FORGOTTEN FILM - CABIN BOY

I think the first time I noticed Chris Elliott was on his short lived FOX sitcom, Get a Life (1990-1992). I'm sure I'd seen him pop up on Letterman's old NBC show here and there before that (he was a writer and regular cast member), but this series put a name to his face and was just weird enough to appeal to me. I started watching it because his character's name was the same as someone I knew, which we all found rather funny, but then the show turned out to be actually rather funny, so I kept watching until it got cancelled.

A couple of years later, I spotted the VHS of his 1994 film, Cabin Boy, for rent when it hit the shelves and the premise seemed interesting enough to take a chance, so home it came. What I wasn't really prepared for was the flat out assault on my sensibilities that I was going to endure for the next 80 minutes. The thing is, this film should have made me very angry, and I know it made some critics feel that way, but despite the continuous intellectual kicks to the head, I found myself turning into a complete masochist for this movie's abuse. The more ridiculous and irritating it got, the more I loved it and I just couldn't get enough. It simply takes absurdity to a level of Zen transcendence and becomes something quite unique unto itself.

Elliott plays Nathanial Mayweather, an entitled, arrogant, foulmouthed finishing school graduate. He's the kind of guy you want to punch the instant you lay eyes on him and that feeling only intensifies when he starts opening his mouth, which he does far more than is necessary or wise. You see, he's one of them "fancy lads", as is so quaintly put by the stuffed monkey selling street hustler played by David Letterman in a classic cameo. After graduating from finishing school, he's on the lookout for his ship to take him on a luxury ocean cruise, only to end up stowing away on a filthy pirate ship. From there, the film becomes an inexplicable homage to Ray Harryhausen films like The 7th Voyages of Sinbad or Clash of the Titans, as Nathan inadvertently embarks on a quest to discover his manhood while encountering all manner of creatures and characters along the way.

This is one of those flicks that really benefits from psychoactive stimulants of the psychedelic variety as the surrealism of each situation escalates towards the film's climax. Elliott manages to perform something of a minor miracle in terms of creating such a reprehensible protagonist while still giving him enough pathos to make him sympathetic enough to follow through his adventures. I'd still punch him in the face if I met him, but I'd do it with a smile. I hate them fancy lads.