oscaralbert Review of The Sea Lion

The Sea Lion (1921)

THE SEA LION, most appropriately subtitled as "The Whales' Revenge" . . .

[8/10 · 10 August 2015]

. . . deals with a member of an intellectually inferior species committing genocide against Oceania's Whale Peoples simply because he was born with opposable thumbs, and his victims were not. But, as they say, Brains beat Brawn any day. From their fleets of sea gull spies, the Whales learn the weak spots in the psyche of their main threat, Captain John Nelson, a.k.a., THE SEA LION. That enables them to circle the boat of his wife Dolly's old flame, sending this Bob Simmons subliminal messages day and night via that humming thing that Whales do. Like a mind-controlled automaton, Bob shanghais pregnant Dolly, framing this abduction as an elopement, per the Whale's instructions. Then the smarter mammals stove in Bob's ship, killing him and the rest of the Whale Hunters. The kindly Guardians of the Deep help Dolly and her servant to Sanctuary, but stoke John's jealousy of Bob to such a fever pitch that John burns down his own house! When a freak water leak brings together John and his surviving daughter, Blossom, John does his best to kill this Flower Child. But then he reads in Dolly's Bible about how the Whales saved Jonah, so he spares Blossom's life and swears off whaling forever. Showing more respect for John than the Russians did for Hitler, the Whales allow John safe passage back to shore, where he's a homeless single dad without a job.