WATERWORLD
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1995 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule: There is too much action and not
enough excitement in this retread of too many cheap
post-holocaust films. WATERWORLD was made with far
more budget than business sense. In the new
Universal release oceans have long since risen to
cover the land. With all the engaging survival
problems that would create, this film concentrates
on that of fighting off nasty pirates. This is the
most expensive minor film since (and including)
HEAVEN'S GATE. Rating: high 0 (-4 to +4)
In 1989, when there seemed to be no end of films about psychotics terrorizing people, one such film was made that really stood out. Phillip Noyce made DEAD CALM which set the same basic plot on water. A seaman and his wife are menaced when they rescue a stranger from a sinking yacht. The seaman finds himself having to salvage the sinking boat and use it to pursue his own boat to save his wife. DEAD CALM was interesting on an intellectual level as well as being a nail-biter because the seamanship aspect added a whole new dimension. Done right a tired plot can be given new life by setting it on water and by having it be about more than just a cliched situation. DEAD CALM did it right. WATERWORLD did it wrong. For a long time after the success of MAD MAX 2 (a.k.a. THE ROAD WARRIOR) there were no end of films--mostly on cable--about lawless post-holocaust worlds where good people have to fight against roving bands of nasties against a backdrop of deteriorating conditions. WATERWORLD takes that tired, overused plot and moves it to the water where it becomes a tired, over-used plot on water. There is not very much about seamanship in the new Kevin Costner film. It is there as a backdrop, but it never really becomes part of the story. All that is really in the plot are ROAD WARRIOR situations set on the ocean, under the false assumption that to make a scene interesting all that is needed is to add water. If you get excited by aerial shots of a line of thirty racing jet skis, this is the film for you.
The change of setting for this post-holocaust film raises it above its cable and video peers, but not nearly enough to justify the expense, logistics, and technical difficulties of shooting this probable fiasco. Even in a summer that has had only one or two decent films, this one does not make itself memorable. (Unless, perhaps it will displace HEAVEN'S GATE as the American film industry's most notorious mistake.)
WATERWORLD is set some unspecified time in the future after global warming has melted the ice caps and the resulting rise in water level has flooded apparently all of the world. Humanity has put to sea long ago and has only mythic memories of the place called "Dryland." (Sorry, there just is not THAT much water in the ice caps.) People have fallen prey to bands of nomadic pirates and it is a constant fight for survival against them and the sea. How this world evolved, how people manage to find proper food, and how they get what is needed to keep the old wrecks afloat are just some of the details that could have added interest to the film. But the most interesting aspects of this world are nearly or completely ignored. That the film concentrates instead on how people fight and kill each other is more a disappointment than a surprise.
WATERWORLD is not without its moments of wry humor. The pirates are called "smokers" in part because they burn fossil fuels while the "good guys" use more ecologically sound sails, but also because they are rarely seen without cigarettes. It wasn't long ago that it was the heroes of the film who smoked. Are we being told that the smokers of our day, already somewhat social outcasts, are to become the pirates of tomorrow? Just a side comment: one wonders how good these cigarettes would taste in a world where the land needed to grow tobacco is lost in a forgotten past. The leader of the smokers is the wise-cracking Deacon. Dennis Hopper plays this as the occasionally funny whacked-out character that is pretty much his trademark. Some of his lines are funny and others just bizarre. He is not great but he steals what show there is from the ever-mild Kevin Costner playing the unnamed lead, a mariner consistently upstaged by his own spring-loaded trimaran. There is not much more personality from female lead Jeanne Tripplehorn of BASIC INSTINCT and THE FIRM.
There are much better stories to make films with a budget of $1,300,000 per minute of screen time of, and there are much cheaper ways to make a comic book of a film that rates only a high 0 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
mark.leeper@att.com
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