I really loved this movie. I have to admit I only saw this because I heard of Madonna's remake and my love for the Goldie Hawn movie "Overboard", but...wow! Interesting, romantic, powerful, hard-to-watch, political, funny, sad, etc. This movie has it all. You can analyze this movie to death, but it will do it a disservice. Quite simply, it's about a bizarre romance that happens when two people who are total opposites, thus hating each other, are stranded on a remote island and must learn how to live together. By today's standards, this is a very un-P.C. movie: Male domination over a woman. However, it IS just a movie, not real life--don't let that put you off; and there are some scenes that are hard to take, but given the context of the characters, you might think to yourself--"is this deserved?" I think some parts are, and others--not at all. You might like this film if you liked Pedro Almodovar's "Atame! (Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down!)". This is a film you'll end up discussing with others after you've seen it. Also, I don't recommend viewing this around children or very impressionable teenagers.

Despite the shrewish bitching of Rafaella and the grumbling of the sailor help- this is a very thought-provoking movie. What especially helps is the cinematography- by Wertmuller's husband- the white sailor uniform, the black diaphanous garb of R. and the blue sea as backdrop. As the affair progressed from hate to a passionate love the changes in body language is well done. Though I saw this movie many years ago- its power to address class wars, the battle between men and women and in inevitable conclusion has never left me.

One of Lina Wertmuller's frequent themes is how Northern Italy often looks down on Southern Italy. Nowhere does she explore this better than in "Swept Away". While on a tour in the Mediterranean, spoiled, pro-Fascist Northern Italian Raffaela Pavone Lanzetti (Mariangela Melato) orders Sicilian deckhand Gennarino Carunchio (Giancarlo Giannini) to take her to the grotto so she can go swimming before dinner. Lo and behold, the boat conks out and they end up an uncharted island (no, this isn't "Gilligan's Island" here). Raffaela treats Gennarino like dirt at first, but after he explodes at her, she grows to respect him.

Like I said, this was Lina Wertmuller's best treatment of Northern-Southern Italian relations.