THE MAKING OF "CROSSING THE BAR"

CONCEPTION AND THE IMPORTANCE OF FOREPLAY - Blog 4 of 10

The Treatment

Did I hear, "What's a Treatment?" For sure it's an important part of the process (the making of). The textbook definition describes it as a narrative, abridged script consisting of each major scene, descriptions of significant characters and may include snippets of dialogue. It reads like a short story.

"Crossing the Bar" opens to reveal a 1946 South Pacific military supply base that is preparing to close now that World War II has ended. Located on Bora Bora, the base of nine ships and nearly 5,000 men is under the command of Rear Admiral Bernard Tanneur. When we first encounter Admiral Tanneur we hear him reciting marriage vows with his beloved Polynesian wife, even as she is giving birth to their first child. Despite pressure from the military to avoid such cross-cultural commitments, he takes his new daughter, Aimée, into his arms and tells how much he loves the island and the people so much that he will retire from the Navy and find a new career piloting freighters throughout the South Pacific.

The film then cuts to The Port Revel Centre, Ship Pilot’s Advanced Training Facility in Viriville, France during the mid-fifties. Adjacent to the facility’s large lake is a spacious villa dating back to the middle ages and the highly rated Hotel Bonnoit. This is where we meet the girl named Aimée at age ten. She is tall and gangling for her age, and in her demeanor we immediately observe that she is an inward looking young woman as she rides a horse bareback across the rolling green hills towards the lake where her father is now the Commandant of Port Revel. Under his command are a dozen young seaman and sea scouts who make up the Operations Team of Port Revel.

Aimée works along side the operations team as an equal as they rebuild ship engines for the manned scale model ships used for training at the facility. Her father reminds her that their most prestigious clients will be arriving the next morning and that they must likely work well after dark or all night if necessary to be prepared. She assists the team launching the ships and tugs. She and a young seaman, who will remain a life long friend, test the wind, wave and fog systems. Before collapsing into bed, she stoically finds the energy to assist her mother in programming the curriculum. Besides being brilliant, handsome and athletically built, she’s a genius with organizing and operating things. She comes across as an amazing young woman which often results in making her seem scarcely approachable. One thing seems clear; she appears destined to excel no matter what path in life she may follow. We already have great expectations for her.

For this reason alone, it is somewhat difficult to watch as she gets an innocent school girl crush on all eight of the good-looking and dashing ship pilots from the Bay of San Francisco in for their 12-day training session. They arrive in the early morning in three, large black, SUVs speeding onto the property. They roar along the dirt road in tight formation. They roll to a full stop in front of the hotel. When the dust clears the all-American, all male team of ship pilots exits the SUVs. In swagger they resemble the likes of Russell Crowe, Matthew McConaughey and Ashton Kutcher: white, macho, almost certainly, pathetically sexist, albeit charmingly roguish and romantic to boot. They shake hands with male staff and hug, rather too playfully, all the female staff who greet them from the Hotel – kitchen help, chefs, servers, hotel maids, gardeners and the like. One of the pilots speaks Japanese to the gardeners. Another speaks Spanish to the kitchen help. It should be noted that the parts of each of the eight ship pilots are written to represents one of the eight primary characteristics or personality traits of the featured mariners the writer-producer encountered during his time with the pilots, specifically heroic, charismatic, intelligent, brave, educated, wise, fearless, and archetypical American.

Treatment to be continued.

Copyright 2010 G.Leo Maselli