A piece of my Childhood

This posting contains scene spoilers, so don't read it if you don't want to know about a few scenes...





Before I begin, please note that I ramble and tangent often.

A few years back, I set about getting all those movies that I either remembered fondly as a child or that just stuck with me for some reason or another. I have all but one now (And that one might have actually been a dream), and the one that is most gratifying to own has got to be Death Ship.

I remember watching this movie years ago when I was at a young-enough age that a movie this horrifying should not be viewed. But then again, I was raised on Jaws and Romeo and Juliet (The Franco Zeffirelli version), so what do I really know about what kids should and should not watch? I must admit that I was terrified of what went on on that ship. (Of course I didn't know at the time that it was a Nazi torture ship. But then again, the use of Nazis as bad guys and the horrors they committed, both real and Hollywood imagined, seems to still be a formula in movies. And as a side note, if you want to see some real horror about something the Nazis actually did, watch the masterpiece that is Schindler's List. Yes, the Holocaust happened. I hate that there are some people in the world that are so ignorant that they say that it didn't. But this is not a political lecture/debate and I told you I go off on tangents.)

Of all the scenes that stuck with me the most over the years in regards to this movie it has to be the one where Nick (Our young stud) loses his mind and goes tumbling into the fishing net with all the dead bodies and then continues to further lose what's left of his sanity. The way that that scene was done still holds up and causes chills and squirming in the seats.

I also really love the fact that in the end those who get off the ship don't ever defeat the evil of the ship, they merely survive it. I think that has got to be a real sign of the times. In the 70's and early 80's happy endings didn't always happen. Why do I like it like that? Because in real life, happy endings don't always happen.

My only gripe with this movie is George Kennedy. I don't have a problem with his acting or his casting, as he is a movie legend, and even in b-movie fare such as this his acting is solid. What I didn't like was the fact that it goes from the Ship vs. the Cast to the essence of the evil in the ship possessing/corrupting George Kennedy's character vs. the rest of the Cast. Of course argument could be made that he is in fact the most tragic of all the vitims of the ship, not for the way he dies, but for the what the ship does to his mind.

As another note off to the side, I am so thankful that I was not the only person on this message board who noticed that Ghost Ship so blatently ripped off the poster art of Death Ship. Of course, the Death Ship actually has that face you see on its poster. Watch the movie again if you don't believe me.

Aloha for now!

"Don't sweat the petty things, pet the sweaty things."