SEAWORTHY 'SQUALL' NOT SUNK BY DISNEY FORMULA.

Byline: Bob Strauss Daily News Film Critic

Those expecting stormy seas from "White Squall" will have to be patient. The film does have some impressively staged heavy weather and a shipwreck that's as terrifying as the best ever filmed.

But the big action comes quite late in this long, more-or-less absorbing movie. Until that happens, we've pretty much got a combination of Disney formula movies - from the earnest teacher (many wits are calling this one "Dead Sailors Society") and the misfits-grow-through-team work ("The Matey Ducks"?) genres - done better than either usually are.

Based on a true story, "Squall" charts the coming-of-age adventures of a teen-age crew aboard the teaching vessel Albatross. Sort of a floating prep school, the square-rigged brigantine sailed the Caribbean and South Pacific for months under the seasoned eye of tough-but-fair Capt. Christopher Sheldon (Jeff Bridges, crusty and memorable as ever).

For months, a dozen boys from various backgrounds - and each with an identifying hangup, at least according to Todd Robinson's partly cliched, mostly persuasive script - learned respect for the sea and each other, the joys of Danish schoolgirls and numerous other rites of passage.

But as the Albatross headed for its Bahamas home port in 1961, it suddenly encountered a white squall - a localized microburst of intense, hurricane-force wind and water - that capsized the ship and sent it to the bottom in all of 90 seconds. The film's version of the disaster lasts 10 times as long and, as we've come to expect from director Ridley Scott ("Alien," "Blade Runner"), it's a tour de force of brilliantly designed pandemonium.

But the storm sequence's devastating power is drawn from more than Scott's pictorial prowess. Although the boys on the boat never really transcend their types, they grow, over the course of the voyage, vivid enough to make the loss of those killed, as well as the agony of the survivors, truly wrenching.

Standouts among the young ensemble include Scott Wolf (TV's "Party of Five") as the tale's sensitive, observant narrator and Jeremy Sisto ("Clueless'), who brings a tough, psychotic edge to a poor-little-rich-boy part.

Bucking the overpriced trend set by "Waterworld" and "Cutthroat Island," "White Squall" really is a visual feast, and one that doesn't need a lot of floating props to get the job done. Also one of the world's top commercial directors, Scott knows when to let waves, clouds and shoreline luxuriate in their own simple majesty; and director of photography Hugh Johnson unfailingly displays the elusive knack of making water look carefully composed.

Scott can't help but pose every person on deck as attractively as possible, either, which translates into a lot of female-friendly beefcake footage adorning this quintessential masculine adventure.

Toward the end, a tricked-up courtroom sequence emits "Scent of a Woman"-style whiffs of bombastic, bogus emotions. But for most of its length, "White Squall" is a voyage of discovery well worth taking.

THE FACTS

The film: "White Squall" (PG-13; language, violence, sex, nudity).

The stars: Jeff Bridges, Scott Wolf, Caroline Goodall, John Savage, Jeremy Sisto, Ryan Phillippe.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Ridley Scott. Written by Todd Robinson.

Running time: Two hours, eight minutes.

Playing: Citywide

Our rating: Three Stars.

CAPTION(S):

PHOTO

Photo Skipper Christopher Sheldon (Jeff Bridges), left, oversees Chuck Gieg ("Party of Five's" Scott Wolf) aboard the Albatross in "White Squall."