“By now you know the purpose of the Sea Hawks… in our own way to serve England and the Queen.”

ZombieDog’s rating: Five swashes buckled

ZombieDog’s review: I think one of the biggest problems of people new to the hobby of exploring cinema is that “old” gets equated with “bad.” And if the movie is black-and-white, it’s even worse. However, I would, with all my passion, encourage people to give some of these older movies a chance.

The Sea Hawk is a 1940 film starring Errol Flynn. It is a swashbuckling adventure, in that there’s plenty of swordfights, evildoers, and challenges for our characters to encounter. Honestly, if you’ve never seen a movie from the 1940s before, then this is the one I would recommend you try first. Strangely enough, the ’40s is a wonderful decade for film, although The Sea Hawk is awesome even by today’s standards.

At the time, Errol Flynn was known worldwide and easily comparable to a modern-day Tom Cruise. (Although I don’t think Flynn would enjoy the comparison). Flynn was a man’s man who drank and smoked to excess. If you’ve ever studied this time; even a little, then you would know these are fairly common behaviors.

This also came out while people were dealing with the beginning of World War II. Britain joined the war against Germany after the invasion of Poland in 1939. The Battle of Britain occurred roughly a year later, which was predominantly air warfare and brought Britain to the brink of destruction. This was a period of global conflict that brought multiple nations to the table. Governments asked their people to endure great hardships; in order to convince them, huge amounts of propaganda were produced to that effect.

While originally a novel, The Sea Hawk itself is a remake from a 1924 movie which chiefly took place in the Middle East. The 1940s version took place in Elizabethan England where Spain was the enemy and the action of the Sea Hawks was to serve as a quasi-Navy.

Queen Elizabeth is counting on diplomacy to keep her country safe. However, she realizes this may not be enough and makes a secret deal with Capt. Thorpe (Flynn) to steal a large amount of gold that is headed towards Spain. This is actually a pretty interesting part of the movie because we get to see both the public faces of each country and the private dialogue behind the scenes. This comes off as a kind of spy-thriller-heist movie, and it totally works.

The location and plot change from the 1924 version was intentional. They wanted to make a pro-Britain movie that would play in both the UK and America that would boost morale. The Sea Hawk was also profitable and popular even after the war.

This film is an adrenaline ride from beginning to end, and I would easily put it up with any modern action film. Although it was constrained by the time and technology, it is remarkable. I feel I’d be remiss if I didn’t bring up the fact that The Sea Hawk is almost exactly the same in tone and pace as 1938’s The Adventures of Robin Hood. In both, we see Errol Flynn at the top of his career, creating the archetype of the modern hero and action figure. At least in part.

The production of this movie is very much a product of its time. Black-and-white, predominantly filmed on sets, and highly choreographed, amazing swordfights. I’m a little bit disappointed here because The Adventures of Robin Hood was done in a very sharp-looking Technicolor. The colors in that movie always popped, and I remembered how vivid it was even as a child. I wish they would’ve done The Sea Hawk in the same way.

The filmmakers do attempt a couple of tricks. For example, when they’re in South America, they change the color of the film to Sepia Tone (which doesn’t add much). Also, if you watch carefully, you can see that the ships are done in miniature and are probably about six feet long. Yet they look awesome and are used sparingly to great effect.

The absolute positive upgrade from Robin Hood is that nobody’s wearing tights. I re-watched Robin Hood and that part of costume design is awful. I don’t know why they did that.

I must admit I have a very personal relationship with this movie. When I was a wee lad, there was a show on WGN out of Chicago called “Family Classics” and hosted by Frazier Thomas. It was a pretty decent showcase for movies, and many of the films that I consider my core loves were seen there. The Sea Hawk was one of them. At the time the movie was over 30 years old, but if that seems ancient, then I would like you to remember that Star Wars is 48 years old now.

Final thoughts: I love this movie! If you reach that point in your movie watching career/hobby whatever you want to call it, where you start to look for films that are out of your comfort zone, I can’t suggest strongly enough The Sea Hawk. I’ve seen this movie at least 25 times, and I took this opportunity to watch it with a little bit more of a critical perspective.

There is a lot of violence in this movie. There are more people killed than you would think, all to upbeat and cheery music. Swords to the heart, knives to the throat, there is no shortage of people meeting their doom.

I can’t stress this enough, but the ’40s was really an interesting time for cinema. The Sea Hawk is perfect for family nights, movie night, solo viewing, or whatever. Without question this movie is one of the best films that the Golden Age of Hollywood has to offer.