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All is Lost....the movie

Lucky Dog

Member III
Went to see Redford's new movie "All Is Lost". Not enough sailing, but anything with sailboat in it is good. I'd like to think if it was me lost out there I would have been better prepared.
 

Fparry

Member II
We went to go see it last night but we got distracted. Hope to hear some reviews. Perhaps we will try again this weekend.
 

joe-fran

Member II
All is lost................

3 good friends saw it in the past 2 days - all sailors - all gave it a thumbs down.

But I will still go

Joe
 

Rick R.

Contributing Partner
Just saw All Is Lost in a theatre packed with four people...lol! Any movie with sailing or sailboats in it is ok by me. Reaffirms that one must take an EPIRB and proper safety equipment on passages (even cruising).
 

exoduse35

Sustaining Member
Wasn't bad if you want to scare an already squeamish crew. It is basically everything you ever heard that can go wrong on a boat. I went twice inhopes that it will be popular enough that others will make better ones!
 

Rick R.

Contributing Partner
Wasn't bad if you want to scare an already squeamish crew. It is basically everything you ever heard that can go wrong on a boat. I went twice inhopes that it will be popular enough that others will make better ones!

That's hilarious Edd. I was thinking the same thing that my wife might not be so excited about taking our boat offshore on a gulf crossing now that she's seen a boat hit a large object, turn turtle, sink.....:0

Also so though maybe they'll make more sailing movies since they seem to wear a formula out.
 

exoduse35

Sustaining Member
After thinking a bit that last post was too harsh as it was also educational as we sat through the whole thing saying "he should have done that" and that's why you do ... and so on. I will add it to my collection of videos that I often play on the boat for guests on trips that have an early start so we camp in the night before. They might be better crew and more responsible guests after watching this one with a more experienced person. Everything in this movie can and does happen and his solutions are all plausible and reasonable albeit not necessarily my first ones. It is just a shame there is no real excitement or suspense. It is kind ov like being on a boat in the middle of the ocean for days and weeks!
 

Rick R.

Contributing Partner
After thinking a bit that last post was too harsh as it was also educational as we sat through the whole thing saying "he should have done that" and that's why you do ... and so on. I will add it to my collection of videos that I often play on the boat for guests on trips that have an early start so we camp in the night before. They might be better crew and more responsible guests after watching this one with a more experienced person. Everything in this movie can and does happen and his solutions are all plausible and reasonable albeit not necessarily my first ones. It is just a shame there is no real excitement or suspense. It is kind ov like being on a boat in the middle of the ocean for days and weeks!

Here's and article in the go-to place for sailors in the know....Vanity Fair.

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/oscars/2013/10/all-is-lost-review-sailors
 

gulfcoaster

Member III
All is lost

All Is Lost is playing in two theaters here in Houston. Two is ridiculous. Jackass Presents.. BAD GRANPA is playing in 22 theaters. People won't stand in line to vote, yet they'll stand in line for 24 hrs for a new toy (playstation 4). Now we know how Obama got elected for not one, but two terms.
 

Christian Williams

E381 - Los Angeles
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
I am avoiding it for the moment.

Recall "Wind," from Francis Coppola, a talented man with, at the time, many resources. Quite not entertaining and the name became a joke here in Hollywood.

There was "Dead Calm," based on the Charlie Williams novel. No relation, but we had the same literary agent, Don Congdon, who died last year. He gave me the book by way of suggesting some nautical topics to work on. I said, whatever happened to Charlie? "Oh, " Don said, "he committed suicide."

Ten years ago there was a novel about a sailor nut who armed his yacht with some kind of missile and then set off on a solo offshore voyage of some sort of vengeance. I read it but, well, it;s not good when you can't even remember the details.

"The Four Seasons", containing people trapped with each other bareboating in the Caribbean, was a successful horror movie. Or at least I could relate to that horror more than Dead Calm.

Polanski's "Knife in the Water" was a work of art, but only incidentally about boats.

The drama problem for recreational sailing stories is there are no real stakes, and it's hard to make anyone care. Yachts are seen as toys, not instruments of definition, except by us.

Works better when there's commerce involved, like Moby Dick or Polar Star or The Perfect Storm, because with commerce at least you're not out there voluntarily. Choosing to put yourself in danger for the fun of it is hard on a story because there's always that, "well, what did you expect?" Whereas entering a situation you must, for some higher purpose, makes heroism more understandable. A tale of a schooner manned by Oxford dons heading for the evacuation of Dunkirk might more easily wind up being about something.

But when Hemmingway took out after U-boats in his motorboat, well, eyeballs are still rolling and it is a very unwholesome idea for a movie.

The thing about Redford, see, is he has to be a hero. He cannot for a moment depart from Redfordness. He reads a script and he says, I like the part where I do this, listen to this part where I do this. Odd, because his early Downhill Racer was stunning simply, or not so simply, because his character was a jerk. But that was a time of better movies and moviemakers.

There are never any flaws in my arguments, but if I were reading this I would simply reply:

All well and good, Socrates, but how do you explain "26 Hours," in which a hiker, no less self-centered than any sailboat dude, goes off for a meaningless personal weekend jaunt, falls down a hle, and cuts his arm off with a penknife. And why is that movie such a charming affirmation of life and all its joy?
 
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Lucky Dog

Member III
It is a just a movie, anything with sailing in it is eye candy to me. My wife enjoys the newer James Bond movie, though I don't think it is because of sailboat in it. I use to work in an O.R. at a hospital, never seen a accurate movie yet. They do call the movie industry part of the entertainment industry. I will buy a copy when it comes out and probably watch during a snow storm in front of a fire...and enjoy it as a movie.
 

Randy Rutledge

Sustaining Member
Albatross

Does anyone remember the Albatross and the movie White Squall, one of my acquaintances was on that ship when it went down. Still not much sailing footage but a decent movie.
 

clp

Member III
That book about the sailboat with missiles was called 'The Ship Killer' I think. The tanker was named Leviathan. fwiw..
 

Christian Williams

E381 - Los Angeles
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
OK, I saw it. I still get screeners from the studios and locally it is considered poor form to write a bitingly negative review that you aren't being paid for.

But there's a bright side! This movie should be shown to any class called Offshore Sailing 101. All the discussion leader would have to say is, "Can someone tell me why he is doing that? What might he have done? What should he have done?"

Oliver, our UK rep here, is credited with making the sails for the Cal 39 in the story.

Another bright side!
 
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u079721

Contributing Partner
Well I finally got the chance to see this, having missed it while it was very briefly in the theater. On the plus side it is a real treat to see a real cruising sailboat in a movie. But on the downside it was so hard to just watch the movie and get into the story without constantly second guessing his actions.

I had thought that the movie was mostly about his hitting the shipping container and dealing with the resulting hole in the hull. But (spoiler alert....) after he hit it, and patched up the hole, that part of the story was over. He's sort of drifting around wondering what to do next when a big storm appears on the horizon. So what does he do? Does he bend on the storm sails? Get out his harness and foul weather gear? No, he shaves. Then AFTER the storm hits he goes forward to bend on the storm jib and is washed over the side by a wave. Of course since he's wearing his harness he just climbs back aboard up by the bow. I've never seen a Cal 39 up close, but if it has anything like the freeboard that our E38 did, that ain't happening.

The real disaster is when the boat is rolled and dismasted. The hole from the container doesn't seem to be leaking, and is never shown again. The next morning after the storm subsides the boat is full of water, but still floating with about one foot of freeboard. So why does it sink? Why didn't he just bail out the water? If there was a hole somewhere, why didn't they show it? If the original hole had opened back up the boat would not have survived the night, would it?

I suppose non-sailors would not be bothered by these points, but I was, and thinking about them kept me from getting involved in the story.

But as others have mentioned, this movie will be great to keep around to show friends. Maybe have a mandatory viewing at the dock before taking guests out for an afternoon sail?
 

windjunkee

Member III
I assume the container hit his boat at the CRITICAL point where all his wiring is routed, because his electrical systems are completely down, even, presumptively, his bilge pumps which should be direct wired through the battery compartment. Nevertheless, if he has power in a battery to run his VHF, which was obviously damaged, why doesn't he wire up his bilge pump too? Just a thought.

Jim McCone
Voice of Reason E-32 Hull #134
Redondo Beach, CA
 

Christian Williams

E381 - Los Angeles
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
This movie exists solely as a nomination vehicle for the actor. It would not have been made without him, and no one paid any attention to any aspect of the product but that.
 

clp

Member III
Oh I can't WAIT! I love to take lovely bride to stuff like that. She'll ask me questions like, "Are containers that bad?" Oh hell yeah, baby, they are EVERYWHERE. A constant lookout needs attending at all times on account of them , vicious things, speeding through the night. Even now, every time I see a dolphin, I get a wide-eyed look and say, "Look baby, is that a shark?"

This is probably part of the reason she doesn't snivel too much about me staying on the boat so much. Plus she says the pool boy, Raul gets to come over and work more often as well. Hard worker, that boy..
 
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