Sea Shanty - in Popular Media - in Film and Television

In Film and Television

Songs from the shanty repertoire have appeared in motion pictures. These most often are not portrayed in an appropriate work context and sometimes not even a shipboard context, and many times they can be classed as anachronisms that serve to bring color and interest to the drama. The following is a sample list of notable films to have included traditional shanty repertoire.

• The Phantom Ship (1935): "Whiskey Johnny," "New York Girls," "Johnny Come Down to Hilo," "Sally Brown"
• Mutiny on the Bounty (1935): "Drunken Sailor" (tune only), "Hanging Johnny"
• Captains Courageous (1937): "Blow the Man Down," "Drunken Sailor"
• The Ghost Ship (1943): "Blow the Man Down"
• The Curse of the Cat People (1944): "Reuben Ranzo"
• Great Expectations (1946): "Sally Brown"
• Treasure Island (1950): "Johnny Come Down to Hilo" (tune only)
• Moby Dick (1956): "Come Down You Bunch of Roses" (as "Blood Red Roses"), "Heave Away, My Johnnies," "A-Roving," "Paddy Doyle's Boots," "Sally Brown," "Reuben Ranzo"
• Billy Budd (1962): "Hanging Johnny"
• Roots (1977): "Haul the Bowline," "Haul Away, Joe"—on the brig Unicorn
• Lonesome Dove (1989): "Rise Me Up from Down Below" (aka "Whiskey-O")
• Moby Dick (1998): "New York Girls," "Cape Cod Girls" ("Bound Away to Australia"), "Donkey Riding," and "Haul Away Joe"
• Gangs of New York (2002): "New York Girls"
• Moby Dick (2010): "Lowlands Away," "Blow You Winds Southerly," "Blood Red Roses," ""The Hog-Eye Man," "Leave Her Johnny," "Haul Away Joe"
• Treasure Island (MiniSeries) (2012): "Lowlands Away My John"