is what makes this a solid movie.
I've never read the book, but there is a part of the movie where the plot of the movie falls apart briefly. Van Weyden, Leach, Brewster, and another sailor attempt to take matters into their own hands and I was thinking, "Are they stupid?" Maybe one can say that desperate times call for desperate measure, but I'm like, "Think about what you're doing."
The movie is largely a parody of what was in vogue during the 1970s. It pokes fun at the self-help movement. I think you have to take that into context while watching the movie. Audiences were obviously laughing back in the 1970s while watching the movie. Watching it now, people have to see it as an amusing take of a cultural time capsule.
The movie actually follows two parallel storylines all including the three actors. The other storyline revolves around a football team. Puckett is the star running back while Tiller is the star wide receiver. Bookman is the daughter of the owner. All three have known each other since childhood (or maybe a little older) and they’re currently living together. Bookman has gone through two previous divorces and is hanging out with her friends.
So you have one storyline about the football team’s season and their success. Puckett is even considering writing a book, which I’m not sure how far he actually gets but there is a lot of pressure from the team owner to make everyone look as good as possible (that is, write a rather boring book). This comes about when there is a party at the owner’s house to celebrate the success of the team. One of the players ends up hanging a young woman upside down from the second floor of the house.
The storyline of self-help is driven by Tiller. He seems to have found some calmness in life by taking a 48 hour course called “B.E.A.T.” His new persona draws in Bookman and the two start up a relationship that eventually leads to them wanting to get married after the football season. Tiller isn’t the only one who is going through self help. The football team sends Puckett off to get a massage treatment from a sadistic masseuse.
What is this “B.E.A.T.” all about? Well, we get to learn about it just before the Super Bowl. Tiller convinces Bookman that she has to go to a session before they get married. Puckett also decides to attend the session. He comes prepared (due to some knowledge of what is about to occur). The session starts off with how to communicate better with people. Instead of the standard “Hello, how are you doing? I’m doing fine.” conversations, the attendees are told to shake hands with a person, remain quiet during that time period, and look deeply into the person. They’re also told that no one will be allowed to use the restroom. Some end up pissing their pants while Puckett has come prepared with his own gadget. I guess adult diapers were not a thing back then.
I sort of would label this as a movie to watch to get a sense of 1970s culture versus it being a great movie. The football part of the movie is not all that intense. It is no Any Given Sunday. It isn’t a deep look into the game and you don’t feel any real excitement or edge of your seat thrills while watching the team play. On the other hand, and one has to wish there was more of it, the self-help parts of the movie are rather amusing even without the context of knowing the 1970s self-help culture.
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