Sailing vicariously

Given the depressing lack of sailing in 2020, we decided to make a list of good sailing (or sailing-related) movies, and even re-watched a few of them. Watching a movie about sailing isn't as good as actually sailing, but it may be the next best thing! So, here's the ultimate list, ranked (roughly and subjectively) from awesome to great to very good....

Captain Blood (1935, b&w). English doctor is wrongly convicted of treason, sold into slavery in the Caribbean, becomes a pirate.
Sweet!

Mutiny on the Bounty (1962). Marlon Brando, Trevor Howard, Richard Harris. This spectacular remake is one of the best movies ever put on film and has aged exceptionally well, with a haunting ending that differs from the other two versions. The 1935 film (Charles Laughton & Clark Gable, b&w) is great when on board ship but is weakened somewhat by mediocre Tahiti sequences.

The Bounty (1984). Mel Gibson plays Fletcher Christian, who's just about had enough of Capt. Bligh. Anthony Hopkins, Daniel Day-Lewis, Liam Neeson, Laurence Olivier, and naked island hottie Tevaite Vernette round out the amazing cast. Better than the 1962 movie in at least one way--cuter Tahitian women.

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003). Square-rigger captained by Russell Crowe pursues enemy warship around Cape Horn and beyond. Does that sound like fun? You bet.

Captain Horatio Hornblower (1951, in full color). Gregory Peck captains British warship on secret mission into the Pacific. Seems to have inspired Master & Commander, and about as much fun too.

Dead Calm (1989). Sam Neill, Nicole Kidman, and Billy Zane--together at sea? This one is a slow burning kicker.

White Squall (1996). Teenage boys crew schooner for summer class, run into storm, get skipper Jeff Bridges into big trouble. We know certain Hoofer staff will love the teenage boy theme (and others will relate to being in big trouble).

Kon-Tiki (2012). Great remake of Thor Heyerdahl's historic trans-pac adventure aboard a balsa sailing raft, plus a whale shark!

Billy Budd (1962, b&w, widescreen). Mutiny threatens aboard a British square-rigger, with lots of solid action and drama.

All is Lost (2013). Solo circumnavigator Robert Redford runs into the #1 terror of offshore sailors--a shipping container (no it's not the weather) floating just beneath the surface of the Indian Ocean. Character study has its moments and is well worth seeing.

Wild Things (1998). Two superhotties pull doublecross. Not really a sailing movie but worth seeing just for the final sequence, which is all sailing! Great cast includes Neve Campbell, Denise Richards, Kevin Bacon, Matt Dillon, Robert Wagner, & Bill Murray.

Waterworld (1995). Kevin Costner roams future Earth looking for "Dry land". Holy metallic monsters, could Hoofers build a catamaran like that one..?

Maidentrip (2013). 14-year-old girl attempts solo circumnavi-gation. Pretty intense, and a decent clinic in offshore sailing too.

Captain Ron (1992). Kurt Russell is a hard-partying skipper-for-hire in this Hooferesque comedy.

Jaws 2 (1978). Though nothing compared to the original Jaws (1975), this decent sequel is worth seeing just for the scene where their mom opens up the book on sharks, and.... The sailing attack scene is also great.

Extraction (2020, Chris Hemsworth). Okay, so this isn't a sailing movie at all, but it has a brief shot of a gunboat on a river.... and it totally rocks!

Well, that's all we've got. No doubt we've missed some, so feel free to add other good sailing flicks in the comments. IMDb is a good place to find details on any of the above. Note that no Pirates of the Caribbean movies are on this list because we're not including kiddie flix (and they all sucked).