Drifters (1929) review: A lot of fish and very cold water

If you have ever wanted to spend forty minutes feeling cold and wet without actually leaving your couch, Drifters is the movie for you. It is a silent documentary from 1929, but it does not feel as old or as slow as you might think it would.

It is basically a love letter to herring. If you hate the idea of watching men in heavy sweaters pull nets out of the ocean, you will probably be bored out of your mind in five minutes.

But for everyone else, there is something weirdly cool about how this was put together. It does not have a plot or any actors, unless you count the guy who made it, John Grierson, who shows up as a fisherman sometimes.

The movie starts out pretty calm. You see the boats leaving the harbor and the smoke coming out of the stacks, and it all feels very peaceful and old-fashioned.

There is a lot of focus on the coal. I noticed the way the light hits the shovels as they throw coal into the furnace, and it makes the work look heavy and hot.

Then they get out to the open sea and everything changes. The editing gets really fast, almost like a modern music video, which was apparently a big deal back then because of some Russian influence or something.

The waves are huge. You can tell the camera guy was probably getting splashed every five seconds while trying to hold the tripod steady.

One moment that really stuck with me was when they finally started pulling the nets in. It is not just a few fish; it is a wall of silver scales and flapping tails.

There is this one shot of a dog on the boat just chilling while the sea is going crazy. I wonder if that dog was scared or if he was just used to the smell of fish by that point.

I also liked the way the film shows the rhythm of the labor. The men move in sync, leaning back to pull the heavy ropes, and you can almost feel the grease and salt on their hands.

It reminds me a little bit of the underwater vibe in The Bottom of the Sea, though that one is a bit more about the mystery and this is more about the grind. This is purely about the industry and how people get fed.

The movie gets noticeably better once the storm hits. Everything starts moving faster and the cuts get shorter, so you feel a bit dizzy watching the water crash over the deck.

There is a weirdly long sequence of the fish being sorted at the end. You see them sliding down wooden ramps and being packed into barrels with salt, and it goes on for maybe a minute too long.

I guess they wanted to make sure we knew exactly how the herring gets to the market. It is a bit repetitive, but the faces of the people working on the docks are interesting to look at.

Most of the fishermen look like they have never smiled in their entire lives. They have these deep wrinkles and messy hair that tell you they have been doing this since they were ten years old.

I noticed one guy looks right at the camera for a second and then looks away real quick. It feels like a mistake they just decided to leave in because it felt real.

The film doesn't really have a big ending or a message. It just sort of stops when the work is done and the boats are back in the harbor.

It is definitely not a movie you watch for the thrills. It is more of a mood piece that makes you appreciate your desk job or whatever you do that doesn't involve being soaked in North Sea water at 4 AM.

Some people might find the silence annoying, but I think it works here. You can imagine the sound of the steam and the seagulls in your head anyway.

If you are into film history, you should probably watch it just to see where the whole "documentary" thing started. If you aren't, it is still a pretty neat look at a world that doesn't really exist the same way anymore.

I kept thinking about how much work went into just getting a plate of fish back then. It makes you feel a bit lazy for complaining about a delivery app taking thirty minutes.

Overall, it's a solid watch if you like textures and ships. Just don't expect a car chase or a romance sub-plot unless you count the man and his net 🐟.