Average Rating: 6.8/10
Reviews Counted: 16
Fresh: 13 | Rotten: 3
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Critic Reviews: 3
Fresh: 2 | Rotten: 1
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The first person the audience sees in Ship of Fools is dwarf Michael Dunn, who speaks to viewers directly and acts as a Greek chorus throughout the film. It begins on the deck of an ocean liner travelling from Vera Cruz to Bremerhaven. The time is the 1930s, so close and yet so far from war. The cross-section of humanity on board includes ship's doctor Oscar Werner, Spanish political activist Simone Signoret, aging coquette Vivien Leigh, hedonistic baseball player Lee Marvin, philosophical Jew
Jul 29, 1965 Wide
Dec 2, 2003
Columbia Pictures
All Critics (16) | Top Critics (3) | Fresh (13) | Rotten (3) | DVD (6)
Director-producer Stanley Kramer and scenarist Abby Mann have distilled the essence of Katherine Anne Porter's bulky novel in a film that appeals to the intellect and the emotions.
A powerful, ironic film.
As glib as Stanley Kramer often is, there is probably nothing glibber in his entire output than this Abby Mann adaptation of Katherine Anne Porter's novel.
Superb acting in an Abby Mann script that seldom descends into bathos.
Prestigious and literary cinema at its most ponderous, transfer of Porter's novel to the the big screen by Kramer (the wrong director) is crude and pretentious, but some of the performances, particularly Signoret, Leigh and Dunn, are good.
The black-and-white overlong, dated and uneven film, a less than endearing talk-fest, is rescued from drowning in a sea of words by its fine cast.
Don't look now, but as you might expect with message-mad Kramer at the helm of this adaptation of Katherine Anne Porter's novel, there's a heavy allegory aboard.
All-star cast in ultimately grim tale.
The film's interest lies in the excellent cast.
It makes for OK drama all the same, but it's all on the heavy-handed side. Well, subtlety was never Kramer's strong suit.
Werner and Signoret were wonderful, and deserved their nominations.
A second class luxury liner leaves from Mexico on its way to Germany in the days before WWll. Onboard a cross-section of humanity ... and their afflictions ... there in the twilight zone that voyages can be and seeking resolutions when we know that resolutions are only a bedtime story we tell children, and ourselves.
July 29, 2011Super Reviewer
Compelling, tragic character study. Superb acting by Signoret, Werner and Vivien Leigh.
April 6, 2007
Super Reviewer
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Red Tails, This Means War
Pictures: Wes Anderson films
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