WATERWORLD (1995)

  

PHENOMENALITY: *marvelous*
MYTHICITY: *fair*
FRYEAN MYTHOS: *adventure*
CAMPBELLIAN FUNCTION: *cosmological, sociological*

In its day WATERWORLD only made back its high production costs over a long haul, which means that in its general release this "Mad Max at sea" concept would have been deemed a box office failure. Still, it made enough money not to be one of the all-time flops, so I tend to think the project got about the level of success it deserved.

The WATERWORLD script devotes as little attention as the "Max" films did to the reasons for the world's apocalyptic transformation, except for a quick mention that the polar icecaps melted and deluged all of civilization. As in most post-apoc films, only isolated enclaves have survived, this time in the form of artificial "atolls" inhabited by ragtag survivors. The more law-abiding communities keep up a system of trade with "drifters," individuals who uses sailboats to range out into the trackless seas looking for valuable resources or relics from the previous order of things. Many of these atoll-dwellers nurture a myth of "Dryland," a surviving continent not entirely subtmerged, but no such place has ever been discovered.

One such drifter, known only as The Mariner (Kevin Costner), visits an atoll looking for trade. He's meant to be a rough, insular figure, wanting to mingle with other humans as little as possible, even after he meets lissome Helen (Jeanne Tripplehorn). Unknown to the Mariner or the other atoll-dwellers, a child named Enola (Tina Majorino), under the guardianship of Helen, bears a tattoo on her back that may be a map to the location of Dryland. A spy for the Smokers-- pirates outfitted with speedboats-- learns Enola's secret and relays it to the pirates' leader, The Deacon (Dennis Hopper).

Under complicated circumstances-- which, among other things, reveal that the Mariner is a mutant who can breathe water-- Helen and Enola join The Mariner on his trimaran when the Smokers attack the atoll. The better part of the film focuses on the slow process by which The Mariner is socialized by being stuck with two females on his sailcraft, while at the same time all three seek to ward off attacks from the Deacon's followers. Eventually, the Mariner and the Deacon face off, one against a small army of raiders, and things blow up real good. Perhaps inevitably, Dryland is indeed found, though the script doesn't deal with just how much land there is, and what may happen when the inhabitants of the atolls start migrating en masse to the flourishing continent

The FX and the action-scenes are WATERWORLD's best features, and probably can be largely credited to director Kevin Reynolds, though reportedly Costner threw his star-weight around on directorial choices and caused a rift between the two creators. But one thing Costner could not alter: he simply was not able to bring off the "antiheroic" aspects of the Mariner's character. The actor tries with might and main to look as if he's bristling with feral attitude, suspicious of everyone, at least partly because of his mutant heritage. Yet even though The Mariner suggests drowning Enola to save on resources, and even though he does throw her overboard in a fit of pique, there's never really any doubt that he'll turn back the trimaran to rescue her. There's no doubt that the Mariner's cold, cold heart will eventually be warmed by the insertion of two females into his isolation because Costner was just not able to project real spiritual darkness. That said, Tripplehorn and Majorino bring a lot of verve to their simple roles, and Majorino was particularly good in her ambivalent reactions to a potential "father figure" in her young life-- though someone, be it Costner or a scripter, couldn't resist recycling the ending of SHANE here. And just to spread some of the blame for the film's failures elsewhere, Hopper's Deacon is no prize either, as he utters assorted phrases so anachronistic that they took me completely out of the world-of-water.

Once or twice, the Mariner seems to possess a certain affinity with the ocean that goes beyond the limitations of the average post-apoc hero. It might have worked better to have portrayed the hero as someone as being divorced from the standards of commonplace humans because of his seagoing nature, rather than just trying to put across ceaseless bad attitude. But you don't always get what you need.