What if you had Mad Max on the water, three times the spectacle but with less to say?
This is Waterworld.
Planet almost covered in water. Humans survive on settlements they built on anything that floats. Land, dirt, dry earth is practically a myth.
Enter this guy, a lone sailor who accidentally harbours a kid who has a map tattooed on her back.
Map to where? To dry land. Naturally, everyone wants to get their grubby hands on the map, and our guy has to protect her.
Kevin Costner is a good old movie star. I've often heard the name but this is my first time seeing him in a leading role. I was suitably impressed. Him being hard to work with on this film does not detract from this. He did a lot of running around, tying ropes, throwing things, and a lot of swimming. He looks very fit and healthy. These days action movie stars are jacked to the nines while somehow simultaneously being unathletic, moving around as if gravity favors them more.
The protagonist's internal journey is painfully predictable: the lone ranger with a heart sealed off has his walls slowly torn down, and he comes to care for others over himself. He who once would throw anyone off board to preserve his sparse resources now risks everything he has to save his new family. Come to think of it, even Mad Max (2015) has a similar trajectory.
I mention Mad Max quite a bit because this movie reminds me so much of it. There's the dog-eat-dog world, the variety of crazy vehicles, and the creative repurposing of old tools into new ones.
Maybe it has to do with the desert being seen as far more resource-less than the sea, but the struggle for resources on a desert wasteland feel more pronounced. Mad Max had this big set up where the wives went searching for a green paradise but instead found more dry land. The feeling of despair and death more apparent, more...real.
I couldn't really get that with Waterworld. They had water they could filter, fish they could fish. Stakes don't feel so high. The movie tries to make simple resources such as a piece of paper or a plant be a rare artifact, but honestly this comes off as gimmicky.
It still is a dangerous world, and they need to reach land.
I appreciate the movie for being a spectacle. Apparently they built huge sets and sailed them out everyday to film. While this was such a pain that delayed filming and hiked up the costs, the result makes the movie a treasure, given something like this today would likely utilize green screen.
This movie was certainly made in a different time because it shows the kid being smacked up the head, adults smoking in her face, and someone being called the R-word as a basic quip. I miss movies like this. Not that I want to see children being smacked around and people being called heavy slurs, mind you. I'm just saying I miss things being less...sterilised for the big screen.