Back in the early 90’s, I was finishing up my high school years and starting up my college years, but I was still paying attention to every move my movie hero Charles Bronson was making. Bronson was at a very difficult place personally during those years as he was continuing to mourn the passing of his wife, Jill Ireland, and it really shows in his choice of roles. His first two films of the 90’s, THE INDIAN RUNNER and YES VIRGINIA, THERE IS A SANTA CLAUS, featured the aging star in the roles of a man dealing with great suffering and loss. Bronson’s third role, as Captain Wolf Larsen in the made for cable TV film, THE SEA WOLF (1993), featured him as the “thinking man’s megalomaniac” from Jack London’s work of classical literature. I couldn’t wait to see the film, but I had just one small problem. We didn’t have cable-TV in Toad Suck, Arkansas, so I would not be able to watch it on the night of its April 18th, 1993 premiere on the TNT channel. It was tough waiting a few months for that VHS release, but it was worth it!
In a nutshell, Charles Bronson plays Wolf Larsen, the captain of the ship The Ghost, who saves shipwrecked aristocrat Humphrey Van Weyden (Christopher Reeve) and con woman Flaxen Brewster (Mary Catherine Stewart). He saves them, but once they’re on board his boat, they find out that Larsen rules over the crew with an iron fist. They also find out that he’s on a life or death mission to find his brother, Death Larsen, and exact revenge for past conflicts. Will they be able to survive this voyage?
Charles Bronson had mostly steered clear of roles that could be described as “villainous” later in his career, but it must have felt great to take on one of Jack London’s most famous characters. I remember the advertising would show him maniacally spouting lines like, “It’s better to reign in hell than serve in heaven!” Wolf Larsen is a man of contradictions. He’s ruthless and mad with power when it comes to the men and his boat, but he also appreciates great works of literature and philosophy. Even at 71 years of age, the icon is able to project arrogant menace and brute strength. Charles Bronson and Wolf Larsen almost seem made for each other, and he’s fantastic in the role. It’s his strongest performance of the 1990’s.
There’s another great performance in the film, and it comes from Christopher Reeve as Humphrey Van Weyden. Most famous as Superman, Reeve was not having a lot of success at this point in his film career and was wanting meatier roles when he accepted this part. I was blown away with his performance as the intelligent and bullied aristocrat-turned-cabin boy who is forced to resort to some level of savage and barbaric behavior in order to survive Larsen’s boat! Christopher Reeve had really become a good actor at this point in his career, and he handles the role expertly. You believe his transformation throughout the course of the film as he adapts to the brutal conditions aboard the ship yet still retains his humanity. Reeve himself has been quoted as saying that THE SEA WOLF was a project “I really believed in and still think of as some of my best work.” I couldn’t agree more, Mr. Reeve.
THE SEA WOLF was directed by veteran filmmaker Michael Anderson who had been working since the 1940’s with credits like AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS (1956) and LOGAN’S RUN (1976) to his name. He and Bronson were roughly the same age, and they’re both in fine form. In order for these types of films to work, you need a good director who can deliver a solid finished project and Anderson brings his A-game to this production.
I’ve included the trailer for THE SEA WOLF below:
Through the Shattered Lens 