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Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Don't listen to the negative reviews

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Very Kubrick in its mass of men making their movements with grand machinery in a quiet, meaningful way. You can see 2001 and Strangelove in it. But I like all those post-war shorts, so I'm already prejudiced (and I do love early Kubrick.)

Stanley Kubrick's first film made in color. Lost for over 40 years! The documentary extols the benefits of membership to the Seafarers International Union.How do you judge a film like this? I mean, although Kubrick obviously was the creator, can he be held responsible for the final product? This is essentially a marketing video -- a promotional advertisement -- for a union. I doubt that there was much room for creativity or a need to deviate from the script. Heck, there is no place even for odd camera angles or use of sound.So, you know, is it a good ad? Sure. But can I say it was some of Kubrick's best work? Of course not. And yet, it is not really fair to judge this against his other work when the format is so different.

Even if the short documentary the Seafarers did not bare the name of the late-great Stanley Kubrick, the subject matter would not be totally lost on me. It's a union film, educating the viewer on what makes up the seafarers, the men who make up the jobs of the sea, shipping, manning the ships, etc, and all apart of a bond that is almost communal in a way. But that it is directed by Kubrick, and that it is his first film in color with him in practical total control, it's hard not to see his mark on the project. In fact, I would argue for those who have seen the film, or for those who might want to either as a fan of the filmmaker or if by some off-off handed chance with the subjects, that it contains the height of the twenty-something Kubrick's trademark styles. There is an assured hand in photographing these subjects, and this time around, unlike in Day of the Fight and Flying Padre, it is not really at all dramatized documentary film-making (i.e. there aren't the staged scenes), even if it is in its own way a king of long advertisement of sorts for them.But if one is to look just on the technical side of things, it can put a smile on the face of a Kubrick fan to see some of the early techniques on display. Examples I would include would be his tracking of the camera, this kind of panning across a room that one might find in the Shining or Paths of Glory, which is used in effect in showing the seafarers eating in the cafeteria. This puts his mark on the material right away though there are other shots before this with certain Kubrick-type compositions; a standard photographer might just gets individual shots, dissolve in the cuts, and make it shorter. But there's an attention to these people that the director/photographer here wants to get across, and it's also in the compositions, like certain close-ups of machines (big and small), and just shots of the people in the rooms and the panning across the skylines and ships that seems different somehow from how another eye-for-hire would do it.It's not to say that this is any kind of rewarding piece of art that should be screened alongside the director's other major works. It's made for a very specific purpose and audience, and is not made to reach into any specific character presented in it (the exception being the leader of the seafarers Don Holdenbeck). But through using the color film stock available, and having no one looking over his shoulder telling him how to do it, Kubrick's work here, much like a very good student film, calls out for what's possible ahead.

'The Seafarers' was a half hour documentary made for the Seafarers International Union in 1953. It's actually more of a promotional film than a documentary, urging sailors to join the union & extolling the benefits, etc etc. The 1950s equivalent of a corporate video or an infomercial.There is absolutely nothing remarkable about this film. It's competently made, but it's not the sort of project where a director would have the opportunity to exercise any sort of creativity. Kubrick was a hired gun on this, he did the job he was paid for & that's it.Any attempts to look for trademark Kubrick touches or innovation would be pointless.There are only two things noteworthy about 'The Seafarers' - it was directed by Stanley Kubrick, and it happened to be his first film in colour. Other than the title reading 'Directed by Stanley Kubrick', I found nothing of any interest whatsoever. There's nothing wrong with it, but it would be utterly forgotten & ignored if it had not been directed by someone who went on to much greater things.Darth Nub