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Tempo MoviesTruth keeps 'Voyage' from straits of excessBy Gene SiskelMove DiocTHE CONSIDERABLE emotion generated byVoyage of the Damned ha* more to do with what's not on the screen than with what is Based on a true story. Voyage of the Damned tells of a cruel Nazi experiment that almost succeeded because of indifference to Jewish suffering.In May. 1913. the Nad government permitted 317 German Jewish relugees to leave Germany aboard a luxury liner bound for Cuba. In the minds of the passengers and even the ship's non-Nad captain, the Cuban government had agreed to permit the Jews to enter Cuba. This was not the caw. The Cuban president had invalidated the Jews’ landing permits before they aailed. and Nad propaganda minister Josef Goehbels had begun to spread the word that, like Germany, other nations of the world didn't want any part of the Jewish problem This is the story of “Voyage of the Damned. a sprawling thbaur movie with a huge into motional cast The picture's power has n lot to do wtth the essential truth of the story—many nations looked the other way during the Nad holocaust—and the particularly dramatic situation of innocent people escaping murder only to face rejection and. possibly, ■death.HIE PROBLEMS with the film venlM are typical of screenplays based on real events. First, the •‘starquality of the east requires that each character be Introduced in a broad brush manner. When you're jug-aa dozen stories if* to tell any one of them very well. For example, there's an encounter between two Jewish parents and their daughter, who has been storking in Cuba as a prostitute and A*ho manages to get on board for a visit while the ship, anchored off the Cuban coast, wails for permission to unload its human cargo. 'It's a broad, tearful scene with the mother (Maria SeheU) getting more and more emotional as she realizes her daughter's (Katharine Ross) Illicit profession But the way the scene Is written, the mother catches on much too late. It would have been more interesting for both parents to Immediately realize what was going on and bitterly ay nothing about it. But that kind of subtlety doesn't givo big name actors a chance to flaunt their cralt.A second problem ts that dialog based on ■ real event rarely has the frenetic, sentence fragment quality of real speech under pressure Ben Gazzara, playing a Jewish welfare worker in Cuba, telb the frightened passer gen that they mud have hope, that hope a what has kept the Jewish people alive. That b a noble sentiment, but one suspects a desire for survival or a fear of dying may be closer to the truthVoyage of the Damned ts by no means an embarrassing film, as b the case with so many picture* sporting a huge international cast. Bat it succeeds because of its truth and despite its form acd dialog.TRIBUNEMINI-REVIEWEssentially emotional **Vi VOYAGE OF THE DAMNEDfry Simpt Mbm'mfayOmI Utl a* V* froofc fryMw r*wti t 4Ad llu iMfrfry U» Sc#*oi m* i:«^ fr* rrym. ** Ait* Fn**«r» *««m m t*T*c CAffTfrr% fhrwmwy fan •©* 9y40v Oi*a» VmWb*m
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