And the Sea Will Tell (1991)

Simply Perfect

Good movie but grossly overrated

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

You may also be interested in the book, which was written by Vincent Bugliosi, author and former California prosecutor ("Helter Skelter" encompassing the Manson murder cases of 1969).Richard Crenna, as usual, is very good as a high-profile attorney who actually ends up defending Jennifer Jenkins, an innocent bystander, who was involved with Buck Walker, in a murder case which occurred on the South Pacific Island of Palmyra. Rachel Ward is very believable as Jennifer, and Hart Bochner plays the dark and dangerous sociopath to the hilt.Deidre Hall and James Brolin portray Mack and Muff Graham, a semi-retired couple who sail as a vocation- (Mack enjoys it, Muff does not) The ominous incidental music and clues into the treachery of the open sea are hinted at.The Hawaiian and South Pacific photography is quite beautiful, you can imagine yourself living in such an environment, and assimilating into it. Buck Walker, an apparent sociopath, enjoyed the high life; while he could not afford it, he found other ways to attain it.In a sense, the Buck Walker character is similar to Charles Manson. A sociopath with a sense of entitlement, he and Jennifer sail to Palmyra on a broken down make-shift boat, but he sees Mack Graham (and his million dollar boat) as fair game. Jennifer, while friendly towards the Grahams, does not ascertain the depth of Buck's envy and capacity for violence.Since this story took place in the late 70's, Buck and Jennifer were considered by Mack and Muff Graham to be "hippies", harmless enough, who just happened to run out of food and supplies on the desolate island of Palmyra. As it turns out, nothing could have been further from the truth.A very interesting story which will leave you interested in the true story, and Bugliosi's book. 9/10.

I began watching this movie expecting it to go one way and soon realized that my first impression was wrong. The acting is good. And the fact that it is based on a true story or "actual events" I find very interesting. When ever movies say that I always find myself wondering which part of the story they left out or added to to make the movie more dramatic. One thing I didn't much care for is the fact that her lawyer (played by Richard Crenna) touts himself as one who does not defend someone if he is not sure of their innocence. Yet, he agrees to represent this woman even though he questions her quilt and innocence through the whole movie. Did she do it? Or did she not? I know what I believe and for that reason I didn't much care for the ending. But you'll have to make up your own mind.

For a TV miniseries based on a true crime thriller, you'd expect standard movie-of-the-week fare. And The Sea Will Tell is instead a pretty taut thriller, well-written, well-acted and artfully put together. I'm convinced that this film isn't more well known because it had the misfortune to air for the first time the very night the ground campaign began during the first Gulf War. If you were watching CNN (and who wasn't), you missed it.Rachel Ward, a highly underrated actress, is slightly miscast as the naive "hippie" waif Jennifer Jenkins, but she makes the best of a pretty meaty role, and her chemistry with Richard Crenna is spot-on. There's less chemistry between her and Hart Bochner, but his performance is excellent--he's certainly come a long way from his cartoonish portrayal of a slimy executive in Die Hard ("Hans...boobie...would I lie to you?"). The whole series, however, is stolen by James Brolin and Deidre Hall. The interweaving of flashbacks to the characters' time on the island with the courtroom scenes is skillfully done--something that, incidentally, Buglioisi failed to do well in the book this film is based on.There's also some attention to detail here, and even (GASP!) some approaches at mise-en-scene. The Palmyra scenes, though colorful and lush, have a strange darkness and malevolence about them. I especially like the moody magic-hour sky in the oft-shown sequence of Ward and Bochner boarding their neighbors' yacht on the crucial night, and the rusty, moldering remains of military hardware that lurk in the underbrush. When contrasted with the chic mid-80s San Francisco in which the courtroom scenes take place, you definitely get the sense that the Rachel Ward character has come a long way. You don't see a lot of that kind of subtlety in a TV feature.This is a story that probably should have been a Hollywood feature. Barring that, however, it's still an excellent film. Recommended.

There are a lot of good things about this movie. Fact-based stories always seem to have a better chance than pure fiction because we see people as they really act, and too often in movies people behave in ways that nobody would ever do in real life.In particular, the scenes on the Island between the two couples was extremely well done, IMHO. There is real tension there and we feel it. On one level we wonder why Mac just doesn't leave the island and get away, but on another level we are told that he will never back down -- and there's also his attraction to Jennifer.There are also some significant flaws. The sequencing of the story is badly handled. There are flashbacks that interfere with the story for no good reason. They are not all in the same order. Many of them seem to have nothing to do with the story and seem to be there just to fill out the extra long time slot.Speaking of which, the movie is either too long or edited badly. Lucky I watched it on my ReplayTV and skipped over the boring parts. I would have liked to see much more on the island -- and without all the damned interruptions as we went back and forth between "present" day and the flashback. I think there was enough material to make use of the 3 hours, but the director apparently didn't and so added useless filler.Finally there were just too many loose ends. Why did the killings take place? Was Buck jealous of Mac's attentions toward Jennifer? Was there really something going on between Mac and Jennifer? It looked like there was definitely something there but again we were shown too little of the island sequence to figure it all out. What about the other visitors to the island? How can we be sure it wasn't someone entirely different?Four people were on the island. One washed up on shore dead and dismembered. Two returned to civilization. Where is the fourth? Maybe he did it. Or maybe he arranged it with Buck and or Jennifer and intentionally disappeared. Why didn't anyone think of that?