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List Price: $9.98 | | Label: Warner Home Video
Salesrank: 40698
Released: November 23, 1999 |
| Our Price: $1.98 |
| Used Price: $1.89 |
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MPAA Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Ahoy for adventure in this jolly good yarn of retired British military men who become the unlikely heroes of a World War II search-and-destroy mission.
Starring: Gregory Peck, David Niven, Roger Moore, Trevor Howard, Patrick MacNee Year: 1980 Sound: ENG; Subtitles: ENG, FR Screen Format: Side A: Standard; Side B: Widescreen
The Sea Wolves (Snap Case) Reviews:
"Bill, we've got problems. The main bearing is overheating!" 
2009-11-25 - The Sea Wolves has a number of problems, not just the main bearing. Andrew McLaglen directed the movie, a WWII adventure of spies and explosives set primarily in Goa's harbor. Three German merchant ships have been interned there, on the west coast of India. Suspiciously, Allied ships are being torpedoed in the area. Look for a German spy operation to learn British shipping schedules and routes; then a way to send that information to the merchant ship that has a transmitter; then a relay to waiting German subs. The British must take action...but Goa is Portuguese. That means neutral. So the Calcutta Light Horse, a part-time territorial unit that is proud of being part of the Raj is recruited. "They haven't seen action in 40 years. You're talking about a mixed bag of boozing, middle-aged, pot bellied businessmen," says a brigadier. "No argument," says Gregory Peck, playing Colonel Lewis Pugh, "but when the war started every man jack of them volunteered for active service." Their colonel is William Grice (David Niven). While Captain Gavin Stewart (Roger Moore) of British Special Secret Operations deals with the spies on land, Colonel Pugh, of British Secret Special Operations (or something like that), will lead the Light Horse to board and destroy the German ships.
McLaglen at his best turned out movies like The Wild Geese, The Devil's Brigade, Bandolero! and several of John Wayne's late middle age westerns. Many were reliable commercial hits, but without an original thought in any of them. They're all skillfully composed of clichés, manly joshing, scenic photography and action. The Sea Wolves might be worth its two hours, but the movie is strictly a professional, commercial and predictable enterprise.
Besides McLaglen's unimaginative commercial competence, The Sea Wolves suffers from its structure, and that means it suffers from its two leads. Peck was 64 and looks it. He undoubtedly was hired to sell tickets in the American market. His British accent varies between nonexistent to jarringly phony: "We're looking for awnsers" "We will keep to the shedjool." Roger Moore at 53 is beginning to need careful lighting to keep the illusion of being 10 years younger. He gives us only more of Moore, a smooth operator who dresses well, is always charming, and speaks smirking innuendo to the ladies. At one point Moore is shot in the elbow and still puts on his dinner jacket unassisted. You have to admire a man like that. Peck and Moore both try for the old English upper-class insouciance, gallantry-in-the-face-of-danger sort of thing. We wind up with a movie that for its first third is Peck and Moore together developing the plan, then Moore for the second third taking out spies, and then the last third with Peck leading the action to board and destroy.
As usual with McLaglen, there are some effective scenes...obtaining and putting in shape a rusting hulk that will transport the Light Horse to the German ships...a spy who prefers a knife to end discussions...the determination of Trevor Howard...one or two sad scenes that work...the final ten minutes which is all action. But then there is that awful stiff-upper-lip "English" dialogue written by Reginald Rose, an American. The Light Horse serves up at every opportunity quantities of manly joshing and kidding, seasickness and terrible cooking, and instant volunteering by each man for the most dangerous tasks. At two hours, however, the three-part story, sluggish pacing (especially with Moore's adventures), and Peck's accent drain away any consistent excitement.
David Niven at 70 is the only one of the three stars who seems quite at home with this sort of thing. The occasion, however, is sad. Niven already was showing signs of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, from which he would die three years later. The Sea Wolves also features a number of aging British actors playing members of the Light Horse. Although their dialogue, joshing and over-aged running about can make a person squirm in sympathy for them, it's still nice to see Trevor Howard, Terrence Longdon, Moray Watson, John Standing, Allan Cuthbertson, Percy Herbert and Donald Houston, as well as Patrick McNee.
The movie is subtitled "The Last Charge of the Calcutta Light Horse." It really happened. The DVD transfer looks fine. There are no extras.
A Delight 
2009-06-23 - A great war tme movie with two of the best
actors, Peck and Moore.
Old geezers win the war with stiff upper lip 
2009-04-02 - This 1980 movie seemed to sit in between two generations of styles of war movie, and as a result seems to have fallen through the cracks of communal memory for many. It's a shame, as it's a decent movie, fun, doesn't take itself too seriously - but gripping enough to represent the factual story it depicts, and of course has a hugely entertaining cast clearly having a ball.
During WW II, an aging group of ex Boer War veterans, now forming a territorial style home guard in India known as the Calcutta Light Horse, are roped into action in a piece of skullduggery and sabotage on a German vessel in which has become a thorn in the side of the Royal Navy. Unfortunately, it is in Goa, a neutral Portuguese port, and no regular military mission can be mounted, hence our aging heroes for whom the British government can maintain plausible deniability, spring into action.
Gregory Peck and Roger Moore are the military espionage string pullers who lead the operation, David Niven, Trevor Howard and a host of British character actors play the Calcutta Light Horse, and Patrick Macnee and Barbara Kellerman round out the stellar cast in other roles.
It's old fashioned movie making, Boys Own adventure style, with the pace and script not short on humor, but it's a serious war movie too, which relies more on the build up and background than a climax, which may be disappointing in the action stakes to a modern movie audience. To be honest, most of the fun is in watching these actors on the screen together for one more time, before the 80's blockbusters thrust a new generation of actors and movie styles into the limelight.
John Glenn, veteran editor of many Bond movies, proficiently pieces together the action scenes to maximize tension, while experienced director Andrew McLaglen tries to walk a tightrope between historical re-enactment and big starring blockbuster... he makes a pretty good stab at it, but perhaps the end result may seem somewhat compromised for trying to keep a foot so firmly in both camps. Certainly the cinematography is uninspired workmanlike fare, and the costumes say more about 1980 than they do about 1943.
Don't nitpick though, it's good fun, with a cracking cast - I recommend it for an undemanding watch. Solid proponents of the MTV generation of movie making might want to stay clear.
Sea Fair
2009-03-29 - This beloved WWII saga is fairly irresistible, even if it's never quit as good as you want it to be. The first half is some flavorful, if slow moving, cloak-and-dagger spy stuff in wartime India. Then we get to the Sea Wolves tale of golden oldies doing their part for the war effort, and the tone becomes agreeably rousing.
Peck tries, and he's likable if simply not convincing. Always lackadaisical Moore isn't helped by his character being so foolish. For the final scenes you're on the edge of your seat, not just in suspense, but as you worry about frail David Niven taking a fall.
Not a classic, but fun.
They showed what old is all about
2009-02-28 - Okay, so maybe these men were a bit older than the average troop, They may have some difficulty performing a Physicle training test. But they sure as hell got the job done, and that reader is what old is about.
