Captain Cook

In Lawrence's own words

1985 –
I was sitting at Bokelly in the dark month of February when the phone rang and a very French voice asked if I was Lawrence Gordon Clark. ' Oo made Harrys Game?' I said I was. “Michel Nol,” he said. Could I meet him at Langhams next Tuesday to discuss an important project.

More than that he wouldn't say.                     

So I formed up at Langhams in Piccadilly and waited for him with a friend called Nick Evans who'd written Murder by the Book which I'd directed a year before and who I'd asked along for moral backing if it was needed. Eventually this tall, thin youngish Frenchman arrived carrying some duty-free bags that were loaded to bursting point and dumped them on the table.

They were scripts. Eight of them.
"The story of Captain Cook, " he announced. " An eight-hour series for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Shooting in Tahiti and Australia. I would like you to direct it."

Thus I went to Los Angeles to meet Ray Alchin, the Australian producer, and we flew to Vancouver to see the replica of the Bounty which was in the Expo exhibition there and arranged that it would sail to Tahiti to be ready for filming later in the year. Then we flew to Tahiti and took the ferry to Morea and reccied locations for filming there, including a wondrous beach where there was water for the Bounty to moor with the mountains of Morea towering behind her.

Then back to England again to meet Keith Michel who was to give a towering performance as Cook. Then to Munich to meet Eric Hallhuber and back to Paris to meet Fernando Rez and finally to Sydney to meet the camera crew and do the rest of the casting.

Shooting was to start in Morea in the early summer so I had time to return to Cornwall for a bit and spend some time with Maggie and arrange for her to bring the family out to Sydney for the summer when we'd finished in Tahiti.

Filming in Morea went pretty smoothly with the Bounty arriving on time. The crew were a mixture of Australians, Americans and British and managed the ship superbly. The Australian film crew worked their socks off and all was going fine…when I was woken in my hotel by a man who said, ‘It’s your brother. Come quickly.’ I sprinted from the chalet to Reception and Francis’ voice said, “I don’t want you to worry but…”

It transpired that my daughter, Lucy, had had an aneurism wile at her school and been rushed to the Radcliffe in Oxford where a brilliant surgeon called Adams had operated and saved her life. The story of how Maggie had been driven to the hospital by Philip Gough and the interventions of Candida and Rupert Lycett Green, ensuring she got to the Radcliffe and the care of Adams and the subsequent support of Nancy and Francis deserve much more detail but suffice it to say, I’m eternally in their debt for what they all did.

I finished the filming and flew back to LA on the next available flight which was fully booked but a blessed air hostess gave up her seat for me. There was no such problem in LA because President Reagan had taken military action against Gadaffi and the Americans feared terrorist reprisals so I flew back to Gatwick in an almost empty Laker Jumbo.

I arrived back in Cornwall to find Lucy convalescing well and we decided that she should travel back to Sydney with me to complete the filming and Maggie and Jake and Poppy would come out later.

We finished another ten weeks memorable filming in Sydney. Keith Michel’s performance, I think, remains one of the best things he ever did. It remains, like Captain Cook himself, wanting on proper recognition.

The Bounty Endeavour tall ship arrived and we got some memorable scenes sailing outside the harbour Heads, some in very rough weather. The cast and the crew were extraordinarily good and really fun to work with. We had a great gripsman called Long John who carried our film in a Rib so that it would get to the labs on time and spirited intrepid costume and make-up ladies likewise. Like most Australians he was a great traveller and he said to me once when I told him I was from Cornwall, “You should try the St Kew Inn. It’s a ripper little pub.” It was a mile from where we lived.

Australia made a great impression on Maggie and I and we seriously considered moving there. Family considerations and kids’ education put us off in the end but we looked a plot of land in the Blue Mountains but never quite took the plunge although we returned next year to make Act of Betrayal with Eliot Gould and Patrick Bergin and gave a memorable holiday to my daughter, Poppy and Dini, a friend of hers.

My son, Jake, did in fact move to Sydney years later with his family so we continued to enjoy fabulous times there after all.

Gallery

Reviews

Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars A triumph of maritim exploration and human determination
Reviewed in the United States on July 31, 2014

Impressive and passionate demonstration of human ambition and determination! Don't miss it! Although there are plenty of pretty Images of exotic islands and tallships, the movie is character-driven and lives from the conflict of the different sozial classes. Banks, the scientist from the upper class and Cook, the son of a simple grocer have to find a way to overcome differences and join forces to face the obstacles that lie in their way to fame and credit.
3 people found this helpful

scottieone

5.0 out of 5 stars Captain James Cook ( Wind und Sterne ) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.4 Import - Australia ]
Reviewed in the United States on August 14, 2012

If you have a player that accepts PAL format, you owe it to yourself to get this series. Excellent. Best summary of Cook's South Pacific journeys in any medium.
3 people found this helpful 

Timothy B. Holt

5.0 out of 5 stars Heartfelt. Australian homage to a great sailor of northern England.
Reviewed in the United States on November 21, 2009

After ten years I finally gave up waiting for a region 1 relase of this and bought it region 4. It appears that much of this was shot in Australia, New Zealand and (I think) Moorea, French Polynesia. The ship is apparently not the replica of Endeavor that was built in Australia some decades back but I did not mind. Even the snowy scenes with filmed back-drops of Antarctica (which they never actually sighted) with men shivering in blankets off Sydney (I bet) was in way I could respect (no CGI for me). The main thing is you do get a sense of the undertaking of a 3 year sea voyage. You do get a sense of the loss and the longing that such trials and separations bring. I know things about the natural world found on these voyages many plants named after Banks (Banksia) and petrels (Parkinsons, Solander's), terns (Fosters) and so wish I had been there as a naturalist. I think Keith Mitchell (of Australian birth and fame in the "Six Wives of King Henry the Eighth" and also wonderfull in "The Pirates of Penzanze" ["A very modern Major General"] and "Ruddigore") was so true to a north English captain who transitioned from the Merchant to the Royal Navy complete with north English accent (reminds me of my boss, Paul Holt, from North england, who was the smartest, most energetic most true captain one could have on a ship "ARC International" a computer chip design firm, as it slowly sank over 8 years to my distress. No non-sense, No bull, caring, hard working, ....).
The scenes of bare breasts and maiden beauty in Polynesia earn a PG rating but are the best (better than the Bounty with Mel Gibson) depiction of the strangely free and sensual world that made up the pacific islanders kingdoms (read "Typee" by Herman Melville if you do no believe). Infanticide, hard taboos, warfare and ritual canabalism were part of how their life was maintained in some kind of stasis. Horrific to think of, but looking at where the world is headed now, I am crossing my fingers that genetic testing, birth control including first trimester month birth control, care for the future generations looking ahead 20 and 200 years NOT 2 years, SCIENCE [real study, real knowledge] may save us from having to kill even more than we are to keep a garden and a good life for our children. Do not condem the ancient polynesians too quickly.
Meantime the deep ocean, thanks to GPS and world communications, has been tamed. We will never know a time like the one depected here where discovery meant so much. An expedition to Mars calls us. But you know it is just fantasy to take our mind off our real challenge. We still know almost nothing of our own sea and atmosphere (SHAME!). Our resources are running out, our planet is warming up, the anti-intellectuals of Chritiandom and of Islam are clamouring for war and return to the strife that made them dominate the world millenia ago. In a nuclear age such instincts of the "Religions of Shortage" [Tim Holt 2005] will bring no success but utter misery for their poor followers who think the instincts that come from selection by aggressive killing and war are inspired by a god. "Kill the heathens!!" A sheep dog learns to chase a basketball into a corner of a garage by instinct in 10 generations. Humans learn to condemn others, kill men and children and take women, land and cattle in the same amount of time in the name of righteousness and GOD. It worked for their genetic success, but let us now learn from archeology and science to work together rather than in horror.
In the end. You have to admire the discipline and the respect for others that made Captain Cook's voyages a success. I say YES to thoughtfull seamanlike knowledge of the wind, the sea, and navigation AND of human nature. Science, and British standards of justice please survive in the face of the worst kind of anti-intellectual barbarism since Nazi Germany now arising in the the USA hinterlands and in the poorest areas of the Middle East.

Louise S.

5.0 out of 5 stars Captivating, well acted slice of life aboard Endeavour and Resolution
Reviewed in the United States on December 13, 2013

Although the mini-series necessarily glosses over large chunks of the three voyages, to me it captures the essence of these heroic journeys, and infuses the stories with the human touch. A few facts have been changed (I seem to remember Charlie Clerke asked to be left behind and was denied rather then the other way around). The licence taken with including Cook's wife Elizabeth and children, about whom little is known, is believable and adds to the story. I really liked the character of Sergeant Gibson, who was just as I imagined him, and the development of his relationship with Cook. Keith Michell is the perfect Cook - lovely voice I could listen to all day, and he even look like him! All in all it's a great watch, and I'm dreaming of a day when Sir Peter Jackson makes Cook's journeys into a movie trilogy (or longer!).

Cathy Permut

5.0 out of 5 stars 
Reviewed in the United States on June 22, 2012
5 visions of capt cook- australian poet- k slessor

Flowers turned to stone! Not all the botany
Of Joseph Banks, hung pensive in a porthole,
Could find the Latin for this loveliness,
Could put the Barrier Reef in a glass box
Tagged by the horrid Gorgon squint
Of horticulture. Stone turned to flowers
It seemed--you'd snap a crystal twig,
One petal even of the water-garden,
And have it dying like a cherry-bough.
They'd sailed all day outside a coral hedge,
And half the night. Cook sailed at night,
Let there be reefs a fathom from the keel
And empty charts. The sailors didn't ask,
Nor Joseph Banks. Who cared? It was the spell
Of Cook that lulled them, bade them turn below,
Kick off their sea-boots, puff themselves to sleep,
Though there were more shoals outside
Than teeth in a shark's head. Cook snored loudest himself.

JCG

4.0 out of 5 stars Worth buying
Reviewed in the United States on February 2, 2007
I saw this mini series on tv around about 1987 (in the UK where I live). For some years I've wanted to have this in my collection (I already owned the paperback). I finally tracked down a website in Australia (previously hmv.com.au - now called sanity.com.au) & bought it. I'm glad I've got it at last. This is a quality production well acted & captures a piece of history (at least how it probably was). Worth buying!! 

south walian
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 9 April 2018

Been after this series for decades,I had managed to get costs from the state's but the quality of them were poor, this DVD s quality is excellent very clear
Also this DVD was rare to obtain for example a couple of years ago this DVD would cost you nearly £200, but this DVD is just £35 brilliant

strausswaltz
5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 May 2018
Love it. Now we have a flat screen tv the quality is so much better

Laiki Bank Visa
5.0 out of 5 stars A must see!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 8 November 2017
excellent production, captivating dialogue and beautiful landscape, makes you watch 400 minutes in 2 nights at most!

James Sacco
3.0 out of 5 stars Great movie but the plastic case was cracked
Reviewed in the United States on 19 February 2019
Unique TV series on one of the great explorers of all time. Pity the case the DVD came in a case that was cracked and split open the moment I removed the DVD.

Alexander Baur
5.0 out of 5 stars A triumph of maritim exploration and human determination
Reviewed in the United States on 31 July 2014
Impressive and passionate demonstration of human ambition and determination! Don't miss it! Although there are plenty of pretty Images of exotic islands and tallships, the movie is character-driven and lives from the conflict of the different sozial classes. Banks, the scientist from the upper class and Cook, the son of a simple grocer have to find a way to overcome differences and join forces to face the obstacles that lie in their way to fame and credit.
3 people found this helpful