THE PERFECT STORM gave packed audiences their money’s worth in 2000 with a great cast and an ocean of CGI engaged in perilous adventure on the high seas—highest—the North Atlantic churned into a death trap by a triple-whammy cyclone. Based, with expected and accepted liberties, on a true story. *

“The fog’s just lifting. Throw off your bow line; throw off your stern. You head out to South channel, past Rocky Neck, Ten Pound Island. Past Niles Pond where I skated as a kid. Blow your air-horn and throw a wave to the lighthouse keeper’s kid on Thatcher Island. Then the birds show up: black backs, herring gulls, big dump ducks. The sun hits ya – head North. Open up to 12 – steamin’ now. The guys are busy; you’re in charge. Ya know what? You’re a goddam swordboat captain! Is there any thing better in the world?”

Gloucester, Massachusetts, the Fall of 1991. After a run of disappointing voyages, Billy Tyne (George Clooney), the skipper of the 72-foot commercial fishing boat Andrea Gail, asks his crew to do a quick turnaround and go back out—and further, east from the Grand Banks to aim at making a haul in the Flemish Cap, nearly 600 miles from port. Lousy luck plagues them at first: scant catches, a near fatal ‘man overboard’ accident, and barely avoided horror when they land “a big one” that turns out to be a huge and agitated shark. What they don’t know is what weather forecasters back home see coming, the imminent collision of three storm systems. As worried relatives and friends in Gloucester hope against hope, the Andrea Gail and other vessels caught in “the perfect storm” try to ride out hurricane winds and monstrous swells.

Atmospheric location shooting in Gloucester gives way to literally waves of exciting CGI effects, with thrills and spills detailing oceanic fury, raw panic, desperate seamanship, and derring-do by Billy and his men and from helicopter and plane crews of the Air National Guard and the USCGC Tamaroa, a Coast Guard cutter.

Movie Star handsome and whip-smart, Clooney usually gets higher marks (and grosses) from his comedies, but he’s also a first-rate dramatic lead (Michael Clayton, Up In The Air, Syriana) and this is best action drama excursion (just ahead” of Three Kings and The Peacemaker). His able, take no guff Billy Tyne has a top notch crew in Mark Wahlberg (as Bobby Shatford), John C. Reilly (Dale ‘Murph’ Murphy), John Hawkes (Mike ‘Bugsy’ Moran), William Fichtner (David ‘Sully’ Sullivan) and Allen Payne (Alfred Pierre). Their worries, tiffs and salt-of-the-sea working class camaraderie bring humanity to the spectacle. Adding to the emotional payoff are the warmly wondrous Diane Lane as Bobby’s babe Christina Cotter and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, fiercely honest as ace sword board skipper Linda Greenlaw, Tyne’s friend and possible sweetie. From one end of 130 rousing, funny, touching, nail-biting minutes to the other, director Wolfgang Peterson (Das Boot, Troy) proves again his skill at guiding vivid characterizations into and thru memorable epic-scale action.

The screenplay by William D. Witliff (The Black Stallion, Barbarosa, Legends Of The Fall) was crafted from a best-seller written by Sebastian Junger. Each mixed fact with speculation (exactly what happened on the Andrea Gail, and how, can only be imagined), both tell a whale of a tale: the book reportedly ran off 5,000,000 copies. To make it comes alive on film, the production costs sailed into the region of $130,000,000. Domestic grosses reached $182,600,000, the sixth largest haul of 2000, with another $146,100,000 caught internationally. Academy Award nominations went to Visual Effects and Sound.

James Horner nailed the music score. With Rusty Schwimmer (affecting as ‘Bugsy’s new hope), Michael Ironside (hardass again), Janet Wright, Karen Allen, Bob Gunton, Christopher McDonald, Dash Mihok, Merle Kennedy, Hayden Tank (a natural at 7, as Murph’s cute kid), and Cherry Jones.