Most excellent entertaining movie bringing us a cross section of life and real life situations with human nature at work. Some very difficult decisions have to be made in this movie by everyone involved. We are reminded that when not challenged, your opinion or belief just sits there. You may or may not ever know if it bears fruit. But when summoned into action, the we find out what works and what doesn't sometimes much to our own disbelief too. In this movie, the players and even the viewer is forced to confront themselves. Is what we are seeing acted out real and is it plausible? Yes, frighteningly so. Should we all die unnecessary deaths or should some live for the right reasons. What makes you more attractive to "live" and contribute than let's say the other guy? Strangely enough, it is not being judgmental when you see the other persons abilities or lack thereof. Observing what will or wont work is raw reality and then acting on it is raw courage. That is what you will find here. Sometimes the majority is wrong and the minority unsure, but going along to get along is not an option. This movie presents and proves that point. The stage is set well in the beginning and then leads to a point where it roller coasters...then hold on..Popcorm recommended, I roast fresh sunflower seeds and chomp away....Enjoy and do spread the word and may all your decisions be your own

"Seven waves away" or "abandon ship!" ,the latter being a more appropriate title ,is a British disaster movie based on real facts ;but a disaster movie which has almost nothing to do with the epics of the seventies.There is no Manicheism ,nothing like the good guys (and the smart young child) who are saved -except for a few exceptions ,for instance when they sacrifice their life-and the villains who get punished .The characters as far as clichés as they can be (one of the ship-wrecked suggest each of them tell his story ,to no avail) .No Hollywood touch except may be in the last final sequences .This is one of Tyrone Power's most important roles (with "the razor's edge" and "nightmare alley")and he reveals himself a great actor here :I dare you to like his skipper (and I dare you to hate him too).After you've seen the movie ,you will not be able to decide if he acted like a hero or a like a monster.A six months sentence may be not enough or might be too much,depending on whom you ask ,or on how YOU perceived the story.After watching it ,you will feel uneasy .Apart from Tyrone Power ,the cast is uniformly good ;pre-Messala Stephen Boyd particularly gives good support .If you are looking for something like "Poseidon adventure" ,you have to move on.Like this? try this..."Le Radeau De La Méduse" Iradj Azimi,1998

Abandon Ship (1957) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Extremely difficult to watch but masterfully made is the best way to sum up this drama that will have your on the edge of your seat from start to finish. A luxury liner strikes a derailed land mine, explodes and sinks in seven seconds. Twenty-seven people survive with Officer Holmes (Tyrone Power) given orders to take control of the lifeboat and see to it that as many people survive as possible. The boat is 1500 miles from land with a major storm coming and the lifeboat is holding at least twelve people too many so Holmes must pick and choose which ones can stay on the top and which must go overboard. This film, based on a true story, is rather hard to watch and I'm sure many people will find it too unpleasant and will eventually turn it off. The film takes place in the water from start to finish and the shaky camera-work and constant throbbing in the water will get some sea sick but those who stick to the movie will find a lot of other things to be disgusted by. I'd say I'm an expert at watching some ugly stuff but even my stomach was turning due to the subject matter here, which is handled in a very raw and realistic way. Having one man play God and pick who gets to live and die is a soul searching cause and will really have you thinking. The movie starts off as your typical disaster pic but instead of action we get thoughts of what we would do in that situation. You'll ask yourself if you could throw a woman overboard to die and if everyone should die or if a select group should have the right to live. A movie fan really has to ask themselves if a masterfully directed movie with great performances is worth watching when the subject matter itself is too ugly. I'm sure many will stay away from the film and I'm really not sure if I'd want to sit through it again but there's no doubt at how well made the thing is. I've always been hit and miss on Power but after seeing his performance here I've turned into an instant fan. He's completely believable in the role and extremely strong in putting his character's thoughts right up there for us to see without having to say a single word. Mai Zetterling, Stephen Boyd, Lloyd Nolan and the rest of the cast are great as well but there's no question as to whose film it is. It's rather amazing that this film isn't better known as many disaster movies remain quite popular today. I'm going to guess the reason this one here has been forgotten is simply because many watching it won't want to recommend it to anyone. I can only imagine how a film like this hit people when it was first released because as movie viewers today we've become quite jaded to violence. There's no real violence here but there's no question that the film and its subject matter are a lot more brutal to watch than any slasher or violence packed action film.

The film begins with an explosion that quickly sinks an ocean liner. Apparently an old WWI or WWII floating mine struck the vessel and very few people have survived. One group of survivors consists of 27 people inside as well as clinging to a dingy only meant to hold 9! Because it is totally overloaded, the passengers need to take shifts in the water--wearing life jackets and holding on to ropes. Despite this arrangement, there simply isn't enough food or water and once the weather changes the boat will no doubt capsize since it is so low in the water. Because of this, eventually the man in charge (Tyrone Power) is forced to start abandoning the weaker survivors--reasoning that SOME might survive that way. But because the parts of the weak are fleshed out in the story, it is very hard to see them cast adrift one by one--it's tough to watch and very frightful. While this does make this a good movie in some ways due to its addressing a serious moral dilemma, it's horrid to watch and not at all pleasant. It really takes an unusual person to want to see this film.Technically, this is a decent film though the explosion at the beginning of the film was super-cheesy and cheap looking. Despite good writing, direction and acting, though, this movie is NOT for most people, as it's very gritty and super-depressing throughout. Because of this I am advising any potential viewers to think twice about seeing it--even though the film is in some ways quite amazing.For a more enjoyable but certainly less realistic view of the subject, try watching Hitchcock's film, LIFEBOAT. It's very stagy and more trivial than SEVEN WAVES AWAY but at least it's not as depressing.