THE SAILOR'S RETURN

UK, 1978, 112 minutes, Colour.
Tom Bell, Shope Sheideinde, Nigel Hawthorne, Clive Swift, Bernard Hill.
Directed by Jack Gold.

The Sailor’s Return is a striking film. However, it was very little seen.

The film has a 19th century setting. Tom Bell plays a sailor who returns to his home in England. However, he has married a wife from Dahomi and scandalises the people in his village. The film takes up interesting themes of the British empire, the colonialising of the British, the attitude towards Africans, especially in the 19th century, mixed-race marriages.

The film is strong on its detail of the English village, the psychology of the people there, the xenophobia, the inherent racism. The film has a very good cast, Tom Bell always a striking figure. Nigel Hawthorne is in support as is Clive Swift (Mrs Bucket’s husband in Keeping Up Appearances).

The film was directed by Jack Gold, an English director who began work in television, made a number of interesting films in the 1960s including The Reckoning and The Bofors Gun, began to make television films in the 1970s with Catholics. He also directed significant television features like The Naked Civil Servant.

1. An interesting and enjoyable film? Its dramatic impact? Humane impact? Qualities of production?

2. Colour photography, locations? The importance of the re-creation of period and its atmosphere? An authentic picture of the British past? The importance of detail in costume and decor and atmosphere? Audiences immersed in the period and the place? The musical score?

3. The screenplay and plot as a 19th century story with the style of 19th century novels? The establishing of character? The creation of situations? The emphasis on the social setting rather than the psychological? The picture
of a way of life? Comparisons with more subtle and psychological 20th century ways of storytelling?

4. The significance of the racial theme? Racism and integration in a 19th century British setting? in comparison with similar 20th century stories? The racial theme as unusual and arresting? The British and their isolation? Their curiosity about Africans? Delight, politeness? Criticism? Avoiding the black woman? Their cowardice, the attacks, the destruction? The final enslavement of the black by the British? Symbol of what was happening in 18th and 19th century Empire? The boots? The presumptions about race, prejudice? Attitudes towards British royalty - and the impossibility of transferring those attitudes to Africa? The importance about heritage and culture - from Dahomey and England? Race and religion themes?

5. The importance of African culture and dignity? Dahomey and its impact? Tulip? Adaptation and homesickness? Telling stories to Tom? Dreams, love, self-giving? Traditional religion and prayers? Hidden emblems: shells? The reaction to Christianity - fear of it? The visit to the church, the baptism, the talk with the vicar? The ratification of the marriage in the church? William's death and Tulip being trapped in Britain? The explanations of Christianity - the sense and the non-sense for the African? The comment on Christianity when listened to from the point of view of the African?

6. The atmosphere of the 19th century: the opening and the train, the shop, the employer and his bias, the open fields, the hotel and the life within the hotel, the local gentry, hostility, lyrical aspects of the quiet English countryside, the Church of England, the fights in the village, the boats etc.? The importance of this background for making the story credible? As seen from Tulip's point of view?

7. William Targett and the introduction to him? Tulip and her seeming to be a man? Revealed as his wife? The child? The basic love story and its credibility, humanity? The devotion to each other? Coming to the inn? The deal? The preparation for taking over the inn? Tom and his help? Fred (and the cowardice)? William establishing himself in the village, the help? His capacity for listening and drawing a clientele? Lucy and her anger? Harry and his love? The importance of the visit to the vicar, the clash? The baptism, the birth, the validation of the marriage? His absences, the fight and his being killed? A good man and a concerned man? A man of tenderness and humour? His broadness of view and his living without racial prejudice?

9. The introduction to Tulip: the background of Dahomey, her dress, adaptation to 19th century Britain? The incongruity of her wearing 19th century British clothes and behaving according to custom? The response of Harry and Lucy? Her love for William? Help in the inn? The reaction of the clientele? Tom and her hair? Billy and the two names? Her fear of the church? The vicar? Harry and the picnic? The confrontation with Lucy? Her happiness in the village? Her adapting to the customs - yet her dreams, her prayers, ritual ceremonies, her vision of the people and their being terrifying, the stone, the mushrooms - and the final disaster? The sadness of the funeral? Her son? Her walking back into the village and being lost there as a servant and slave? The portrait of a noble woman?

10. Tom and his being a nice young man, the detail of his work in the inn, the nature of his devotion, his weeping for Tulip?

11. Harry and his joy, the dance, the stories of the United States? Lucy and her snobbery and the visit?

12. Fred and the other members of the village - sympathy yet cowards? Their behaviour in the final struggle? The illness of the wife?

13. The build-up to the fight, the demonstrations against Tulip, her trying to manage without William? The final confrontation and William's death? The racial eruption of violence?

14. The film's portraying basic values of love, joy, family, work? Hatred and snobbery? The ultimate sadness with William's death and Tulip's enslavement? A comment on racism and Britain in the 19th century?