Seawolf

Starring: Sebastian Koch, Tim Roth, Neve Campbell, Steven Campbell Moore

Synopsis:

Wolf Larsen (Koch) is the tyrannical Captain of the notorious seal-hunting vessel, The Ghost. While on the high seas, he rescues Humphrey Van Wyden (Moore), a man adrift after falling overboard from his cruise ship. But instead of abandoning him at the next harbour, Wolf puts the mild-mannered literary critic to work and rules over him with an unyielding iron fist.Much to Wolf’s surprise, the hard graft transforms Van Wyden into a hardened adversary, every bit as formidable as Wolf himself. But it’s not until the appearance of Wolf’s brother, Death (Roth) and Maud (Campbell), the daughter of a rival ship owner, that the dynamic truly explodes into life, leaving three men to war over love, duty, life and death.

Review:

Adapted from the novel by Jack London (Call of the Wild, White Fang), Seawolf is a pretty riveting mini-series which suffers the same problem many mini-series do – it’s overlong, and a little repetitive.

The opening is quite disjointed. There are lots of snippets of scenes which are supposed to establish the main characters, but they are very oblique in the way they’ve been edited, so it takes about 5 minutes of screen-time to establish what is important information. That it starts with Neve Campbell as a runaway bride doesn’t help things.

However, once the two ships – Wolf’s schooner The Ghost and Death’s steam-ship The Macedonia get underway, things start to improve. The ships are heading toward the Japanese coast to hunt seals. The episodes start with the disclaimer that no animals were hurt during the production. However each of the two episodes contain some rather distressing footage of seals being killed and skinned.

Humphrey, our ostensible hero, finds himself flung overboard after trying to intervene on behalf of a woman in distress. Lucky for him he’s soon picked out of the water by Wolf and his crew. He finds himself working in the galley with the main chef, Cookie, a cowardly bully. The mood on the ship is full of malevolence, toward each other and their captain, who meets every discretion with severe brutality. Much to everyone’s surprise, Humphrey starts to appreciate and adapt to his new life, learning the ropes of the trade and starting to assert himself. When Cookie tries to intimidate him, Humphrey turns the tables on him by dragging him into a very public knife fight.

Meanwhile over on the Macedonia, Maud has concealed her identity from the Captain, the belligerent Death Larson. However, when he informs her he won’t be able to set her down in Yokohama as planned, she reveals her true name to him in a bid to get him to do her bidding. The results of her actions have very different consequences than those she expected.

There is a lot going on in Sea Wolf, but the single locations make things rather monotonous after a while. Some quite brutal acts are committed, allegiances shift back and forth, but the backdrop is always the same and characters are put into positions which require a reset before the whole thing devolves into a horror movie.

While Tim Roth and Sebastian Koch are excellent into their roles, the spoils must go to Stephen Campbell Moore, who’s Humphrey undergoes an extraordinary change throughout the story. When we first meet him he’s an effete “gentleman”, the sort who believes writing is “real work”, but he soon adapts to both the ways of the sea and the politics on board. He and Wolf develop a respectful hatred of each other.

The second episode sees the two storylines converge, as the Macedonia finally makes it to the seal colonies and tries to destroy the Ghost and steal it’s cargo of pelts. The introduction of Maud onto The Ghost also adds a new dynamic to proceedings. Sea Wolf is a well-made series, with high production values. The nautical photography is excellent and throughout you get a good impression as to what it must have been like to serve aboard a vessel such as The Ghost. This would appeal to anyone who enjoyed ITV’s Hornblower series, or Master and Commander.

Verdict:

Well acted and packed with incident, Seawolf is an excellent brew but one that is an acquired taste. At times it’s quite brutal, and people of a sensitive disposition should take those animal cruelty notices to heart.

7 out of 10 (MikeOutWest)

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