This drama gives one a great feeling for early 19th century sailing ships, and shipboard life which was very harsh especially for seamen and the immigrant passengers enroute to Australia. What was surprising to me was the relative comfort of the "upperclass" passengers and the enormous social rift between them and the common seamen and immigrants. Talk about class consciousness, but I guess that was commonplace in that era. Mr. Talbot puzzled me. At times he seemed so worldly, (ie his quick seduction of a married passenger) and his boyish and sudden infatuation with Marion. There was little consistency in his personality. He could be feckless, commanding, arrogant, and sensitive. As a consequence I really could not relate to him or care much about him. Give me the Captain anytime; you knew where you stood with him. Perhaps it's my American ear but I had a lot of difficulty understanding the seamen and the other "common" folks. The photography, the sets, and the dialogue that was comprehensible were first rate and enabled me to give the film a 7. Mr. Talbot (the character, not the actor) rates a 3!
Review of To the Ends of the Earth
