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Good concept, poorly executed.

Fresh and Exciting

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

This may not be the greatest film ever made and to those who don't like the lesson it teaches it may seem to be propaganda (a negative implication) but for those who are receptive and consider what the story tells and what is its intended purpose, it is a valuable lesson beautifully presented. We are faced with a similar perfect storm as I write this brief note and yet most people who are not directly engaged refuse to see what is happening and the inevitable consequences of such refusal. Like the Redgrave character, we think that a personal disengagement will be a solution but it is not and never can be. Courage then is the lesson learned at Thunder Rock and any film that teaches it is worthy and a film that teaches it well is especially worthy. It is our loss that today's movie makers lack the perspective to make such a film for us in our time but then, if one did, he might be in personal danger so it is easier for them to decline. Therefore we are left with an old film that preaches us to have courage against a different enemy but the lesson holds. Watch it and think how it resonates. More than a worthy film, a necessary reminder and a lesson to us all.

This was one weird film....and I mean REALLY, REALLY weird! Yet, despite being so weird as well as being such an obvious propaganda piece, it is still very watchable today. Plus, I know that when the original play and this movie debuted in Britain, they were extremely successful, so it was obviously an important film for the morale of the British people.The film begins with a whole lot of obviously British actors trying to fake American accents and doing a terrible job--so badly that it made me laugh to think that the British saw us that way and I now wonder if Americans doing British accents sound that bad to the Brits (I assume we must). Oddly, some of the actors (such as the very English James Mason) didn't even attempt accents and I wonder how many people noticed this at the time. I'm sure American audiences would have noticed. This is not a major problem, but it sure was noticeable.The story is about a disenchanted newspaper reporter (Michael Redgrave). Well before the war, he traveled the globe documenting all the signs that a war was approaching. However, despite the rise of militarism in Japan, Italy and Germany, the people at home were sick of war following the last one and just didn't want to listen (which was definitely true). So, when the war finally arrived, Redgrave left the UK and moved to the most isolated place he could find--a lonely lighthouse on a tiny island in the Great Lakes. However, and here's the really weird part, he wasn't alone as the ghost-like memories of the victims of a shipwreck near the lighthouse were his constant companions! No books, no TV and no radio--just him and his imaginary dead friends! The most exciting and wonderful actor among these dead imaginary friends was the Captain, played by Finlay Currie--a wonderful actor you might have seen in IVANHOE, WHISKY GALORE! or BEN HUR. While his name is NOT well-known, this very prolific and exceptional actor really made an impossibly silly plot come to life. Currie and Redgrave both introduce several of the dead passengers from the long-lost ship (from 1849) and both had their own unique perspective. Redgrave imagined their deaths to be both meaningless and bigger than life, while Currie showed that all these people were running from something--something bigger than them--just like Redgrave. By the end of the film, Currie (who was imaginary) convinced Redgrave to stop being a hermit and do his part for the war effort against Fascism--a not especially subtle but very rousing ending indeed! Good acting made this silly stage production come to life. A very interesting yet preachy film from WWII.

When the authorities discover a lighthouse keeper is not cashing his paychecks, they go to visit him to make sure he is OK. One of the visitors gets into a chat with the lighthouse keeper, David Charleston and discovers that his desire to stay in the lighthouse is based on the fact that he is in contact with the ghosts from a ship that sunk many years ago; although the ghosts do not know they are dead. Charleston hides away - having been frustrated by those in power ignoring his warnings about fascism. However he finds that each passenger has had similar experiences that he, with the benefit of future knowledge, can learn from.The point of this film is both obvious but also too obscure. The message of not giving up is laboured at the end, but for the majority of the film, it is hidden and damages the early meaning of the film. The pre-war setting is a morale boosting tale of sticking at it - for we never know what tomorrow will bring; it delivers a reasonable tale but I found it hard to get into the stories of the various passengers as they were not characters I was given a lot of time to get into and care about. The stuff with Charleston himself works better as I cared about him due to the time spent with him.The film is very stagy however, it doesn't really flow very well at times and the best scenes are played out as if in a theatre. It is rather heavy at times but it still works if you know what to expect. The cast is OK but really it is all Redgrave's film. He exaggerates his performance as if he is on a stage and needing to project to the back row, but he is still very good. Mason has a minor role but always has such a good presence that it is hard to fault him. The support cast of passengers is less assured and really never get close to being real people - instead their dialogue and stories are too heavily laden with meaning.Overall this is a reasonably good propaganda. It has more meaning and human pathos than most WWII propaganda films as it is not anti-enemy but pro-spirit and persistence. It may all be a little heavy and too stagy but it is enjoyable if you can do enough to get past the heavy message and some overly worthy acting.

First of all, THUNDER ROCK is a psychological drama, but the film has very much hidden beneath its surface. This film comes disguised as a rather peculiar fantasy tale, but the truth is that it deals with reincarnation, a fact that's already revealed in the first scenes: A message is passed on by telephone from one office clerk to another, and to another and another. Like knowledge that is transmitted from one life to another.David (Michael Redgrave) who is living completely on his own in a secluded lighthouse, finds a logbook with an old passenger list. This allows him to tune into his subconscious mind to open up the memories of his past lives. The drowned people, "immigrants from the old world": Each one of them represents a part of David's character. Each one of them could have been a person he once was in a former life. If you believe in reincarnation, this is a film you must see. However, Michael Redgrave is superb and so is the rest of the cast in this beautifully photographed film classic.