Voyage of the Damned
1976 UK
Dir: Stuart Rosenberg
Str: Faye Dunaway, Max von Sydow, Oskar Werner, Malcolm McDowell
Everybody is craving for voyage on a sumptuous ocean liner to find
something new under the condition his/her identity won't be at
stake.
The movies, most of whose scenes takes place in a sumptuous ocean liner, become
sometimes truly enthralling. Voyage of the Damned is one of such movies, if slightly overlonged in general
feeling. One of the reason for it is, as I desribed in the review of Juggernaut, the contrast between the
vast ocean and the rather confined space of a ship that encourages passengers to form such relationships as they
never form in usual situations causes some ambivalent feelings in audiences' mind. I think it's true many persons
are craving for such an experience as may crack the banality of mundane life just up to the extent it never destroys
their own identity and integrity, and are thinking the voyage on a sumptious liner surely will give us such an
opportunity. But, in this movie's case, that very identity and integrity are at stake. Because the passengers are
Jews, and the era is just immediately prior to the outbreak of the WW2.
What is the movie about?
The ship "St. Louise" set sail for Cuba from Hamburg, with a thousand
of Jews embarked. But, before long, it turns out that they cannot get a permission to land at Cuba in spite of
the several person's efforts. So they must return to Hamburg, which means they are doomed to peril their lives
at concentration camp. But the last moment, they can narrowly escape their fate temporarily, because several European
contries have decided to accept them. Anyway, as the superimposed text on the last scene suggests, it is merely
a beginning of ensuing tragedy. This is the overall situation of the film's background.
Malcolm Mcdowell asks a passenger "What's it like to be a Jew in
Germany". The passenger answers "like being constantly
reminded
of being a Jew".
Moving back and forth in the vast Atlantic ocean, "St. Louise" symbolizes
the unstable position of Jews in that era. As Japanese is basically a homogeneous race, for us, Japanese, sometimes
it is difficult to grasp the nature of these matters, especially in the real aspect in actual lives. So I dare
not continue this aspect any further. But one thing I want to mention is that the persecution of a minority group,
whether the group means an race or other kind of groups, actually is reflecting the fragility of a persecuting
side. Because, by doing so, the side persecuting a minority group can barely retain their identity and integrity.
And, furthermore, it should be added sometimes a persecution works so well that the mentality of the persecution
easily permeates not only a persecuting side, but also a persecuted side. In a scene, Malcolm McDowell asks one
of the passengers, "What't it like to be a Jew in Germany". Then the passenger answers, "like being
constantly reminded of being a Jew". Tragedy actually begins when someone alinates himself and instead let
someone else sneak into his own mind. And it gradually ruins his integrity, which finally leads him to the total
destruction of being himself. Probably that is the case with the man who tried to kill himself by cutting his vein
with a razor.
Three veteran actresses are superb in showing their grief.
Compared to this, two lead players seem to be improper.
By the nature of the film, it is inevitable that it is covered with sheer grief.
For that matter, three veteran actresses express it quite well. They are, Wendy Hiller, Lee Grant, and Maria Schell.
On the other hand, two lead players (Faye Dunaway, Oskar Werner) seems to be quite detached from the situation.
They look rather artificial and improper considering the situation. About 10 years before this movie, Oskar Werner
also appeared in the similar kind of movie titled Ship of Fools. In this movie, he is infatuated with a
woman (played by surprisingly old-looking Simone Signoret) who has been deported from Mexico (or Cuba, I forgot).
But, from first, they are never allowed to be with after they have reached Spain whose government has claimed her
extradition. Afterwards, his grief of having lost her grows so enormous that finally he dies by a cardiac arrest
which he has always been worried about might happen. In this movie, he acted a suffering person quite well, even
if he was supposed to be one of the fools the title suggests. But, this time around, despite the fact he is one
of Jews on the ship, he looks completely indifferent to what is happning on the ship, and all the more so when
he is overreacting to the situation. Even such an idea occured to me he might have been reprising his role of the
fool he had been expected to act 10 years earlier.
It's sheer pleasure to watch a host of eminent stars compete in
acting skills.
Anyway, as the film is one of the latest such movies as have a host of eminent
actors and actresses, it is, in a sense, quite entertaining. Though sometimes all-star movies become very prosaic
and insipid as if the director could not handle and integrate and reconcile the ill-tempered famous stars' desires,
this one seems to be immune from such kind of illness. Anyway, nowadays, probably because of skyrocketing of player's
fee, we cannot see this kind of extravagance so often except Robert Altman's movies (even in his movies' case,
most stars appear merely as a cameo). So Voyage of the Damned provides us with the precious opportunity
of getting sheer pleasure of watching many stars compete with each other in acting skills.
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