[Infowarrior] - PBS Takes USS Nimitz On a Long, Choppy Ride

[Richard Forno]

PBS Takes USS Nimitz On a Long, Choppy Ride

By Tom Shales
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 26, 2008; C01

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/25/AR2008042503
790_pf.html

Combine a dizzying mishmash of cinematic gimmicks with a conk-on-the-head
rock score, then make the film 10 hours long, and there you have a good
recipe for the viewing equivalent of seasickness. That's what you're likely
to get from "Carrier," a repetitious PBS documentary about life aboard that
hale ship the USS Nimitz.

"I do like it, but I didn't love it," says one of the ship's sailors as he
describes his cramped sleeping quarters; he has to slip into it like baloney
into a sandwich. "Carrier," likewise, is likable enough in parts but not
lovable enough; there's simply too much of it, and director Maro Chermayeff
can't quite settle on a consistent style. It's hard to tell the fits from
the starts.

The film also, sad to say, rocks when it isn't rolling. That is, instead of
a full-blown orchestral score in the background (the one that immediately
comes to mind is Richard Rodgers's brilliant music for the NBC documentary
masterpiece "Victory at Sea"), the producers pipe in a rock or pop tune
whenever they want to liven up the footage, or give it a beat, or perhaps
add some sort of blandly ironic comment.

The songs give the film an unfortunate "Top Gun" feel, as if this were all
some grandly conceived and overproduced recruitment film.

That complaint is not just a fuddy-duddy's longing for the good old days.
Obviously, music in the Rodgers idiom would seem anachronistic if used
today. But other viable contemporary alternatives are available. Having
singers and their songs supplement the dialogue means we are never very far
from, or safe from, words -- although the film does mercifully lack a
narrator.

The Nimitz, said to be one of only 10 nuclear aircraft carriers in the
world, is a magnificent playground for any camera, and "Carrier" was shot in
HD video, which means properly equipped viewers will see pictures of
stunningly sharp clarity. But the pictures aren't as spectacular as one
might anticipate, and though Chermayeff doesn't mind lingering at length
over the sight of a crew member sitting and talking, he likes to do quick,
slick, lickety-split cuts from shot to shot once he gets outside and
photographable material is everywhere.

There are ways, though, in which "Carrier" resembles a pleasure cruise. The
sailors are largely an ingratiating bunch, going about their labors with
more good cheer than many a civilian goes about his or hers. Even the
prosaic everyday activities are worth seeing, whether they involve making
pancakes, polishing brass or, as one crew member puts it, "pushing missiles
around." Yes, we see the missiles and yes, they have to get pushed around.

Mostly, the Nimitz seems to be roaming around with no particular goal. Near
the end of the first part, however, the ship pays a visit to a famous
memorial: the one constructed in Hawaii in memory of the USS Arizona, sunk
during the attack on Pearl Harbor. A hint of actual music seems to sneak in
at this solemn moment.

Later in the series, the Nimitz will head for Iraq and play a part in the
war, jets taking off from and landing on its deck. One pilot describes the
sensation of experiencing that dip from the deck into the air as "kind of
like having sex in a car accident." It's hard to be absolutely certain,
however, if the takeoffs shown here are any more impressive or dramatic than
those replicated by prop planes (with some newsreel footage edited in) in
the classic war movie "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo," more than a half-century
ago.

The filmmakers are careful to try for political balance, with comments about
the war from men and women aboard ship. Although the monstrous attack of
Sept. 11, 2001 is repeatedly invoked by the ship's officers in pep talks,
one sailor says bluntly, "One thing has absolutely nothing to do with the
other" -- the "other," of course, being the war. But another young sailor
eloquently expresses the sense of patriotism that compelled him to enlist.

Perhaps the most pungent and affecting comment, however, comes from a young
African American woman: "I don't get why we're fighting for somebody else's
freedom when we barely have our own."

Another female member of the crew is reprimanded, on camera, because alcohol
was found in her locker. She takes the punishment gamely. Alarm is sounded
when it appears one sailor has slipped overboard and is lost at sea, a
terrifying prospect.

Individually and in the aggregate, the members of the crew are inspiringly
impressive, and one can hardly help empathizing with the young man who says,
"I don't want to be a quitter, but I really would rather be home."

Those who wade into "Carrier" might not want to be quitters, either, but
after four or five hours, they may find they'd really rather be checking out
who's survived on "American Idol."

The 10-part Carrier (10 hours) debuts tomorrow at 9 on Channels 22 and 26.