The Long Voyage Home – 1940
This was a good movie with some competent special effects, for the most part, though there were a few little details that I noticed, which could have been done better. It is a film about tough sailors, at sea, docked in port, and on shore leave. All the real special effects happened when the ship was out at sea.
As you might imagine, there were rough waters and a bit of a storm. This is where we have things like battering winds, cold ocean spray, rocking waves, and slippery decks. It was all pretty well done. The composite shots were put together well enough. They had a pretty good mix of rear-projection and real water to make the effects look real.
But here is where I had my problems. It was the actors. It was pretty clear they were standing on a motionless set. I’ve actually been on a boat before, and you can always feel the rocking of the waves. There was always that slight sway, though my voyages have always been on calm water. In the movie, just watch the background whenever the ocean is shown behind the actors. The horizon is moving back and forth, up and down, but the actors aren’t reacting to it at all.
One scene in which this little flaw really stood out to me was Yank’s funeral. Sure, there was a wind blowing and a little spray could be seen. But as the background on the rear-projection screen kept moving significantly, the actors were standing absolutely still, not reacting to the motion at all.
There was even a scene in which the ship is weathering a violent storm. Gigantic waves are crashing over the sides of the ship, and the people on the deck are having trouble staying on their feet. But then we cut to the men in the crew cabin as they stare out a porthole. They, and everything in the tiny room, are as steady as rocks while thy deliver their dialogue.
But aside from that, everything was good. Not great, but good. There just weren’t that many effects in the film to speak of. So why was this film nominated for Best Special Effects? I’m not really sure on this one. I mean, what few effects we had were done well enough, but I guess I was expecting more, especially when I compare it to the other films nominated for the same category that year.
The only other thing I can think of is that maybe the stunts and fight choreography were being looked at as part of the film’s special effects. There was a little fight on the deck of the docked ship, near the beginning of the film, but even that little scene was nothing to write home about. There was nothing that looked too dangerous or difficult. Just a bunch of men throwing punches at each other amid the screaming women. I don’t know. Maybe I’m missing something.