Abandon Ship!: A Survival Thriller That Never Quite Takes Off (4K)

The Film:

As we've seen over the last several decades of cinema, single-location films are one of the hardest feats to pull off in regards to having strong enough characters & engaging enough writing to keep the story compelling enough for its entire duration. For some films, it can get even more complicated, especially when you have a plethora of characters in that one location, which brings us to Richard Sale's somewhat obscure survival picture "Abandon Ship!" (aka "Seven Days from Now" and "Seven Waves Away).

It's a somewhat simple premise involving a large group of people just trying to get through a terrible situation, but it's one that has great potential for captivating drama. With the film quickly coming up on its 70th anniversary next year, Sony Pictures has decided to honor it by giving it an incredible 4K upgrade, so now it's time to delve way back to see if this little survival flick is one that more people should be aware of, or if it's best left where it was.

The film begins with the luxury liner SS Crescent Star hitting a mine, which sinks the ship and kills nearly all of the passengers on board. However, 27 survivors, plus a dog, eventually come together in & around a lifeboat that is meant to take only nine people. The severely-injured captain passes his command to the ship's XO, Alec Holmes (Tyrone Power), before he dies, leaving him with the task of helping the survivors live long enough for rescue to come, or for them to reach shore. With several sick & injured passengers aboard, hardly any food & water for everyone, and not nearly enough room for all of them in the boat, the decisions he has to make & enforce soon become more and more difficult as their situation becomes increasingly dire.

Indeed, trying to make a film that utilizes only one location is hard enough, but for a film like "Abandon Ship!," where the characters literally have nowhere to go, it becomes significantly harder. Keeping the momentum of the plot going for a full 100 minutes is rather difficult when we're well-aware that the primary focus is going to be on survival, bringing with it standard questions like what to do about food, water, and space, but once those items are addressed, the problem simply becomes: Where do you go from there?

This is one of the main hurdles that writer/director Richard Sale struggles to clear as the survivors drift along. There's plenty of arguing about what to do, tending to the sick & injured, and trying to arrange shifts of being in or out of the boat, but the actual meat of the drama doesn't really start until over an hour in, when the really difficult decisions have to be made. Here we come to a somewhat ludicrous series of events that very likely wouldn't have been allowed to happen under these circumstances (the event it's very loosely based on did have something like this happen, but under completely different conditions), all of which leads up to an extremely unlikely ending. Obviously this is being kept vague to avoid spoilers, but it's really just to say that it strains believability quite a bit, not just in the events leading up to the conclusion, but also the conclusion itself.

That said, even as the somewhat absurd events play out, it does provide some decent drama & tension as you wait to see how far Holmes will go & how everyone else is going to react. It's just a shame that it takes so long to finally get there, and that when it does, it requires a significant suspension of disbelief to go along with it. In the end, it's really just a mixed bag survival thriller, one that does eventually become somewhat gripping, but also one in which the writer simply couldn't overcome the difficulties brought on by the scenario, ultimately making it not much of a surprise that it faded into obscurity over the decades.

Video/Audio:

"Abandon Ship!" comes to 4K in a 1.66:1, 2160p Ultra High Definition transfer of outstanding quality, presenting a picture that's quite sharp & clear throughout the entire 100-minute duration. Likewise, the mono 2.0 DTS-HD MA soundtrack is fantastic, giving you all of the dialogue & music in excellent quality. Overall, Sony Pictures has done a great job in both departments for the film's 4K debut.

Special Features:

Commentary with Professor and Film Scholar Jason A. Ney

Conclusion:

Richard Sale's "Abandon Ship!" presents a scenario that contains a fair amount of potential for drama & thrills, and while it does eventually come around to have a few minutes of tension as its climax unfolds, sadly Sale is unable to overcome the difficulties of the scenario, leading to events & a conclusion that strain believability. As a result, we're ultimately left with a somewhat forgettable survival outing that never quite rises to the level of the effective, gripping thriller it wants to be.

Score: 3/5

Available on 4K starting today.

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