Overboard

I saw the movie once (when originally aired). Been wanting to see it again but have never seen it re-broadcast. Have been looking in the TV guide for at least 25 yrs. ! The Kurt Russel version is on constantly! It's a different movie, as you all know. Cliff R. and Angie D. were both great, and this movie is deep in character and development. My wife, somehow, found a copy on DVDr and got it for me for Christmas! Holy Macrell!! It plays on my regular DVD player and I watched it last night (first time since 1978). It IS as good (or better) than I remembered. Much deeper than most TV made stuff, and no computer special effects like are so popular today. It's refreshing. Hollywood should go back and play it again - and pay friggin attention on how to do a movie! Beautiful boat and filmed on site. Nice!

I saw this 1978 "made-for-TV" film the first time it was aired, and once or twice since then (though not recently) and have never been able to forget it. It is one of the most haunting, beautiful, and chilling movies I have ever seen. Stunningly filmed in the Pacific and Tahiti, it is believably acted, and the story is original(though its theme is universal). This was made WAY before "Dead Calm," another favorite of mine, but in "Overboard" fate is the villain. The story involves an attractive, affluent married couple (Dickinson and Robertson in their primes) who -- at sailing fanatic Robertson's suggestion -- decide to sail their gorgeous yacht together to Tahiti (along with their cat) to recharge their relationship and add some spice and excitement to their somewhat dull upper-middle-class lives. Their adventure accomplishes both of these goals as it progresses from the ordinary and banal to its unexpected and chilling conclusion. It is especially fulfilling because it was made before American movies became dominated by crass taste, coarse language, and adolescent mindsets.

I heard about this movie and have been hunting for it for several years. I see it listed on IMDb but have been unable to obtain it. I saw it once on ebay listed by an Australian but was outbid. I would so love to see this movie. We heard about it from a sailing club that was talking about the bad luck of "renaming" a sailboat. It sounds like a great sailing movie not to mention about the difficulties the couple seems to be going through. The renaming thing is just a superstition thing the club had been talking about, but I guess that is part of the mystery in the movie about the boat??? Please, if anyone knows how to buy or rent one, please let me know.

Newport Beach lawyer, anxious to leave the rat race and chase his lifelong dream of sailing to the South Seas, is encouraged by his wife to purchase a yacht and "be free"; unfortunately, while steering in shifts, she falls overboard some 100 miles northwest of Tahiti (blame it on that pesky cat!). Hank Searls' adapted his novel for television, framing the majority of his story--the couple's rocky marriage--in that old TV device, The Flashback. However, since nothing but internal misery has dogged this bickering couple in the past, and the present offers us little more than Angie Dickinson treading water in a life-jacket, there's nothing to look forward to but their reunion. As an actress, Dickinson must have been attracted to the possibility of fireworks between the spouses--but with monotone Cliff Robertson playing opposite her, the chances for anything dramatically exciting are slim.

The scenery alone is enough to make you want to see it again and again. Add to that the acting of both Dickenson and Robertson and you have the perfect movie. As for having a "duplicate" title, I feel that that was a shame. The "other" "Overboard" with Goldie Hawn and Curt Russell, while a cute comedy that takes place on the ocean, has nothing in common with this older or original "Overboard," which is certainly far from being comical. Both my husband and I remember the final scene (we think) to a tee; but we are not in agreement on the rest of the movie. We've been arguing about this all these years and would love to be able to end our dispute by seeing the movie again.