Laikals The greatest movie ever made..!

AboveDeepBuggy Some things I liked some I did not.

Melanie Bouvet The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Roxie The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Hitchcoc This is a terrific movie with Lionel Barrymore, Spencer Tracy, and Freddy Bartholomew, among others. It is the story of a spoiled child who has never lacked for anything, falling off his father's ocean liner and being picked up by Manuel (Tracy) and brought to their fishing boat. He makes demands on the crew, feeling Iike the world should stop because he is on the ship. They, however, have to get to the Grand Banks and fish at the most opportune time for them. They will get him back in due time, but for now, he is meaningless to them. Not really meaningless, but certainly an annoyance. This is about a change of the soul. The boy goes through a transition as he gets to know the men he eventually works with. He gets to know that people work for a living and life is hard. He also gets to know a loneliness. Bartholomew is a sad figure because it's obvious that his own father, Melvyn Douglas, has had little time for him. This is a beautiful story which creates changes from the book but stands on its own.

DKosty123 This movie is not to be confused with the book. This movie is a Freddie Bartholomew starring film. Following Freddie's major success in David Copperfield, this movie was a natural fit for the child actor. There is the Wizard of Oz connection here too.We have Director Victor Fleming and Charlie Grapewin as Uncle Salters who would later be Uncle Henry. His support in this one is essential to the plot as the story is told. This one develops a major relationship between Freddie and Spencer Tracy (Harvey & Manuel that tugs at the heart strings. The film is a major success for both.Freddie is a sort spoiled rich kid who is sailing on an ocean liner and accidentally falls off it trying to hide from his friends. He is accidentally rescued by Manuel(Tracy) and winds up on a fishing boat.The spoiled Harvey tries to buy his way off of the boat at first but then finds out he can not and then finds Manuel to change his entire life. Harvey was never close to his own dad so Manuel becomes a replacement for him. As the relationship grows, the emotions do too, until tragedy strikes the relationship, as Manuel is killed.From there, the fishing boat finally makes shore with Harvey sad about the death, but no longer the spoiled brat he once was. He even gets closer to his dad at the end. The movie works well, and is not the typical happy ending when Harvey gets home that many films were in the 1930's. This one shows emotional dimension.

grantss Great, emotional drama, based on a novel by Rudyard Kipling.The story of how a spoilt brat of a child matures through having to serve for a few months on a fishing boat. A great story on friendship and respect.Wasn't always shaping up to be that way, however. Starts off looking like a kids movie. Then one kid turns out to be so evil and obnoxious you hardly want to watch anymore. However, once he is on the fishing boat you can start to see the changes. Slowly but surely a better person emerges.Only negative after that is the ending. It was as if the director, Victor Fleming, didn't know when to end it. Lost a bit of focus and lessened the impact of some of the previous scenes. A minor issue though.Good performances by Freddie Batholomew and Spencer Tracy in the lead roles. Tracy won a Best Actor Oscar for his performance.Good support from Lionel Barrymore, Melvyn Douglas and a 16-year old Mickey Rooney. John Carradine has a minor role.

mukava991 With Captains Courageous director Victor Fleming and his scenarists pull off a nail-biting high seas adventure laced with powerful emotions. This adaptation of a Kipling story begins psychologically and on land as we are introduced to a nasty, spoiled, rich kid (Freddie Bartholomew) who uses his social standing to get whatever he wants. When he goes too far and gets suspended from school, his neglectful and over-indulgent father (Melvyn Douglas) decides to take him on a trans-Atlantic voyage to reconnect and bring his offspring into line. However, after showing off to some other kids by buying and drinking five chocolate sodas, the queasy boy falls overboard. He is scooped out of the water by a Portuguese fisherman named Manuel (Spencer Tracy) and deposited on a fishing trawler captained by crusty Lionel Barrymore and a seasoned crew. There, predictably, the tough seafarers knock him down to size and force him to grow up. Although Tracy won an Oscar for his portrayal of the saintly Manuel, equally impressive is 10-year-old Freddie Bartholomew in his evolution from a clever but destructive and insensitive little brat to a responsible, productive young man, all the while gradually bonding with Tracy whom he comes to regard as a father figure. The film seesaws from high action, with the crew struggling to harvest the bounty of the pitiless ocean in competition with rival trawlers, to intimate drama as Bartholomew slowly and painfully learns that the world does not revolve around him and his immediate needs. The production itself holds up very well. The viewer's nose is rubbed into the slime and grime of primitive fish processing in several sequences that also serve to put us into the child's position, thereby strengthening the impact of his ordeal in our imaginations. Close shots of shipboard life are seamlessly intercut with long shots of actual vessels on the open sea. Among the supporting players, it is a pleasure to report that Mickey Rooney and John Carradine actually get to play regular guys instead of the "types" usually assigned to them.It is the combination of the deep and timeless emotions connected with the parent-child relationship and old-fashioned adventure skillfully presented that make this one a classic.