Coming 3 years after the even more insipid 'Logan's Run', Micheal York and Jenny Agutter are paired-up again in more conservative dress, but this time they're in the past instead of the future.
Under wicked Kaiser Wilhelm, the Germans are plotting a covert sea-borne invasion of Britain. An English holiday-maker accidentally stumbles upon their scheme whilst sailing.
It's a very slowly evolving drama, played almost as shallowly as the waters they navigate. Fay Mr York may be handsome in an artist's model sort of way but never passes for an action man. His effeminate voice certainly doesn't help. Jenny Agutter does her usual pose of fresh-faced innocence with which she was invariably been typecast. I met her a few months ago in Camberwell, and apart from a few eye-lines hasn't changed all that much.
Unlike most of the genre, ie; spying, sabotage, etc; the pace is largely unhurried, with none of the untimely shocks or bloody murders one usually associates with the genre. The relaxed and rather light-hearted way in which the story unfolds seems to hark back to a more civilised time. The whole production is reminiscent of 'The Railway Children', as though primarily aimed at kids. It's not just as if the plot is set in the early part of the 20th century, but is being narrated from the same perspective. That's cleverly done (if it was intended) but even for 1979 vintage the style requires a little getting used to. It's constantly on the edge of becoming boring - which is what sailing is like if you're used to powerboats. Though it usually manages to right itself before complete capsize.
Photography is sympathetically worked, giving an excellent sense of obscurity. And combined with the reflective music score together they lend the movie a 'water-colour' feel.
Compared to modern productions with their frenetic cut-and-cut-again editing, confrontational in-you-face drama, and flair for the overstatement, the movie really does seem like a postcard from the past. But that's not to say it isn't engaging and a pleasure to see.
If it's on the telly (typically Saturday afternoon) and I've nothing else to do then I can't help watching it. Though I'm never quite satisfied with it at the end. It seems to lack something, but I don't know quite what. Maybe I've just watched too many 'action' movies.
Under wicked Kaiser Wilhelm, the Germans are plotting a covert sea-borne invasion of Britain. An English holiday-maker accidentally stumbles upon their scheme whilst sailing.
It's a very slowly evolving drama, played almost as shallowly as the waters they navigate. Fay Mr York may be handsome in an artist's model sort of way but never passes for an action man. His effeminate voice certainly doesn't help. Jenny Agutter does her usual pose of fresh-faced innocence with which she was invariably been typecast. I met her a few months ago in Camberwell, and apart from a few eye-lines hasn't changed all that much.
Unlike most of the genre, ie; spying, sabotage, etc; the pace is largely unhurried, with none of the untimely shocks or bloody murders one usually associates with the genre. The relaxed and rather light-hearted way in which the story unfolds seems to hark back to a more civilised time. The whole production is reminiscent of 'The Railway Children', as though primarily aimed at kids. It's not just as if the plot is set in the early part of the 20th century, but is being narrated from the same perspective. That's cleverly done (if it was intended) but even for 1979 vintage the style requires a little getting used to. It's constantly on the edge of becoming boring - which is what sailing is like if you're used to powerboats. Though it usually manages to right itself before complete capsize.
Photography is sympathetically worked, giving an excellent sense of obscurity. And combined with the reflective music score together they lend the movie a 'water-colour' feel.
Compared to modern productions with their frenetic cut-and-cut-again editing, confrontational in-you-face drama, and flair for the overstatement, the movie really does seem like a postcard from the past. But that's not to say it isn't engaging and a pleasure to see.
If it's on the telly (typically Saturday afternoon) and I've nothing else to do then I can't help watching it. Though I'm never quite satisfied with it at the end. It seems to lack something, but I don't know quite what. Maybe I've just watched too many 'action' movies.