Peacock documentary Hell of a cruise puts us aboard cruise ships in early 2020, which – well, you’ve no doubt guessed it wasn’t a relaxing vacation-type atmosphere, and you’d be right AND wrong. The film chronicles how ships became floating petri dishes for Covid-19 and claims that the Carnival Corporation, which kept its cruises on despite knowing better, is partly to blame for the global spread of the virus. Now let’s see if it’s a convincing argument.
The gist: A man is on board a Princess cruise, shooting a selfie video. “I’m making it,” he pauses, “just in case.” He is worried. Passengers are infected with Covid. Everyone on board is under quarantine – and soon we see the healthy people stuck in their cabins just like the sick, and the ship’s crew going door to door with food and supplies. We see some promotional food for Princess Cruises, and over it we hear voices saying, “It was a guaranteed dumpster fire” and that the ships were “particularly effective at spreading Covid.”
We meet four men, college students, who took multiple tickets on the Diamond Princess, a 15-day excursion through South Asia that included multiple stops and a Chinese New Year holiday. It was the last hurray before graduation. The ship departed on January 20, 2020. News broke that China was implementing a national lockdown to curb Covid outbreaks; The Diamond Princess made its scheduled stop in Hong Kong and there, a passenger disembarked and later tested positive. The New Year’s celebration took place inside the ship and not on land. The cruise continued to Vietnam where passengers disembarked for a cave tour and we see crowds of people huddled together within the magnificent natural surroundings. Maybe the boys shouldn’t have gone on the excursion, but the information was sparse and sketchy.
Of course, the cruise line makes money on its excursions, and so begins a classic narrative: the corporation sacrifices the well-being of its passengers and crew for the sake of the bottom line. We probably already know what happened to the Diamond Princess – she was stuck in a dock in Yokohama, Japan for weeks as the Covid cases grew and grew. Meanwhile, even as the Diamond became a cruise hell, Princess’ parent company, Carnival, went full steam ahead with other cruises, assuring worried customers of their safety and not allowing refunds, of course.
We meet people who took Princess cruises in January and February 2020, including serial cruisers; some of whom went several times a year. As their vacation turned into a wreck, they used their phones to document some of the goings-on: On the Diamond, we see eerily quiet spaces that would normally be full of partying passengers and masked crew members who they distributed food in the empty corridors. In others, group events were canceled, but bars and casinos remained open — you know, the stuff that costs money, says one commenter. Meanwhile, top brass in the US government debate what to do with Americans on these cruises, while Carnival management almost certainly knows many things it could and should do, and hardly does any of them.
Which movies will it remind you of?: Eighteen months ago, HBO was released The last voyage, a documentary more focused on this topic. He documents some of the same incidents and even interviews some of the same cruise passengers (probably because they had very good personal accounts of their experiences).
Performance worth watching: Infectious diseases specialist Dr. Michael Callahan shares his voice of reason with a weary tone and demeanor that is very relatable when it comes to discussing any pandemic-related topic.
Memorable dialogue: Dr. Kobe University’s Kentaro Iwata assesses Carnival’s strategy for dealing with the Covid outbreak: “I don’t think there was any strategy.”
Sex and skin: None.
Our take: The last voyage it’s only 40 minutes long, but its brevity is a boon – it focuses only on the people aboard the Diamond Princess and illustrates a clear frontline/privileged class divide between crew and passengers on board. Hell of a cruise takes a larger and broader approach to the subject, injecting corporate and political mayhem and wrongdoing into the narrative, reaching a conclusion that is harshly critical of the decisions made at the top. And to name names, that includes a particularly sharp finger pointing at Carnival CEO Arnold Donald — who, per a post-script title card, earned $10 million and $13 million in 2020 and 2021, respectively — as well as criticism of the messaging. mixed by President Trump and Chief Medical Advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci.
Hell of a cruise Director Nick Quested’s attempt to cover multiple components of a complex script results in a scattered narrative. At one point, he touches on the sketchy business practices of cruise lines that base themselves outside the US in order to avoid taxes, hire grossly unpaid workers as crew and, crucial to this story, not have to follow government health guidelines. The next moment, he’s in a small, windowless shack with a family of four who’s been stuck inside for weeks. It often broadens and narrows its focus and can be a strange experience even when the content is revelatory.
But the overall picture is completely detrimental to the Carnival Corporation. Particularly egregious: The company creates a hashtag, #HangInThereDiamondPrincess, to boost morale aboard the quarantined ship. We even see the crew another cruise, the Ruby Princess, cheer as they hold banners of encouragement bearing that hashtag, even as their ship is on the brink of the same Covid crisis. Carnival saw a public relations problem more than a health problem; cue a commentator who points out how the White House treated him in exactly the same way. The document concludes with statistics showing how the company’s obfuscation, denial and outright greed ultimately contributed significantly to the spread of Covid on a global scale. When the movie ends, you can’t help but think about everything that happens.
Our appeal: TRANSREGUE IT. Hell of a cruise could use a slightly more focused and detailed approach. But as a broad look at a key moment in the Covid pandemic, it is compelling and informative.
John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com.
