This was made before "Dead Calm" some ten years later, which must have got some of the ideas from this TV drama filmed entirely at sea but with a more sinister situation. Here there are no wrecks floating around with dreadful secrets but real sailing boats in the Gulf of Mexico actually being hunted by modern pirates, who go for any sailing boat to kill everyone on board and plunder what's in it to then sink it - with no second thoughts at all. Christopher Plummer actually states this has been the profession of his family ever since the days of Jean Lafitte more than 150 years earlier. One sailing boat carries four passengers on a joy ride for sport, but two of them are lying sick below deck. The pirates act as rescuers and agree to bring the sick couple back to where they came from, they welcome this generosity with hearts overflowing with gratitude, having no idea of the nightmare expecting them. The other two sail on but will meet with the 'rescuers' again...
It's a horrible thriller of professional cruelty, which Christopher Plummer actually makes convincing. The music is good, you' ll enjoy the infinity of the horizons of the deep blue sea, you'll see no land anywhere throughout the film and only these very lonesome vessels, growing more lonesome before they sink. At least two are sunk, and you'll never know how many more were sunk before them.
It's a great thriller, but you would hardly like to watch it again.
It's a great thriller, but you would hardly like to watch it again.