Director Wolfgang Petersen returns to the ocean to skipper THE PERFECT STORM.
Wolfgang Petersen is not one to take the easy way out. During a career filled with technically challenging films, including The Neverending Story, Enemy Mine and In the Line of Fire, the director has consistently set a high-water mark, placing his protagonists at the center of visually stunning cataclysms that test their mettle. But of all his films, he found The Perfect Storm to be the most challenging since the classic 1981 World War II submarine thriller Das Boot.
Like the fishermen protagonists aboard The Perfect Storm’s doomed Andrea Gail, Petersen has spent a good amount of time on the water. Whereas most filmmakers do everything they can to avoid making even one film on the ocean, Petersen has now made two. AC caught up with Petersen recently to ask him why he’s drawn to stories set at sea.
American Cinematographer: What is it that compelled you to work on water again?
Wolfgang Petersen: I couldn’t get enough of it, because [Das Boot] was so much fun, and I just love that element. Also, it gives me an opportunity to watch people very closely in a very close environment within a U-boat or, in this case, trapped inside ’The Perfect Storm.’ There are many things about the sea that I just love, [along with] all of those big-time writers.
But the Hemingways just had to write about the sea.
Petersen: [and] I have to shoot it! That’s the tough part of it, yes! And this one was especially tough.
What drew you to The Perfect Storm?
Petersen: When I read the book [by Sebastian Junger], I said, ’Oh, my God! How exciting and unusual it is! Now, how can we do it?’ I knew we’d be dealing with water, especially in extreme situations, but we’d also have to put this whole world together. There was not only the Andrea Gail, the fishing boat that gets caught in the storm, but also the subplot situations involving Coast Guard ships and rescue helicopters with pararescue jumpers leaping into this raging ocean to save people. What I like about creating the storm of the century is that reality is the headline above everything, just like it was in Das Boot.
Cinematographer John Seale [ASC, ACS] is not known for gritty, hard-edged action movies, but for his photography on lush, romantic period pieces such as The English Patient. What did you see in his work that convinced you he was right for The Perfect Storm?
Petersen: First of all, I loved his passion for another project of mine, Endurance, which is a totally physical, outdoorsy, cinematic adventure that will involve re-creating the Antarctic. If you want to do that kind of thing, you have to be very adventurous, and John was almost pursuing me. He was really interested in doing that movie, which impressed me a lot. I’ve seen most of his movies, and I think he’s a great cinematographer, but I was surprised he wanted to do something like Endurance. I think it’s always a great thing for somebody to throw themselves completely into something they have a passion for, even if they’ve never done it!
So it was a leap of faith on your part?
Petersen: Yeah, yeah, yeah! But thank God I did it! John’s a complete ’outdoors’ guy. He loves the water, the sea he has a sailing boat that he built himself! From scratch! I thought, ’What about doing The Perfect Storm with him?’ And then I heard from his agent that it was his favorite book, and he was just crazy about it!
Your films are known for incredibly energetic photography. Did you continue that style on The Perfect Storm?
Petersen: I think so. But very often, that kind of special energy comes from the combination of photography and editing. This is the second time I worked with Richard Francis Bruce, who is one of the great editors around, and working with John Seale also gave this movie an enormous, feverish energy. John loves to do all kinds of interesting camera movements, and a lot of Steadicam work. The camera was constantly moving.
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