This is really a terrible movie. I read the other reviews; people actually use the word 'exciting' to describe this utterly boring film, and praise Cliff Robertson's wooden acting as 'superb'.
Don't get me wrong; I think JFK was a great president and the USA was grievously harmed by his assassination at such a critical time in our history. There hasn't been as good a president as he since then!
But that's an aside and has nothing to do with the creation of this turkey. Several reviewers correctly pointed out that its WAY TOO LONG at 2:20, whereas this simple tale could easily be told in 1:30. The movie spends its entire first hour in meeting the characters, who then spend their precious screen time refurbishing this battered old wreck of a boat. How is this in the slightest bit "exciting"? Nothing in the way of action happens until after an hour of this un-involving segment has passed and by then the viewer has gone to sleep.
Then there is Cliff Robertson as Kennedy. He spends the entire film with one expression, that of a sappy "everything is okay and I'm always amused" smile planted on his face. I have seen the animatronic creations at the 1980's Epcot Center express more emotions than Mr. Robertson. Oh yes, he does have pretty blue eyes, too.
It is interesting, however, to see some of the other yet-to-be well-known actors of the day show their stuff, along with various character actors we have seen in so many other films. I did enjoy Robert Culp a great deal, much more so than Mr. Robertson. I knew George Takei was somewhere in this film, but I never did pick him out, though he might have been in deep shadow in the background of a 10-second shot of the bridge of the Japanese destroyer.
As for suspense, there is none! It's obvious from the get-go that Mr. Kennedy survives this ordeal; after all, he was President when the film came out so he had to have survived. The director should have gone a little further to engineer some false sense of suspense, because there is absolutely none otherwise. Nor are there any interesting camera angles to keep the viewer interested.... All are long shots of remote islands or extreme closeups of Mr. Robertson's blue eyes instead.
Another disastrous part of this film is the score! For more than half of the film it consists entirely of bright, cheery military style martial and marching music, always turned up WAY TOO LOUDLY. The score seems to be the 'main character' much of the time, and weighs heavily with its overbearing cheeriness. I haven't seen too many movies where the score fails to fade into the background like a good score should, yet properly sets the tone and mood. This score does neither. This particular score sounds like it was written for McHale's Navy. I found it to be very very annoying.
There is one incredibly laughable scene involving music. As a group of natives paddle their canoe with Mr. Kennedy hidden under grasses inside, they ACTUALLY SING ALOUD A Christian RELIGIOUS HYMN to set their paddling rhythm. I have never seen anything more ridiculous than this absurd scene.
Quite a bit of realism is entirely lacking, mostly after the crash occurs. One crewman (Buck), while in the water, repeatedly says his "legs don't work" and requires our hero JFK to rescue him. Yet a few hours later when they make landfall, he's walking around like nothing ever happened. Another crewman has "third degree burns" over much of his arms and face (according to the dialog), but he stoically endures multiple ocean immersions and looks to be suffering nothing worse then a mild sunburn. Several reviewers commented on a spinal or back injury Mr. Kennedy allegedly received; these comments are the first I knew of any such injury, since Mr. Kennedy performs a 10-hour swim, never mentions a thing about his 'injury', and continues onward with his silly "all-is-well" grin.
The IMDb and other descriptions say that Mr. Kennedy kept his crew alive (which is true enough) but that he also found them food and shelter! Yet they lay or sat in the open on the beach or in the 'jungle' the entire time, eating coconuts, which any one of them could have easily found for themselves (and did). Where is this alleged shelter? Yes, Mr. Kennedy's upbeat morale did evidently go a long way towards saving his crew, if the characterizations of the film can be believed.
Other reviewers complained, or at least pointed out, discrepancies between the movie and "the true facts"; that this scene or that were historically in a different order or occurred on different boats than were shown in the film. So what, I say? This is obviously done to maintain a level of tension and drama and for basic storytelling purposes (as at least one other reviewer points out). This movie is not meant as an historical documentary, so these deviations have little bearing on the overall issues this reviewer has with the film; the wooden acting, overblown score, total lack of excitement, and un-believability.
Really, I couldn't wait for this movie to end so I could get on with something more interesting. I would only recommend this for a mere glimmering of historical interest, or for those of you who want to see just how badly a movie can turn out to be.
Don't get me wrong; I think JFK was a great president and the USA was grievously harmed by his assassination at such a critical time in our history. There hasn't been as good a president as he since then!
But that's an aside and has nothing to do with the creation of this turkey. Several reviewers correctly pointed out that its WAY TOO LONG at 2:20, whereas this simple tale could easily be told in 1:30. The movie spends its entire first hour in meeting the characters, who then spend their precious screen time refurbishing this battered old wreck of a boat. How is this in the slightest bit "exciting"? Nothing in the way of action happens until after an hour of this un-involving segment has passed and by then the viewer has gone to sleep.
Then there is Cliff Robertson as Kennedy. He spends the entire film with one expression, that of a sappy "everything is okay and I'm always amused" smile planted on his face. I have seen the animatronic creations at the 1980's Epcot Center express more emotions than Mr. Robertson. Oh yes, he does have pretty blue eyes, too.
It is interesting, however, to see some of the other yet-to-be well-known actors of the day show their stuff, along with various character actors we have seen in so many other films. I did enjoy Robert Culp a great deal, much more so than Mr. Robertson. I knew George Takei was somewhere in this film, but I never did pick him out, though he might have been in deep shadow in the background of a 10-second shot of the bridge of the Japanese destroyer.
As for suspense, there is none! It's obvious from the get-go that Mr. Kennedy survives this ordeal; after all, he was President when the film came out so he had to have survived. The director should have gone a little further to engineer some false sense of suspense, because there is absolutely none otherwise. Nor are there any interesting camera angles to keep the viewer interested.... All are long shots of remote islands or extreme closeups of Mr. Robertson's blue eyes instead.
Another disastrous part of this film is the score! For more than half of the film it consists entirely of bright, cheery military style martial and marching music, always turned up WAY TOO LOUDLY. The score seems to be the 'main character' much of the time, and weighs heavily with its overbearing cheeriness. I haven't seen too many movies where the score fails to fade into the background like a good score should, yet properly sets the tone and mood. This score does neither. This particular score sounds like it was written for McHale's Navy. I found it to be very very annoying.
There is one incredibly laughable scene involving music. As a group of natives paddle their canoe with Mr. Kennedy hidden under grasses inside, they ACTUALLY SING ALOUD A Christian RELIGIOUS HYMN to set their paddling rhythm. I have never seen anything more ridiculous than this absurd scene.
Quite a bit of realism is entirely lacking, mostly after the crash occurs. One crewman (Buck), while in the water, repeatedly says his "legs don't work" and requires our hero JFK to rescue him. Yet a few hours later when they make landfall, he's walking around like nothing ever happened. Another crewman has "third degree burns" over much of his arms and face (according to the dialog), but he stoically endures multiple ocean immersions and looks to be suffering nothing worse then a mild sunburn. Several reviewers commented on a spinal or back injury Mr. Kennedy allegedly received; these comments are the first I knew of any such injury, since Mr. Kennedy performs a 10-hour swim, never mentions a thing about his 'injury', and continues onward with his silly "all-is-well" grin.
The IMDb and other descriptions say that Mr. Kennedy kept his crew alive (which is true enough) but that he also found them food and shelter! Yet they lay or sat in the open on the beach or in the 'jungle' the entire time, eating coconuts, which any one of them could have easily found for themselves (and did). Where is this alleged shelter? Yes, Mr. Kennedy's upbeat morale did evidently go a long way towards saving his crew, if the characterizations of the film can be believed.
Other reviewers complained, or at least pointed out, discrepancies between the movie and "the true facts"; that this scene or that were historically in a different order or occurred on different boats than were shown in the film. So what, I say? This is obviously done to maintain a level of tension and drama and for basic storytelling purposes (as at least one other reviewer points out). This movie is not meant as an historical documentary, so these deviations have little bearing on the overall issues this reviewer has with the film; the wooden acting, overblown score, total lack of excitement, and un-believability.
Really, I couldn't wait for this movie to end so I could get on with something more interesting. I would only recommend this for a mere glimmering of historical interest, or for those of you who want to see just how badly a movie can turn out to be.