The Perfect Storm

Captain Billy Tyne decides to go out one more time before the season ends, hoping to get that one big catch. I'm not going to get into details of what happens from there, except as you can probably guess, there's a storm. The movie is ostensibly about the power and fury of this 1991 storm, but I was more interested in the Gloucester sailors, and their story, and luckily, the film doesn't forget them. This might be a partial indication of my own taste, but I'm often taken with movies that give us a glimpse into someone else's career. Most of us are never going to be professional fishermen, must less the sort of sailors that are required for the long trips to sea that "sword boats" require. There's something worth seeing in the talk and mannerisms of sword boaters. In our modern times, we take it for granted that most "voyages" in our lives are over within a day (by air) or two or three (by land). These sailors, however, who leave for longer stretches harkens back to earlier times when a life at sea could mean weeks away from home and family. Sure, there's a storm, and all that... but this movie captures that essence of the sailor, and I liked that most. The performances were all effective and believable; with the five central characters ) all seeming credible as sailors.