Dead Calm (film)

Last updated

Dead Calm
Deadcalmposter.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Phillip Noyce
Screenplay by Terry Hayes
Based on Dead Calm
1963 novel
by Charles Williams
Produced by
Starring
Cinematography Dean Semler
Edited by Richard Francis-Bruce
Music by Graeme Revell
Production
company
Distributed by Warner Bros. (through Roadshow Distributors)
Release date
  • 7 April 1989 (1989-04-07)
Running time
95 minutes [1]
CountryAustralia
LanguageEnglish
BudgetA$10 million [2]
Box officeA$10.2 million [3] [4]

Dead Calm is a 1989 Australian psychological thriller film directed by Phillip Noyce, produced by George Miller, and starring Sam Neill, Nicole Kidman and Billy Zane. The screenplay by Terry Hayes was based on the 1963 novel of the same name by Charles Williams.

Contents

Filmed around the Great Barrier Reef, the plot focuses on a married couple, who, after tragically losing their son, are spending some time isolated at sea, when they come across a stranger who has abandoned a sinking ship.

Notably, the movie is the first successful film adaptation of the novel, after Orson Welles worked for a number of years to complete his own film based on it titled The Deep , though it ultimately went unreleased and uncompleted.

Dead Calm was generally well received, with critics praising Neill, Kidman, and Zane's performances and the oceanic cinematography. It was nominated in eight categories at the 1989 Australian Film Institute Awards, including Best Film, and won four. Modern retrospective analyses have been favorable, with The New York Times naming it one of the 1000 best films ever made. [5]

Plot

Rae Ingram is involved in a car crash which results in the death of her son. Her older husband, Royal Australian Navy officer Captain John Ingram, suggests that they help deal with their grief by heading out for a vacation alone on their yacht. In the middle of the Pacific, they encounter a drifting schooner that seems to be taking on water. A man, Hughie Warriner, rows over to the Ingrams' yacht for help. He claims that his ship is sinking and that his companions have all died of food poisoning.

Suspicious of Hughie's story, John rows over to the other ship, instructing Rae to assemble and load the ship's shotgun, though she ignores this. Inside, John discovers the mangled corpses of the other passengers and video footage indicating that Hughie may have murdered them in a feat of extraordinary violence. John rushes back to his own boat, but he's too late as Hughie awakes, knocks out Rae and sails their yacht away, leaving John behind.

As John attempts to keep Hughie's ship from sinking and catch up with them, Rae awakens and tries to convince Hughie to go back for her husband. Hughie denies her request and keeps on sailing, alternating between kindness and bouts of rage. John manages to get through to his wife on the radio, but the water damage makes him unable to reply save for clicks on his ship's radio receiver. He can respond only yes or no to her questions. John assures her that he is following close by. Rae tries to stall the yacht by turning off the engine and tossing the keys overboard. Her dog jumps in to retrieve the keys and brings them back as he had done earlier with his fetch ball. Hughie starts the yacht back up and tries to convince Rae to be friends with him. Rae accepts, attempting to earn his trust. After a while, she goes back to the radar room to contact John. A blip appears on the edge of the radar's range, signifying the damaged boat. She soon learns that it is too far gone and will sink in the next several hours. With John unable to come to her rescue, Rae assures her husband that she will come back for him. John's radio shorts before Rae has a chance to tell him that she loves him. Unable to make further contact with him, Rae breaks down and cries.

Hughie comes down to see Rae sobbing, and heads over to soothe her. Rae formulates a plan to seduce Hughie and gain his trust long enough for her to get to the shotgun on deck. She and Hughie start to kiss and undress on the floor, before Rae stalls for time by telling him that she has to go to the bathroom. She runs on deck to assemble the shotgun, but Ben the dog follows her. Before she has a chance to load the gun, the dog starts barking causing Hughie to go investigate. In a panic, Rae leaves the gun behind and takes cigarettes down with her as an excuse for being on deck. She eases his suspicion by taking him to the bedroom where she buys herself more time by allowing Hughie to have sex with her. Later, Rae fixes some lemonade, and places a heavy dose of her prescription sedatives into her drink after noticing the bottle on the counter, correctly anticipating she could trick Hughie into drinking it. Claiming to go get dressed, Rae heads back for the shotgun, and is discovered soon after. As a fierce storm approaches, Rae and Hughie come to blows. Hughie takes hold of the shotgun, but the effects of the sedative cause him to aim poorly and shoot the radio by mistake. Rae eventually takes hold of a harpoon gun and locks herself in the bedroom. As the door opens she fires off a harpoon. Seeing blood she pushes it open, only to discover she killed her dog. Hughie comes out of hiding to strangle her, but passes out from the drugs. Rae ties him up and sails back to rescue John. Hughie recovers consciousness and cuts himself free with a shard of broken mirror, but after making his way to Rae, she shoots him in the shoulder with a harpoon and knocks him unconscious. She then sets him adrift in the yacht's life raft and continues to look for her husband.

Meanwhile, the damage and the storm have caused the schooner to sink almost completely. The storm intensifies and breaks the ship's main mast, trapping John below deck. The water rises and eventually he is submerged over his head, able to breathe only through a piece of pipe leading to the deck. The only way he can go is down into the schooner's hull, he notices a sizable fish indicating a significant hole. He takes one last breath from the pipe and dives. Through a gaping hole in the bottom of the hull, John emerges back on the surface. He sets the wreck on fire to signal his location to Rae, who is now desperate to find him. Dusk sets in as Rae notices the flames and sets course to the faint fire on the horizon. Without any means to signal his wife, all John can do is wait on a piece of floating debris. After night falls, the pair reunite when Rae arrives and pulls John aboard.

Later they find the life raft and Rae shoots it with a flare, setting it on fire. The next day they are relaxing on deck when John takes a break from washing Rae's hair to prepare breakfast for her. Her eyes closed, Rae feels a pair of hands begin massaging her scalp and assumes it is John, but when she opens her eyes she sees a bloody Hughie, who begins to strangle her. While Rae struggles, John arrives from below deck. Seeing Rae being attacked, John shoots Hughie in the mouth with a flare, killing him instantly.

Cast

Unfinished previous adaptation

The film is based on the novel Dead Calm by American author Charles Williams. Orson Welles had optioned the film rights in the mid-1960's. Under the title The Deep, Welles shot the film between 1966 and 1969 off the coast of Yugoslavia. The prospective film starred Laurence Harvey as Hughie, Michael Bryant as Ingram, Oja Kodar as Rae, and Welles himself played Russ Bellowes. Jeanne Moreau played Hughie's wife Ruth, a character present in the original novel but cut out of Noyce's film.

Welles' production was plagued by financial and technical problems, and effectively halted at the end of 1969. Principal photography remained incomplete, and Laurence Harvey's death in 1973 effectively ended any hope of completing the film. [6] The original film negative is considered lost, though two workprints survive, and footage from the film has been displayed since.

Production

ActorRole
Sam Neill John Ingram
Nicole Kidman Rae Ingram
Billy Zane Hughie Warner
Rod Mullinar Russell Bellowes
Joshua TildenDanny

Producer Tony Bill had tried to buy the rights from Welles but was never successful. He mentioned this to Phil Noyce, giving him a copy of the book in 1984. Noyce enjoyed the book and showed it to George Miller and Terry Hayes, who were enthusiastic. Miller managed to persuade Oja Kodar, Welles's companion, who controlled the rights to the novel, to sell the book to Kennedy Miller. [7] [8]

The book features several other main characters (including Hughie's wife and survivors John finds on the Orpheus), and presented Hughie as a nominally asexual manchild. [9] It also goes into further detail about what caused Hughie's psychotic break.

Filming

The film was shot over a 6-month span in Queensland's Whitsunday Islands beginning in May 1987. George Miller directed some sequences himself, including one where Sam Neill's character is tormented in the boat by a shark. This scene ended up being dropped from the final film.

The sequence in which John kills Hughie with a flare was filmed at the request of Warner Bros seven months after principal photography finished. As written, the film originally ended with Rae setting Hughie adrift on a life raft to ostensibly die at sea; the studio was unhappy with this ambiguity and wanted a definite fate for the film's antagonist. [7]

Sam Neill met his future wife Noriko Watanabe during filming. [10]

Music

The synthesizer-driven film score was composed and performed by New Zealand musician Graeme Revell, of the industrial group SPK. Dead Calm was Revell's first ever film score, and earned him an AFI Award for Best Original Music Score.

Reception

Box office

Dead Calm grossed $2,444,407 at the box office in Australia, [4] which is equivalent to $4,253,268 in 2009 dollars. It grossed $7,825,009 in the U.S. [3]

Critical reception

Dead Calm has an 84% "fresh" rating at Rotten Tomatoes based on 31 reviews, with a rating of 7.5/10. The site's consensus states that "Nicole Kidman's coiled intensity and muscular direction by Phillip Noyce give this nautical thriller a disquieting sense of dread". [11] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 70 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [12] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on an A+ to F scale. [13]

According to David Stratton of Variety , "throughout the film, Nicole Kidman is excellent" and "she gives the character of Rae real tenacity and energy" and "though not always entirely credible" the picture "is a nail-biting suspense pic, handsomely produced and inventively directed." [14] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote that the film "generates genuine tension." [15] Desson Howe of The Washington Post praised the film's creators: "Noyce's direction moves impressively from sensual tenderness (between husband and wife) to edge-of-the-seat horror. With accomplished editing by Richard Francis-Bruce and scoring by Graeme Revell, he finds lurking dangers in quiet, peaceful waters." [16]

On the other hand, Caryn James of The New York Times felt that the film was "an unsettling hybrid of escapist suspense and the kind of pure trash that depends on dead babies and murdered dogs for effect," and that Dead Calm "becomes disturbing for all the wrong reasons." [17] A number of critics faulted the film's ending as being over-the-top, with the Post's Howe writing, "... while it's afloat, 'Dead Calm' is a majestic horror cruise. ... For much of the movie, you're enthralled. By the end, you're laughing." [16]

The acting was generally considered excellent, with Zane being cited for injecting "unforgettable humanity and evil puckishness into his role" [16] and being "suitably manic and evil." And while Rita Kempley of The Washington Post wrote "what's most fascinating about it is Rae's place in the pantheon of heroines, an Amazon for the '90s," [18] the Times' James called Kidman's character "tough but stupid." [17]

The film is listed on The New York Times Top 1000 Movies list, [5] derived from editor Peter M. Nichols' The New York Times Guide to the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made (St. Martin's Griffin, 2004). The film was partly the inspiration for 1993 Hindi-language film Darr . [19]

Awards and nominations

AwardYearCategoryNominee(s)Result
Australian Film Institute Awards 1989 Best Film George Miller Nominated
Best Direction Phillip Noyce Nominated
Best Screenplay, Adapted Terry Hayes Nominated
Best Original Music Score Graeme Revell Won
Best Cinematography Dean Semler Won
Best Editing Richard Francis-Bruce Won
Best Sound Ben Osmo, Lee Smith, Roger Savage Won
Best Production Design Graham Grace WalkerNominated
Chicago Film Critics Association Award 1990Most Promising Actor Billy Zane Nominated
Motion Picture Sound Editors Award 1990Best Sound Editing - Foreign FeatureBen Osmo, Lee Smith, Roger SavageWon
Saturn Award 1991 Best Actress Nicole Kidman Nominated

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicole Kidman</span> American and Australian actress (born 1967)

Nicole Mary Kidman is an American and Australian actress and producer. Known for her work in film and television productions across many genres, she has consistently ranked among the world's highest-paid actresses since the late 1990s. Her accolades include an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and six Golden Globe Awards. She became the first Australian actor to receive the AFI Life Achievement Award honour in 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Billy Zane</span> American actor (born 1966)

William George Zane Jr. is an American actor. His breakthrough role was in the 1989 Australian film Dead Calm, a performance that earned him a nomination for the Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Most Promising Actor. He has since appeared in numerous films and television series, notably playing the main antagonist Caledon Hockley in the epic film Titanic (1997), for which he and the rest of the ensemble cast was nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award.

MTS <i>Oceanos</i> Cruise ship that sank in 1991

MTS Oceanos was a French-built and Greek-owned cruise ship that sank in 1991 when she suffered uncontrolled flooding. Her captain, Yiannis Avranas, and some of the crew were convicted of negligence for fleeing the ship without helping the passengers, who were subsequently rescued thanks to the efforts of the ship's entertainers, who made a mayday transmission, launched lifeboats, and helped South African Marines land on the ship from naval helicopters. All 571 passengers and crew survived.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ghost ship</span> Ship with no living people onboard

A ghost ship, also known as a phantom ship, is a vessel with no living crew aboard; it may be a fictional ghostly vessel, such as the Flying Dutchman, or a physical derelict found adrift with its crew missing or dead, like the Mary Celeste. The term is sometimes used for ships that have been decommissioned but not yet scrapped, as well as drifting boats that have been found after breaking loose of their ropes and being carried away by the wind or the waves.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capsizing</span> Action where a vessel turns on to its side or is upside down

Capsizing or keeling over occurs when a boat or ship is rolled on its side or further by wave action, instability or wind force beyond the angle of positive static stability or it is upside down in the water. The act of recovering a vessel from a capsize is called righting. Capsize may result from broaching, knockdown, loss of stability due to cargo shifting or flooding, or in high speed boats, from turning too fast.

MS <i>Empress of Australia</i> Ferry operated by the Australian National Line

Empress of Australia was a ferry operated by the Australian National Line. Ordered in 1962 by the Australian National Line and launched by Cockatoo Docks & Engineering Company on 18 January 1964, Empress of Australia was the largest passenger ferry built in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phillip Noyce</span> Australian filmmaker (born 1950)

Phillip Roger Noyce is an Australian film and television director. Since 1977, he has directed over 19 feature films in various genres, including historical drama ; thrillers ; and action films. He has also directed the Jack Ryan adaptations Patriot Games (1992) and Clear and Present Danger (1994), as well as the 2014 adaptation of Lois Lowry's The Giver.

<i>Costa Concordia</i> Cruise ship that ran aground in a 2012 maritime accident

Costa Concordia was a cruise ship operated by Costa Crociere. She was the first of her class, followed by her sister ships Costa Serena, Costa Pacifica, Costa Favolosa and Costa Fascinosa, and Carnival Splendor built for Carnival Cruise Line. When the 114,137-ton Costa Concordia and her sister ships entered service, they were among the largest ships built in Italy until the construction of the 130,000 GT Dream-class cruise ships.

<i>Dead Calm</i> (novel) Novel by Charles Williams

Dead Calm is a 1963 novel by Charles Williams. It was the basis for the unfinished Orson Welles film The Deep, was adapted by Phillip Noyce as the film Dead Calm (1989), and is the sequel to Williams' lesser-known romantic thriller Aground (1960).

SS <i>Galileo Galilei</i> Ocean liner

SS Galileo Galilei was an ocean liner built in 1963 by Cantieri Riuniti dell' Adriatico, Monfalcone, Italy for Lloyd Triestino's Italy–Australia service. In 1979, she was converted to a cruise ship, and subsequently sailed under the names Galileo and Meridian. She sank in the Strait of Malacca in 1999 as the Sun Vista.

<i>Survival Island</i> 2005 film directed by Stewart Raffill

Survival Island, also known as Three, is a 2005 erotic thriller survival film written and directed by Stewart Raffill and starring Billy Zane, Kelly Brook, and Juan Pablo Di Pace.

<i>Open Water 2: Adrift</i> 2006 psychological horror film by Hans Horn

Open Water 2: Adrift is a 2006 German English-language psychological horror thriller film directed by Hans Horn, starring Susan May Pratt, Eric Dane, Richard Speight, Jr., Niklaus Lange, Ali Hillis, and Cameron Richardson. The film was inspired by the short story Adrift by Japanese author Koji Suzuki, from which it took its original title, but promotional posters claimed the film is based on actual events.

USS <i>YMS-328</i> Minesweeper of the United States Navy

USS YMS-328 is a decommissioned US Navy YMS-1-class Yard Mine Sweeper (YMS), built in Ballard, Washington (Seattle) at Ballard Marine & Railway. She was classified as a Mark II design and her hull is constructed completely out of 3" vertical grain Douglas fir. Sister ships include Jacques Cousteau's RV Calypso. After serving in the Navy in World War II the boat was converted to a private yacht.

The Deep is an unfinished film directed by Orson Welles, based on Charles Williams's novel Dead Calm (1963), which was later adapted as an eponymous 1989 film. Welles produced and wrote The Deep, as well as played the role of Russ Brewer opposite Jeanne Moreau and Laurence Harvey.

<i>Triangle</i> (2009 British film) 2009 psychological horror film

Triangle is a 2009 psychological horror film written and directed by Christopher Smith and starring Melissa George, Michael Dorman, Rachael Carpani, Henry Nixon, Emma Lung, and Liam Hemsworth. George portrays a single mother who goes on a boating trip with several friends. When they are forced to abandon their ship, they board a derelict ocean liner, where they become convinced that someone is stalking them.

MV <i>Aurora</i> (1955) Cruise ship

MV Aurora is a cruise ship built in Germany in 1955. After several changes of ownership and name, as of 2024 she was moored in Stockton, California, United States, and was undergoing restoration until May 22 when she began to take on water and sink.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicole Kidman on screen and stage</span>

American-born Australian actress and producer Nicole Kidman has appeared in numerous film and television projects, as well as in theatre productions. She made her film debut in the Australian drama Bush Christmas in 1983. Four years later, she starred in the television miniseries Bangkok Hilton, for which she received the AACTA Award for Best Lead Actress in a Television Drama. Her breakthrough role was as a married woman trapped on a yacht with a murderer in the 1989 thriller Dead Calm. She followed this with her Hollywood debut opposite Tom Cruise in Tony Scott's auto-racing film Days of Thunder (1990). Her role as a homicidal weather forecaster in Gus Van Sant's crime comedy-drama To Die For garnered Kidman a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical in 1996. She worked with Cruise again on Ron Howard's Far and Away (1992) and Stanley Kubrick's erotic thriller Eyes Wide Shut in 1999.

<i>Strangerland</i> 2015 film directed by Kim Farrant

Strangerland is a 2015 drama suspense film directed by Kim Farrant in her directorial debut, and written by Michael Kinirons and Fiona Seres. The film stars Nicole Kidman, Joseph Fiennes, and Hugo Weaving. The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on 23 January 2015. The film did not have a theatrical release in its native Australia, but did receive a limited release in cinemas in the United States on 10 July 2015 by Alchemy.

<i>Styx</i> (film) 2018 film

Styx is a 2018 German-Austrian drama film directed by Wolfgang Fischer. It was screened in the Panorama section at the 68th Berlin International Film Festival.

<i>Dead Water</i> (film) 2019 American film

Dead Water is a 2019 American thriller film directed by Chris Helton and starring Casper Van Dien and Judd Nelson.

References

  1. ↑ AustralianClassification. "View Title | Australian Classification". Classification.gov.au. Retrieved 27 July 2016.
  2. ↑ NEXT YEAR'S 10 BEST FILMS By Garry Maddox 13 July 1987 Sydney Morning Herald p 16
  3. 1 2 "Dead Calm," Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 10 November 2011.
  4. 1 2 "Film Victoria - Australian Films at the Australian Box Office" (PDF). Film.vic.gov.au. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 February 2011. Retrieved 27 July 2016.
  5. 1 2 Top 1000 Movies List The New York Times.
  6. ↑ October 2013, Simon Kinnear 14 (14 October 2013). "50 Amazing Unmade Movies". gamesradar. Retrieved 27 March 2020.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  7. 1 2 David Stratton, The Avocado Plantation: Boom and Bust in the Australian Film Industry, Pan MacMillan, 1990 p263–265
  8. ↑ Brian McFarlane, "Phil Noyce: Dead Calm", Cinema Papers, May 1989 p6–11
  9. ↑ Guthrie, Luna (25 August 2023). "This Star-Studded Thriller Began as an Orson Welles Passion Project". Collider. Retrieved 14 January 2024.
  10. ↑ Porcel, María (16 October 2023). "'Jurassic Park' actor Sam Neill says he's 'prepared to die from his cancer, but the thought of retiring fills me with horror'". EL PAÍS English. Retrieved 8 August 2024.
  11. ↑ "Dead Calm". Rotten Tomatoes . Archived from the original on 7 December 2008. Retrieved 12 February 2024..
  12. ↑ "Dead Calm". Metacritic . CBS Interactive . Retrieved 2 April 2022.
  13. ↑ "Home". CinemaScore. Retrieved 3 April 2022.
  14. ↑ Stratton, David (5 April 1989). "Film reviews: Dead Calm". Variety .
  15. ↑ Dead Calm Chicago Sun-Times. 7 April 1989
  16. 1 2 3 Howe, Desson. 'Dead Calm' The Washington Post (7 April 1989)
  17. 1 2 James, Caryn. "Critics' Pick: Reviews/Film; A Psychological Drama Of Nightmares and Death", The New York Times (7 April 1989).
  18. ↑ Kempley, Rita. "'Dead Calm'," The Washington Post (7 April 1989).
  19. ↑ "Yash Chopra in conversation with Uday Chopra - Darr". Archived from the original on 22 December 2021. Retrieved 26 October 2015– via YouTube.


This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.