Lifeboat Explores Human Nature

What happens when you put almost a dozen people together in a small cramped space for several days or weeks? This is explored in the Oscar winning, 1944 Alfred Hitchcock directed movie ‘Lifeboat’. The movie showcases the risks of survival of the fittest, far better than the current Survivor television series.

In this black-and-white movie, no one gets voted off the boat. People are either thrown off, or jump to their deaths. Walter Slezak plays a member of the Master Race, who is rescued from the water by the lifeboat passengers. He eventually lulls each of them into complacency as he manipulates their behavior and reactions to him. All while rowing the boat into Nazi controlled waters.

The movie shows that everyone has a weakness that can be exploited, given the right set of circumstances. Anyone can turn into a monster under certain conditions. The victims of a Nazi torpedo attack try valiantly to maintain their humanity. Still, their survival demands victims or casualties, and Hitchcock directs us through how it happens.

It isn’t claustrophobia that causes their eventual animalistic behavior. It is the survival instinct that governs this crew. They have been thrown together by war and circumstance. Among the passengers are Tallulah Bankhead as a jaded writer; William Bendix as a severely injured crew member of the ship; John Hodiak as a drifter; Canada Lee as a former pick pocket trying to change his life for the better; and Henry Hull as a very wealthy man. With no water, no food, in a crowded lifeboat, regardless of race, color, creed, intellect, or economic fortune or fame, they are now all equal. Equal except by the level of their desperate willingness to live despite the torpedoed end of their passenger ship.

War brings out everyone’s essential character, especially when put in an unstable environment. The movie proves that the nature of the human will for survival does not necessarily mean the same as animal instinct. Heck, even in war, romance still finds a way onto the cramped space of wood.

In the beginning, they are all for one, and one for all. They give and allow ranting and raving speeches; love blossoms as the others turn their heads; they share their individual war stories. They even show compassion for the very enemies who blew up their ship. Everyone helps out, not considering that they really had not left the war just because they were all in the same boat.

In the end, they each betray oneself and the others in order to survive. They ultimately become an angry mob, crazed from lack of food, water, and dignity. Someone is killed. When they realize they are about to be rescued, they are humiliated by their monstrous behavior. As small as the lifeboat is, they try to avoid each other. No one knows who will survive what he or she has done.

“Lifeboat” is a movie about the human condition. People can and will change from right to wrong depending upon circumstances. Whether prince, pauper, pickpocket, writer, or mother, each of us has the will and determination to survive. Regardless of our upbringing, we will always do what we must to live. And afterward, we will be ashamed for what we did, perhaps for life.