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Captains Courageous Movie Review

Captains Courageous is a 1937 adventure film directed by Victor Fleming and starring Freddie Bartholomew and Spencer Tracy. It’s an old-fashioned adventure flick that really works.

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“Aw, there, my new kind of fish.

How you feel, little fish?“

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A spoiled brat on board an ocean liner accidentally falls into the sea as a result of a prank. He is saved by a passing fisher boat. Now, he must adapt to the ways of the fishermen and learn about life. It’s based on the eponymous Rudyard Kipling. I have not read that novel, but I do believe that this screenplay is so well adapted as the movie never at all felt overly detailed (well, perhaps only in the overly elaborate beginning), and it’s consistently highly cinematic.

The movie definitely featured an overly detailed first act, but it’s still a fine beginning. As for the second act, I found it somewhat repetitive in the many scenes on the ship with the two main characters bonding or talking about regular stuff. This film actually differentiates itself from other adventures by focusing on serious, real ship journeys from real life, leading to a less fantastical and more mature storyline for better and for worse.

But the third act is so amazing that it clearly lifted this movie to much greater heights. One of the reasons why it’s such a heartbreaking ending lies in the aforementioned well established relationship between the boy and the man. Manuel’s death was genuinely tragic, but it was also immensely disturbing as he basically got his body cut off in half. I found that overly gruesome and odd, though again admirably bold and dark. Overall, I respected it, but I could not figure out whether I liked that plot point or not.

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Let’s talk about the characters. I found Manuel a bit stereotypical, but definitely endearing. As for Harvey, his character growth was wonderfully realized as he became a better person from basically having been a brat previously. Their friendship is stellar. I found the other members of the ship crew okay, but far from truly memorable.

As for the performances, injustice was done when Spencer Tracy was proclaimed the Best Actor of the year by the Academy. For some unbeknownst reason to me, the branch were obsessed with his work in the thirties. As for me personally, I find his later works much better. He plays a Portuguese man here, so obviously he hammed it up in a rather theatrical, not that believable role.

Freddie Bartholomew entirely stole the show from Tracy. He is so amazing here that his performance just might be the best male acting performance of 1937. His transition felt believable, he emotes really well and he is consistently compelling to follow. He was one of the best child actors of all time, and this was undoubtedly his crowning achievement.

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As for the technical aspects, Captains Courageous absolutely soars. Yes, the Technicolor treatment would have been preferable in this instance, but the cinematography here is still spectacular, the production design is splendid to behold and the direction from Victor Fleming is reliably excellent. The same goes for both the score and the sound. The movie’s noms for screenplay, editing and picture were all quite deserved when all is said and done. It’s one of the better Best Picture nominees of this year’s slate.

Spencer Tracy may have received an Oscar for his very hammy turn in Captains Courageous (that decision by the Academy was quite baffling), but Freddie Bartholomew is the real star in this instance as he gave here one of the most nuanced, most compelling and best child performances of all time. As for the movie itself, it does have its less involving parts, but it’s suitably very adventurous, but in a more grounded manner, which was interesting to witness. It is also quite dark at times while featuring terrific cinematography, direction and score. It’s a fittingly grandiose, well adapted, eventually even heartbreaking adventure story.