Elephant trunks, short shorts, bare chests, and phallic objects flood this homoerotic thriller. This film was gorgeously shot (lots of nice over-the-shoulder shots with infinite depth of field) and well-paced; it easily kept my attention. The film is an intense study of male competition that evoked the rivalry in There Will Be Blood. Andrej and the boy have it out for each other before they even formally meet when the boy jokingly strolls into oncoming traffic. Andrej responds to the childishness by almost running him over, which initiates a back and forth anything-you-can-do-I-can-do-better bonding between the two. The men are so focused on each other that Andrej’s wife, Krystyna, completely becomes a non-factor until late in the film. The men, usually shirtless, show off each other’s knowledge and skills, attempting to counter one another’s quality as a man. Unlike what I would have expected, they aren’t showing off for the lady on board, but are genuinely trying to impress and conquer the other. Andrej knows the waters, while the boy stresses his familiarity with the land, carrying a knife that he is skilled with, but admits its uselessness in the sea. Meanwhile, the boy also can’t make use of a paddle, steering the boat in circles while Andrej and Krystyna laugh condescendingly.
Of course, the film is titled Knife in the Water, and the tension between the two males is clear, which, to me, suggested that I would be watching a murder thriller of some kind. Halfway through the film, though, I stopped looking for this. The men form a relationship that makes it seem impossible that one will kill the other, nor the woman. The film is more focused on these men one-upping each other, but it never becomes absurd. They play simple games of ‘pick up sticks’ and demonstrate who is a better sailor and display their physiques. The boy angers Andrej at one point by climbing the mast of the boat as if it were a tree, showing that even though they are not on land, he can still accomplish things and escape things that Andrej cannot, if only because the boy is youthful and strong, and the man, while not in bad shape, is older and less fit. There is also much comparison of class and wisdom between the two based on their ages, all carrying advantages and disadvantages. The competition does boil over eventually, in an unpredictable, almost anticlimactic way. In the end, I got the sense that all of the events and quarrels in the film took place because these men needed to let out frustration that they wanted to fuck a man, but didn’t know how to say it. The boy, like Andrej, has to settle for Krystyna.
Also notable is the Christian imagery: the boy stretched out like Jesus while relaxing, the mast is a series of crosses, the boy climbs it, he even walks on water in I think the most stunning shot in the film.