The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea (1976)

A nice coincidence: I just started this novel, by Yukio Mishima, and this film, which I didn't even know existed, popped up on Netflix Instant. I finished the novel and started the movie about one minute later. First off, the novel: excellent. I think it really captures, in a horrifying way, what it was like to be a kid who thinks he's so much smarter than all the adults in his life. It's very insightful, tightly plotted (only 180 pages), and has brilliant but simple characterizations. The film: it's a fine adaptation. The location is transported from Yokohama, Japan to a small, coastal town in England south of London. Sarah Miles plays a young widow with a 13 year-old son (Jonathan Kahn). Kahn is a precocious boy who pals around with a gang of five other too-smart-for-their-age kids. They refer to each other by rank. The lead boy, known as the chief (Earl Rhodes), is a ferocious leader who believes human morality is a ridiculous concept. Basically, he has a very fascist philosophy and believes himself, and his five underlings (Kahn is #2 of the five), to be of a superior ilk than everyone around them. Kris Kristofferson plays the titular sailor who begins a romantic relationship with the very lonely Miles. While Kahn is excited at first to know this sailor (he is himself fascinated by the sea), when he realizes that he's intent on entering the family, he feels threatened. Kahn and his buddies then form a plot to get rid of Kristofferson. The major criticism that most seem to have of the film is that it doesn't explicate the children enough. I'm not sure that it's true. Perhaps I understand them better because I had just finished the novel (where there is a bit more of an explanation), but I think that people reading the novel may be just as perplexed by these kids' attitudes as they are when watching the movie. Perhaps a lot of people didn't have that philosophy when they were that age. More power to them, because it's very ugly, but I think it's very common. The one big complaint that I have with the film is a technical gripe: the sound is awful. I don't think it's just the video I watched, either. Much of the time, characters speak in an audible volume. But just as often they speak so softly that you can't hear them at all. Even after I turned off my air conditioner, I could just barely hear what was being said. The cinematography is very beautiful, as is the score (by Douglas Slocombe and Johnny Mandel respectively).

Anne Osborne (Sarah Miles) is a young widow living in a picturesque seaside village in England. Her troubled son has fallen in with a bad crowd; he belongs to a secret society run by a bully who has his own very definite ideas about the proper order of things. When Anne decides to marry a merchant sailor (Kris Kristofferson), her son takes the news quite badly and turns to his pals for help.This movie was quite controversial in 1976, and with it's graphic sexuality and shocking cruelty, it still is. Miles is well-cast as the needy widow but sometimes overdoes the cow-eyed trances and histrionics. Kristofferson looks the part of a rugged seaman and the two have great chemistry. The creepy boys' club provides some truly cringe-worthy moments as innocent young boys commit unspeakable acts, and this movie is not for the squeamish (especially animal-lovers).Lovely Devon locations contrast nicely with the increasing tension and overall feeling of doom. An interesting and haunting movie for adults.

Another rarity from the library,that again,I've never heard of. So naturally I just had to see it. I'll warn those who haven't seen it,to not be taken in too much by the beautiful scenery shown at the beginning. Which makes it seem like this will be a real '70s touching love story with a happy ending. Now,Kris Kristofferson will more than likely never get a lifetime achievement award from the Academy,or for that matter even a best supporting Oscar. Here in "The Sailor.." (which should have been enough of a title)he's actually effective. He's not loud and abrasive here,like he was in "A Star Is Born" or "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore". His performance,while not overly spectacular is actually very evenly paced and quite thoughtful and even poetic. I've never heard of the other players in the film but Kris's love interest is quite a bold actress for the scenes of nudity she's given. As for her love scenes with Kristofferson,if the two characters weren't portraying being in love,I'd think less of them being pictured here. Personally,I find them in this context to be quite romantic.The boy peeping in on his mother and then the couple,is just a young boy satisfying his newborn curiosity. I'm certain the producers weren't going for an "Edipous and his mother" plot. Speaking of the boy,I wondered,"how can he let himself be friends with such a rotten kid"? How also could he and the others let themselves be bossed around,hit and abused by this kid,who needs at least 20 years of psycho-therapy? It's almost impossible to imagine what could screw a young kid like that up so badly that he hates basically everything and is practically a pint-sized Hitler?I have to say I was truly disappointed that the boy and his buddies didn't come to their senses and ditch him or take him on all at once or one at a time! Instead they blindly follow his lead to where they end up offing Kristofferson. What an incredible downer! I'm glad they didn't show a scene with the mother realizing her chance at new happiness had been taken away,that would have been too much to take.Seven stars for the love story,the innocence of the boy before he goes bad,the scenery and even Kristofferson's acting. 3 off for the morbidness that I feel had no place alongside the romantic storyline. Even if it was taken from the book. (END)

Every time you make a movie based on a foreign novel something goes terribly wrong. I saw this movie when I was a kid while watching TV on a Saturday afternoon. I have to say that it is by far one of the creepiest movies I have ever seen. If this movie were set in a Japanese fishing village instead of an English one then I wouldn't have been so freaked out. I mean, I expect people from a different culture to behave differently than I do. The interaction between children and adults is different, etc. This movie is most disturbing because no one acts like you would expect them to. They are all bizarre. This movie will definitely make your skin crawl. We got a kid spying on his mom humping, freaky arian friends that like to murder and dissect animals, and then the jaw dropping ending.You could achieve a similar effect if you made a movie about a family in Iraq that doesn't like the fact that a daughter dates someone without permission. So the father and the brothers kill her. In a foreign context like that we might find the story disturbing but not totally creepy.Now make it a white American family living in the suburbs. Throw in a lot of neighbors who all think the same way and condone the ritual murder. Talk about creepy. You finally just scratch your head and say, where are these people from, mars?