Word: albatross
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...charged with making men out of them in White Squall is Christopher Sheldon (Jeff Bridges), skipper of the Albatross, a sailing ship he has turned into a floating secondary school. He's the sort of father figure these chinless wonders have never had--stern but caring, and at one with the winds and the waves. Also, he seems to have the ability to tell them apart, a matter on which Todd Robinson's script--not to mention the casting director--is not very helpful. Sheldon's promise is that after a year of crewing with him, all the nonsense will...
While "Female Transport" was grating, "White Squall," another true story, this one about the fateful 1960 voyage of the school ship Albatross, is manipulative. Through annoying direction and a terrible script, you are forced to care about all of the characters, setting up an emotional windfall after several of them drown. However, if you're too busy laughing at lines like, "Do you know what's out there? Some wind and rain and some damn big waves," you'll hardly have time...
...film is beautifully shot. Both the actual landscape (lush islands, ocean sunsets, shockingly powerful surf) and the human landscape (wet t-shirts, naked torsos, bulging muscles) are fun to look at. The storm scene, where several tidal waves bash the Albatross to bits, is fantastically directed. It is terrifying and electrifying, and not surprising from the director of "Blade Runner" and "Alien." However, Scott could have done without the lingering shots of the drowning victims...
...tough for the men's hockey program to accept such logic--everything looked so good for so long, and yet two of the three sought-for championships (Beanpot, ECAC, NCAA) took the concept of overtime and tied it around the Crimson's neck like the Ancient Mariner's albatross...
That length metamorphosed into the wing-span of an albatross in the second half as Holy Cross scored on its first three possessions of the stanza to put the score...