Ship of Fools (1965) might seem like a strategic watch, given its timely themes. But in fact it was a random pick that just happened to resonate with modern reality, its details perhaps dated, but the broad strokes largely (and sadly) still quite relevant.
This Stanley Kramer-directed drama chronicles the transatlantic voyage of a German ocean liner during the early days of the Nazi regime. Originating in Mexico, the ship is full of upper-class travelers who spin in and out of each other’s orbits, leading to drama, conflict, humor, and romance. Among the German crew members is the jaded ship’s doctor, Schumann (Oskar Werner), who spends much of the journey reluctantly seated at the captain’s table with the privileged German citizens on the ship, including fascist, antisemitic blowhard Rieber (Jose Ferrer). Elsewhere, an optimistic German Jew named Lowenthal (Heinz Rühmann) is exiled to a side table with a cheerful little person, Glocken (Michael Dunn). There’s also a cynical, fading American beauty (Vivian Leigh), a dolt of a former baseball player (Lee Marvin), and a volatile young couple (Elizabeth Ashley and George Segal), among other first-class passengers. In steerage, however, are hundreds of Spanish workers who have just been deported from Cuba — along with the Contessa (Simone Signoret), the wealthy aristocrat who advocated for the laborers and is on her way to being imprisoned for it. Schumann sees in her the integrity he’s never found in himself, leading to a poignant romance, even as prejudice, sexism, and class warfare roil around them.
Based on a novel by Katherine Ann Porter, Ship of Fools bears all the hallmarks of prestige cinema of the mid-sixties, as well as a few blemishes borne of its era. It is, by definition, critical of its passengers — of their love lives, their treatment of one another, their naivety, their cruelty. But it is oblivious, at times, to specific faults, particularly when it comes to romantic and sexual relationships, which are heavily influenced by the mainstream chauvinism of the times. That said, so many of the issues raised in Ship of Fools, while not confronted all that sophisticatedly by modern standards, are still sadly with us. And given the slow-boil fascism and systemic xenophobia of the current moment, it’s rather alarming to watch a sixty-year-old film about those tragic foibles of civilization, shining a light of just how far we haven’t come. It is rather long, and the weave of interactions isn’t perfectly seamless, with a handful of extraneous subplots. But overall it’s a well executed film, historically insightful even as it provokes a thoughtful modern response.
