Lifeboat (1944)

Lifeboat (1944) [20th Century Fox]

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Produced by Kenneth Macgowan

Screenplay by Jo Swerling

Story by John Steinbeck

 96 Minutes (Unrated)

One of his earliest and most critically revered American films, Lifeboat is classic, primal Hitchcock. It's also one of several earlier efforts from the master of suspense that I've somehow managed to avoid seeing over the years, Lifeboat is just as immediately enthralling and engrossing as any of the director's best work. The infamous filmmaker takes another claustrophobic, enclosed setting (this time, the ruins of a jettisoned lifeboat off of a WWII-era steamliner) and turns it into an exercise in suspense and malice that is as good as any of his more famous works. The premise is compelling enough (provided by literary powerhouse John Steinbeck), pitting a rag-tag group of British and American service members, merchant marines, and a spectrum of eclectic civilians into an unstable rinky-dink lifeboat after a German U-Boat sinks them before subsequently being sunk itself. But only a master like Hitchcock could turn could turn that story into one of subtle suspense and vividly humanistic characterizations.An early dramatic point in which one of the survivors is faced with the grisly reality of having his leg amputated or lose it to gangrene shows this uncanny sense of being able to instill life into characters that only Hitchcock had. Where other modern films would use a scene like this to go for the visceral disturbing gore of the actual surgery itself, Hitchcock instead uses this scenario to get his character heavily drunk and vulnerable, introducing him to us in such a humanizing way that we actually empathize and grieve for him when the limb is actually removed (off-screen of course, this was the 1940s after all). Just as rich are the development of the rest of the cast of characters, all of whom are given moments to reveal their motivations, flaws, and charms at one point or another before starkly dividing themselves among a broad range of social, religious, national, racial, sexual, and class lines. Another masterful scene is one in which the survivors are nearly whipped into a murderous frenzy over the one German passenger's seeming duplicity before the raging fury of the ocean disrupts any plans of political execution they initially had in favor of one of simply surviving the Melvillian sea, filmed and framed perfectly in shadows by juxtaposing the violence of the crashing of waves against the ugliness of the moral implications of the murderous act they were just considering. Indeed the film is full of masterful scenes like these, building a feverish sense of dread and suspense that continuously keeps us on the edge of our seat as these characters are slowly and meticulously psychologically and physically broken down through lack of food and water and the increasingly cruel conditions of the sea. It's also quite shocking by just how morbid this film is for it's time, with a mother killing herself distraught over the death of an infant in only the first thirty minutes, There are many marvelous performances here but I feel Walter Slezak as the duplicitous Kapitan Willi deserves first mention as he charms the viewers into believing he's just a good natured victim-of-circumstance before revealing his true nationalistic intentions. Just as good though however is the regal Talluluah Bankhead, and the supporting characters like William Bendix, Mary Anderson, John Hodiak, Hume Cronyn and Canada Lee tie the whole together to ensure there isn't a moment of this film in which you aren't taken in by what's happening onscreen. If I've oversold the film's obvious strengths in plotting, acting, and writing then I should also be sure to note that technically the film is just as breathtaking, utilizing Hitchcock's trademarked masterful sense of Mise en scène to film even what might seem like dull moments (such as trying to catch a fish) in inventive and artful new ways. To summarize, Lifeboat is a brilliantly tense and well developed suspense film, a stunning achievement only slightly hindered by it's underwhelming climax, but nevertheless another grand piece of cinema from one of the most masterful storytellers the medium of film has ever seen. 

Hello fellow interwebbers. I know you probably know me more for my wrestling reviewing than anything else, but today I've decided to make this blog home to all of the reviews I write on a daily basis for my greatest passion: film. After having ravenously discovering the website Letterboxd, I was hooked into the writing process again, deciding to apply my efforts onto the critical analysis of fim from now on. So here we are! Template wise, I'm a lazy bastard so this is a work in progress and I apologize for it's haphazard nature, but I will eventually get around to creating a comfortable template and tone to accompany my reviews. I won't focus particularly on any specific genre, but I am a big fan of all things horror, Sci-Fi, noir, and avant garde. I view film as the ultimate medium with which we as human beings are a able to convey the most powerful of emotions and reactions, the apex of artistry if you will. Mostly starting off will be nothing but reblogging older reviews, but as I go along watching from now on, I shall update this blog daily along with my Letterboxd acconnt.

Let's go to the movies, shall we?

Z

Zelig (1983) - 4/5
Zombieland (2009) - 4.5/5

Movies to Check Out:

Human Centipede

Salo

August Underground Mordum

Mysterious Skin

Once Were Warriors

A Serbian Film

The Bridge (2006)

Suicide Club

Begotten

Dogtooth

Narc

Luther (TV show)

Sports Night (TV show)

Y

X

W

Watchmen (2009) - 3.5/5
Wild at Heart (1990) - 3.5/5
Wild Strawberries (1957) - 5/5
Wind Chill (2007) - 2.5/5

V

The Vanishing [Spoorloos] (1988) - 5/5