Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Blending excellent reporting and strong storytelling, this is a disturbing film truly stranger than fiction

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

A case study in raw utilitarianism -- "the greatest good for the greatest number." A cruise ship explodes at sea and there are twenty-six survivors who find themselves in, or clinging to, a small boat with minimal provisions, designed to carry only nine passengers.No distress call was sent out and the boat is adrift in the south Atlantic, fifteen hundred miles from the nearest coast. The captain is aboard the boat but promptly dies, leaving another officer, Tyrone Power, in command.Well, Power has inherited a mess. The ship had hit a derelict mine that exploded under the keel, killing almost all the other passengers. Some of the survivors are injured or otherwise weakened by age or illness. The engineer, Lloyd Nolan, is mortally wounded. With his last breath he urges Power to get rid of the detritus and keep only the strong aboard, who might have a chance if they row for Africa. Noland dives overboard and drowns himself. Power broods and decides in the end that Nolan was right. There are too many passengers and he decides to abandon the weak.Nobody is particularly happy about this sort of Darwinism at sea, especially the weak and injured. As is usually the case, everyone wants the greatest good for the greatest number, but everyone wants to be among the greatest number, not the smaller one. At gunpoint, Power orders a half dozen injured passengers overboard to be left behind -- also one effete playwright and his French poodle. There goes the opera singer, then the nuclear physicist. For some strange reason, a beautiful and sarcastic blond who is in her underwear is kept aboard. She can probably row or at least tell funny stories.Thus lightened, the little boat manages to survive a terrific storm that night. The next day, everyone is grateful to Tyrone Power for having had the courage to dispose of some of the jetsam. A spokesman for the survivors begins to make a formal speech of gratitude to the now-wounded Power. But he's interrupted by the arrival of a freighter that rescues them. The survivors then move away from Power and sit with their backs to him. According to the epilogue, Power was charged with murder and given the minimal sentence.One of the first things a viewer might notice about the film is that it's so disjointed that it must be "based on a true story." Else why does Power first climb aboard a raft with four others, then leave them and swim to the distant boat. What became of the raft and the people on it? Why is the raft and its passengers IN the movie if it hadn't happened to be there in historic reality? Second, wow, what a lot of familiar faces are in this boat. Not just Power and Nolan, but a lot of British actors and actresses whose faces will be familiar, if not their names.Third, in certain very general ways the film resembles Hitchcock's "Lifeboat" but is far cruder in its execution. No time here for a semi-comic romance between a communist stoker and a rich socialite. This is all grim, tense, and moves inexorably towards its ambiguous and arguable end. Anyone who finds this story as involving as I do might want to watch Michael Sandel's lecture on The Queen vs. Dudley and Stevens (1884), a case of cannibalism at sea. Can I include a link here? http://www.justiceharvard.org/2011/03/episode-01/#watch And it IS a gripping story. Tossing a dignified old opera diva overboard or a fairy playwright is one thing -- but a dog? "They'll be in the hands of God," says Power, but of course it's his hands that are putting them there. There isn't much room for character or development and, as I say, the movie rushes like an express train along its moral path. There is a black crew member aboard and, though he does get to sing a "Negro spiritual," at least he's a complaining pain in the neck most of the time. Power undergoes one transformation -- from not knowing what to do, to a solemn and unbreakable determination to save most of the passengers at the expense of a few of them. If there's a problem with that transformation it's that after it takes place Power seems to ENJOY his authority over the lives of others. The guy is pitiless. But it's hard to condemn him out of hand. I don't know what I'd have done -- probably melted away under the stress. What would anyone do? I honestly recommend catching Sandel's free lecture, which is anything but intimidating.

"Seven waves away" or "abandon ship!" ,the latter being a more appropriate title ,is a British disaster movie based on real facts ;but a disaster movie which has almost nothing to do with the epics of the seventies.There is no Manicheism ,nothing like the good guys (and the smart young child) who are saved -except for a few exceptions ,for instance when they sacrifice their life-and the villains who get punished .The characters as far as clichés as they can be (one of the ship-wrecked suggest each of them tell his story ,to no avail) .No Hollywood touch except may be in the last final sequences .This is one of Tyrone Power's most important roles (with "the razor's edge" and "nightmare alley")and he reveals himself a great actor here :I dare you to like his skipper (and I dare you to hate him too).After you've seen the movie ,you will not be able to decide if he acted like a hero or a like a monster.A six months sentence may be not enough or might be too much,depending on whom you ask ,or on how YOU perceived the story.After watching it ,you will feel uneasy .Apart from Tyrone Power ,the cast is uniformly good ;pre-Messala Stephen Boyd particularly gives good support .If you are looking for something like "Poseidon adventure" ,you have to move on.Like this? try this..."Le Radeau De La Méduse" Iradj Azimi,1998

The film begins with an explosion that quickly sinks an ocean liner. Apparently an old WWI or WWII floating mine struck the vessel and very few people have survived. One group of survivors consists of 27 people inside as well as clinging to a dingy only meant to hold 9! Because it is totally overloaded, the passengers need to take shifts in the water--wearing life jackets and holding on to ropes. Despite this arrangement, there simply isn't enough food or water and once the weather changes the boat will no doubt capsize since it is so low in the water. Because of this, eventually the man in charge (Tyrone Power) is forced to start abandoning the weaker survivors--reasoning that SOME might survive that way. But because the parts of the weak are fleshed out in the story, it is very hard to see them cast adrift one by one--it's tough to watch and very frightful. While this does make this a good movie in some ways due to its addressing a serious moral dilemma, it's horrid to watch and not at all pleasant. It really takes an unusual person to want to see this film.Technically, this is a decent film though the explosion at the beginning of the film was super-cheesy and cheap looking. Despite good writing, direction and acting, though, this movie is NOT for most people, as it's very gritty and super-depressing throughout. Because of this I am advising any potential viewers to think twice about seeing it--even though the film is in some ways quite amazing.For a more enjoyable but certainly less realistic view of the subject, try watching Hitchcock's film, LIFEBOAT. It's very stagy and more trivial than SEVEN WAVES AWAY but at least it's not as depressing.

I saw this movie twenty years ago and thought what absolute nonsense.Overly melodramatic with the three persons Tyrone Power briefly encounters at the beginning."Have you seen her? Have you seen her?" Said to be based on a true story, I made inquiries back then and was told that there was indeed a ship that sank as quickly as this one, the fictitious Cresent Star, was purported to have done, but there was no incident with an officer passing survivors off of a lifeboat into the water. The officer himself was pure fiction.There is a remake with Martin Sheen about 1975. This one proposes a trial of some sorts afterward.In truth, there was several incidents on the Titanic alone that involved lack of room in lifeboats, one such situation was the lifeboat had standing room only and the survivors appeared to be walking on water as they edge of the boat was that close to the water, but no one was passed over the side.This movie possessed no more thought and insight other than to go "what would you do?" if you were in a similar situation.I couldn't help but notice there would even be an incident with a shoe, which occurred in Hitch's Lifeboat.I think Mai Zetterling threw the shoe overboard.Just a lot of intense, overly melodramatic nonsense.Definitely check out Lifeboat for much greater thought and human development.