Stellead Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

ThrillMessage There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

kfo9494 Even though I thought this film lacked qualities about the true event, I do acknowledge that Tyrone Powers was an actor with an abundant of talent. His ability to capture the viewer and hold the suspense is the reason that this movie is so well enjoyed by many.The movie's, one and only, set is a small boat on the ocean. This happens as we are told a ship hits an old sea-mine and breaks the keel. Thus, making the ship sinks in minutes with few people surviving. We are not privy to see how the ship sank nor how the characters get into the water as the film begins after the sinking. The first bit of dialog starts as characters are already clinging to floating wreckage.The rest of the movie all happens in the ocean. Here, Alec Holmes (Powers), will be in charge of a small boat that has way too many people aboard. Holmes makes the decision that some have to go-- and this brings us to the plot of the story.The entire movie hinges on Power's ability to hold the audience's attention for nearly 90 minutes. Tyrone Powers accomplishes this task by giving a powerful performance. The only drawback of the movie are some of the small scenes that were overplayed for dramatic effect. It happens right at the beginning as two survivors cope with the sinking and lost of love ones. Another is when the radio operator tells that he never sent out a SOS message - and then near the end when one person wants to drown but is saved by others. Otherwise an enjoyable film to watch.

sol ***SPOILER ALERT*** True story of a shipwreck, due in the film to a WWII German naval mine, that had the ship's-The Crescent Star- second mate Executive Officer Alec Holmes, Tyrone Power, take command after the fatality injured ship's Captain Paul Darrow Laurence Nismith, put him in charge of it's survivors.Under the most extreme and dangerous circumstances Holmes gathers the some 35 Crescent Star survivors in a lifeboat that can hold no more the 15 people! Stuck in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean some 1,500 miles from the nearest land, the African Continent, Holmes has to now choose those who can help make it to shore and those who are just dead weight and have to be thrown overboard in order for the rest to survive. The movie has a very determined yet tortured and guilt ridden Holmes make the ultimate decision of life or death for those he's been put in charge of on the overcrowded lifeboat. A decision that in the end he'll have to stand trial for and possibly face the death penalty for premeditated murder!Knowing what he has to do to save the few people on the lifeboat who could survive the long and dangerous, in the teeth of a powerful South Atlantc Ocean storm, trip to Africa Holmes does in fact accomplish his almost impossible mission. That's even after he ends up almost getting killed by one of the lifeboat's passengers who threw a knife in his chest. Not reaching the African coastline Holmes and the surviving passengers were rescued by a British freighter-The British Soldier-just when Holmes himself was about, in him feeling that he's become a burden to those on board, to throw himself overboard!***SPOILERS***What's so sad and depressing about the ending is that none of the survivors with the exception of the ship's nurse Julie White, Mai Zettering, and one of it's passengers Edith Middleton, Moira Lister, who's husband was one of those who ended up under the waves, were willing to vouch or stand up for the man who was most responsible in saving their lives: Alec Holmes!Based on the true story of the wreck of the William Brown back in the spring 1841 "Abandon Ship" shows us how people can in many cases desert and leave hanging the very persons who not only saved their lives but risked their own lives in doing it! Even for the self-serving gutless and selfish reasons that they can conjure up in their not too sharp as well non analytical minds.P.S In the sinking of the William Brown the boat was sunk by an iceberg not naval mine like in the movie based on it. Also the William Brown was not a luxury cruse ship like the Crescent Star was with its passengers not of the upper crust of society. But mostly poor and downtrodden Irish emigrants trying to find a new start in life in America. The only thing that matched both the fictitious Crescent Star and real William Brown was the name of both ships tragic hero Alac Holmes! Who in real life was made a scapegoat for the maritime deserter and made to spend six months behind bars after being convicted for involuntary manslaughter! That for Holmes heroic part in saving some 15 persons who, if it wasn't for his brave and at the same time difficult actions, would have ended up at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean!

Neil Doyle As gripping and powerful as it is, ABANDON SHIP! is a survival story that's hard to view from the comfort of an armchair or theater seat. The viewer can identify so completely with the daunting task facing the ship's officer (TYRONE POWER) when making life and death decisions with regard to how many people can use the lifeboat when a sunken ship leaves them adrift at sea.True, there are a few stereotypes among the raft's passengers, but the drama becomes real and forceful due to the strong performances from an excellent cast. MAI ZETTERLING is fine as a nurse with a romantic relationship to Executive Officer Power and STEPHEN BOYD and LLOYD NOLAN are fine as other ship officers caught up in unusual circumstances surrounding their survival at sea.Not for the squeamish, it has echoes of Hitchcock's LIFEBOAT (but without the humor).Tyrone Power was at a stage in his career when he wanted more serious roles rather than stay forever fixed in the minds of movie-goers as a swashbuckling star. Here he certainly had his chance to prove his acting skills and he does a splendid job in a grim role, one of his last parts before his premature death from a heart attack at age 45.

blanche-2 Abandon Ship/Seven Waves Away is a very powerful and difficult film to watch, made a little more palatable by the presence of one of film's great matinée idols, Tyrone Power. I'm sorry one of the posters didn't find him sexy. That man oozed sex from every pore of his body - just ask anyone who came within two feet of him, including his costar in this film, Mai Zetterling. Their torrid affair is discussed in vivid, oh so vivid detail in her autobiography - a whole 18-page chapter.Sex aside, this film comes off as a great deal grittier than Lifeboat. For me, Tallulah Bankhead was so dazzling in Lifeboat, much of the focus was on her, which somehow dissipated a lot of the tragedy. The two films are similar, though, on some plot points. However, due to Bankhead, there was some humor in Lifeboat. Abandon Ship/Seven Waves Away has none.The film will keep you glued to your seat, but it is not easy to take, as it is unrelenting in its message and harrowing scenes. You will suffer along with each person who is sacrificed so that others may live.It's great to see Tyrone Power in a meatier role, and I do believe his career would have taken some exciting turns, both on stage and screen, had he lived past the age of 44. His face was a total curse (to him only) and got in the way of serious acting pursuits for years. His performance in Abandon Ship is excellent and stands as one of his best. There are other films where he had a tendency to tighten up, but this wasn't one of them. It's a shame about him - like so many men of that era, he always had a cigarette in his hand; in Power's case, it was suspected he had heart trouble, but he was in denial about it and didn't want it verified. So we're stuck with what work of his we have, and a lot of it is pretty darn good.** According to Mai Zetterling's book, All Those Tomorrows, the cast sat in a boat floating in a large indoor tank at Shepperton Studios. There were wind and wave machines and a watershoot pouring cold water on the cast. A starting pistol had to be used to start action as there was no way to hear the director. In the end, the whole film was dubbed because no one could hear. Zetterling had a nearly three-year affair with Power, which gets a chapter in her book.