i watch deadly voyage because david suchet be in it and after enjoy him in the poirot series . and joss ackland be always worth watching and so i go into the film with an expectation of it be a potentially worthwhile film . ala and it be not to be . i would not bother critique the performance and the pacing and the cinematography or any other structural aspect of the film while others here have already give their opinion on those element . the only thing i want to address be the film message and since it proclaim in the intro that it base upon a true story and and therein hang the film suppose importance . deadly voyage primarily focus upon an impoverished black african man name kingsley who want to move to the u and because he believe that he can make money there . nothing more and nothing less his motivation be utterly selfish . ( of course some people will prevaricate by say that he be do it for his family and but in fact he decide to have child on the income he could make in ghana and so he really just create his own problem . ) to that end and kingsley decides to stow away aboard a russian freighter bound for new york . in the process of do this and he face harsh condition and racist crew member and other challenge . but this be precisely where the film leave me unsympathetic . why should the audience be expect to care about kingsley . simply because he have a goal . goal aren not such a rare commodity that his should be privilege above say and the goal of the ship captain or the woman he leave at home with his newborn child . kingsley goal be illegal in the eye of the u government . it be also illegal in that it steal from the russian shipping company . if he make it to the u and it would involve take out of a system that he have not put into . and if he get catch and the shipping company will be fin $ 45 and 000. i doubt very much that any of the stowaway care about what their chosen course of action be cost anyone else while theyre clearly just out for their own gain . he could have spend the $ 1 and 000 he win in the lottery at the beginning of the film and for legal passage to the u and and apply for residency and a work permit . instead and he take the illegal ( and dangerous ) route . so since kingsley voyage be illegal and selfish and can not be ethically justified and why should we care about him or his ordeal . simply because he face challenge . why should his challenge be privilege above the challenge of the russian shipping company get to new york without stowaway . because he black and the shipping company be white . the reason seem to be because danny glover ( the film executive producer ) and others involve want u to root for kingsley and a if he a hero on some sort of noble voyage . but once you accept that illegal immigration and theft and a fool mission aren not noble at all and you can not really care about him . before anyone play the race card and i assure you that i would have felt the same no matter what ethnicity or nationality the involved party be . imagine if a british person decide to stow away in a train head for bhutan and sneak across the border and and collect unwanted buddhist antiquity and to bring back to britain to sell . how much sympathy could the challenge he face generate . very little and i would bet . so why should we feel different for kingley . because he black . because he poor by american standard . the filmmaker be bank on u share their view that the end justify the mean and and that a shipping company be fin $ 45 and 000 be inconsequential compare to the remote possibility of an unskilled laborer earn slightly more in the u than he could have if he have just stay in his own home country . i do not buy it for a minute .