[.ca] The Long Voyage Home

Long Voyage Home a True Gem:
John Ford's "A Long Voyage Home" is one of those films that stick with you your whole life like "Meet John Doe" or "Of Mice and Men". I last saw it almost 30 years ago and it haunts me still.

Fantastic Voyage:
Wonderful work by John Ford and his team, who stitched together some Eugene O'Neill playlets about the merchant marine into the only film of his own work the writer could stand to watch. The real star here is Thomas Mitchell, the Duke is just a supporting player, and Mitchell gives the best performance of his great career. The moment in which Mitchell realizes that he is delving into a fellow shipmate's sad private life under the mistaken impression that the man is a spy has rarely been equalled in the American movies for emotional power. The film doesn't get mentioned enough in the litany of Ford's great movies but he never surpassed it, in my view.

A different kind of war movie:
Director John Ford took big lug John Wayne out of his usual prairie wanderings in this sad, slowly deliberate film about a group of merchant marines eager to make it home, with the shadow of WWII hovering over them, and German U-boats haunting the waters of the Atlantic. It turns out the Germans are less of a menace than their fellow sailors, as Wayne's naive young Swede, Ole Olafson, falls prey to a criminal pack of shanghai-ers in a seedy local tavern. The ever-dependable Thomas Mitchell brings this film its emotional core, playing his old-timer experience beautifully off of the Swede's wide-eyed innocence. Nice flick; not as exciting or robust as other wartime offerings, but complex and emotionally resonant. From a story by Eugene O'Neill.

The Tense Life on a Merchant Ship during war:
Although a slow paced movie, there is an underlying tension as everyday life of merchant sailors as they labor and die to deliver crucial supplies as war rages far away or is it just over the horizon. From one scene to another, the dreams and fears of crew members are exposed. Many of the crew show their emotions as tension peaks and wanes. These are men here who would rather be somewhere else or who don't know any other life or who have hidden from the reality of their lives on a ship that is sailing in waters where U-Boats could be sighted at any moment. The Kreigsmarine is looking for you as the Nazi's have declared an open season on you and other Allied shipping. Will the next ship torpedoed and sent to the bottom be one of those others or will it be you? Enjoy the sound track as it has some wonderful music that you might otherwise miss. It is a gem of a movie you will be able to appreciate, if you just take the time.

Haunting Musical Score:
If this is the movie I think it is (in how many movies did Johh Wayne have a Swedish accent?), it wasn't but a few years ago when I got a chance to see it from beginning to end as an adult. When I think of this movie, there is one scene that stands out from all the rest; and it is the haunting musical score that caused this. The scene, as I said, is quite simple. We see nothing but the ship itself leaving a dock in the harbor at night. And then the music - "Those Harbor Lights" - begins in what strikes me as a bitter-sweet tone - building gradually during its short duration in such a fashion that it left me feeling almost empty, desperate, hopeless, helpless - for want of better adjectives. I had heard that tune many times over the years - but never as so hauntingly and piercingly as it was performed in that movie - and without words, too! It turned out to be one of those tunes that - once it entered my head - would bounce around and around - taking me days to finally purge it from my system. Not too many movie scenes have affected me this way. I highly recommend this movie for this scene alone. To me it is a different type of John Ford movie, but with top-notch acting, including Thomas Mitchell, Barry Fitzgerald, Barry's brother Arthur Shields, and John Wayne (and with a Swedish accent in the bargain!). A real joy to watch. Enjoy!