In a storm

Synopsis

October 1991 , Gloucester . For nearly four centuries the city was America’s first port, but difficult times forced sailors to venture further and further into the cold waters of the Atlantic . After a disappointing fishing season, Captain Billy Tyne convinces his men to go back to sea to fish for swordfish . The young Bobby leaves his companion Christina at the port and embarks with the crew aboard the Andrea Gail . Ignoring the advice of her friend Linda, who warns her of the impending hurricane in the area, Tyne is sinking into the), an area where fish abounds. At the same time, the sailboat Mistral , caught in the hurricane, decides to warn the rescue. After a successful fishing, not without being marked by a series of incidents, Tyne decides to return to port with his men. But they have to go through the terrible storm …

Technical sheet

• Original title: The Perfect Storm
• French title: En pleine tempête
• Quebec title: The storm
• Directed by: Wolfgang Petersen
• Scenario: William D. Wittliff , based on a 1997 book by Sebastian Junger
• Production: Wolfgang Petersen , Gail Katz , Paula Weinstein
• Music: James Horner
• Photography: John Seale
• Editing: Richard Francis-Bruce
• Budget: $ 120 million + $ 30 million (advertising)
• Genre: Catastrophe
• Duration: 130 minutes
• Release dates:
  •  United States : June 30 , 2000
  •  France : August 9 , 2000

Distribution

• George Clooney (VF: Patrick Noérie and VQ: Daniel Picard ) : Captain Billy Tyne
• Mark Wahlberg (VF: Alexandre Gillet and VQ: Patrice Dubois ) : Bobby Shatford
• Diane Lane (VF: Hélène Chanson and VQ: Anne Bédard ) : Christina Cotter-Shatford
• John C. Reilly (VF: Sylvain Lemarié and VQ: François L’Écuyer ) : Dale “Murph” Murphy
• William Fichtner (VF: Jean-Jacques Nervest and VQ: Jean-Luc Montminy ) : David “Sully” Sullivan
• John Hawkes (VF: Jacques Bouanich and VQ: Alain Zouvi ) : Michael “Bugsy” Moran
• Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio (VF: Frederique Tirmont and VQ: Élise Bertrand ) : Linda Greenlaw
• Karen Allen : Melissa Brown
• Bob Gunton : Alexander McAnally III
• Christopher McDonald (VF: Henri Courseaux and VQ: Vincent Davy ) : Todd Gross
• Michael Ironside (VF: Philippe Dumond and VQ: Pierre Chagnon ) : Bob Brown
• Dash Mihok : Sergeant Jeremy Mitchell
• Josh Hopkins : Captain Darryl Ennis
• Todd Kimsey : Lieutenant Rob Pettit
• Chris Palermo : Borgers Air Engineer
• Wiley Pickett : Sergeant Millard Jones
• Hayden Tank : Dale Murphy Jr.
• Merle Kennedy : Debra Murphy – Murph’s ex-wife
• Jennifer Sommerfield : Alfred’s girlfriend
• Joseph D. Reitman : Douglas Kosco
• Sandy Ward : Quentin – The Patriarch
• Melissa Samuels : Pam – Todd Gross’s assistant
• Steve Barr : Commander Brudnicki
• J. Scott Shonka : Communications Officer
• Patrick Foley : Pilot of the Falcon
• Lloyd Malone : Co-pilot of the Falcon
• Billy Mayo : C-130 Driver
• Mark Adams : Co-pilot of the C-130
• Tim Trotman : C-130 Navigator
• Barry Rutstein : C-130 Engineer
• Patrick Stinson : Report n ^o 1
• Terry Anzur : Report n ^o 2
• Katelyn C. Brown : Child n ^o 1
• Miles Schneider : Child n ^o 2
• James Lee : Right Arm
• Jim Argenbright : Quartermaster
• Michael Spaseff : Moss
• Allen Payne (VF: Jacques Martial and VQ: Antoine Durand ) : Alfred Pierre
• Cherry Jones : Edie Bailey
• Rusty Schwimmer (VF: Marion Game and VQ: Anne Caron ) : Irene “Big Red” Johnson
• Janet Wright : Ethel Shatford

Around the film

The screenplay is adapted from the book by Sebastian Junger published in 1997 , which was a bestseller since its release in the United States and is based on events that occurred during the Storm of Halloween 1991 . Some scenes in the film are also a mix of real facts and dramatization. Similarly, the name of some boats is changed (so the sailboat Satori is called Mistral in the film), like those of some characters become fictitious, yet inspired by real people (case of the crew of the rescue helicopter ).

Other scenes have, moreover, been totally invented by the writers, to make the film more spectacular. Finally, Gloucester fishermen were hired as extras and appear as such in the film.

The original title of the film, The Perfect Storm , is in no way an unofficial or official name of this hurricane early November 1991, but simply a qualifier given by the meteorologist Robert Case of NOAA , the latter having used that day the term ” perfect storm ” (in English ” perfect storm “) as a conclusion to his description of the convergence of conditions that led to this exceptional weather patterns (already a very powerful storm … absorbing the remains of a previous hurricane , named Grace , active a few days earlier) ^1 , 2. US and Canadian sailors have unofficially given the new hurricane of November 2nd the simple name of ” Storm of Halloween 1991 “. If an official name had been awarded to him it would have been ” Henri “, but although having reached the strength Hurricane (force 12 on the Beaufort scale ) on November 2, it is because of its brevity (it went back down to force 11 Beaufort of Violent Stormonly a few hours later) that this baptismal name was never given to him ³ .

Box office

Distinctions

• 2 Academy Award nominations for 2001 :
• Oscars 2001 : Oscar nomination for the best sound
• Oscars 2001 : Oscar nomination for the best visual effects

Notes and references