ALL IS LOST: The Movie

[OldFrog75]

Originally Posted by DaBod

The fact that SOS was used instead of Mayday aside, I feel like such a radio call was premature. At the point the character made that call he had patched the hole (albeit not that well), was no longer taking on water, had pumped out the standing water, had steerage and functioning sails, had means of navigation, and had adequate provisions.

His situation was no doubt one of distress, but given the aforementioned factors, did it warrant an SOS or Mayday? My wife says "absolutely," but I just don't think so. It very well could be my naiveté, but I would like to think I would not make such a call or abandon ship until there is truly no other option. The boat is, after all, one's home, and I would like to think I would do everything I could to save it.

I'd love to hear some thoughts and opinions of those with more experience...

"Pan Pan" might have been more approptiate but nobody but sailors would have recognized that distress call in the movie.

[rtbates]

Saw it yesterday. not a bad movie. What it is NOT, is a training film on how to survive a collision at sea. Sailors who pick it apart won't be happy.

[senormechanico]

It sounds as bad as Dead Calm.
I might watch it someday when I'm bored and it comes up on American Movie Channel.

[Navicula]

Originally Posted by senormechanico

It sounds as bad as Dead Calm.
I might watch it someday when I'm bored and it comes up on American Movie Channel.

come on...............dead calm was great....I think I will watch that tonight

[cheoah]

My wife and I saw it and enjoyed it. We're not film critics and I paid no attention to some of the details listed here. It was a fun hour and a half watching a guy botch it, over and over. It was a great conversation starter for us. Was fun to think about his decision making and talk it over and I could not help but whisper things in her ears now and again. "Our hull is much thicker, hun"

Just depends on what you expect I guess. I go to movies for flickering lights and climate control, and take my best naps there. I closed my eyes for a minute and listened to the water against the hull, which was nice and familiar, but did not sleep.

The shots from aloft, and the underwater shots were killer. The hatch boards caught my attention too. My wife hates them and struggles to put them in correctly. There were many familiar aspects of the movie, but it was full of bad decisions. Watching the guy read the instructions on the flares when the first ship appeared was a little painful.

Worth seeing if you're not a serious critic. Do they sell beer in your theatre?

I don't look up to movie stars, could care less if he is aloof, melancholic or liberal. I'm sure if I was judged by my demeanor on select flights I'd not win popularity contests either.

[sailndoug]

sPOILER aLERT!!! Do not read if you want to enjoy this movie.....
The opening segment shows the solo sailor responding very slowly to a crash sound with the sound of water pouring in. Now if you have ever been at sea asleep, ANY new sound or even uncommon event wakes you with a start. They lost me from that moment as far as reality but I tried to enjoy it for what is was all the same. It was the scenes that depicted storms at sea but not a hair moving on his head that lost me for good. It's not that he had bad luck but just bad decisions. My wife commented on exiting the movie that it should have been called "Dumbass on a Boat". I had such high hopes for this movie. Oh well, I'll have to go back to watching "Captain Ron" for a more realistic sailing movie.

[Julie Mor]

Like most sailors, I squirmed so many times you would have thought I was being waterboarded. But that was because I thought this was a movie about a sailor who wanted to survive. Our Man did a very poor job convincing those of us who know that survival was his ultimate goal.

But if I walked into the movie believing it was about a man who had lost everything and lost the will to live - but was not one of those people who could decisively take his own life - All Is Lost becomes a very sad and emotional movie.

Jeff Chandor, the guy who wrote the screenplay, admitted Our Man has difficulty expressing his emotions and that it took him two days to write the letter Our Man reads at the beginning of the movie. Chandor wanted to portray a deeply conflicted man.

Once I decided to see this as a movie about a man who had lost everything who felt there was no way to undo the unintentional damage he had done, and once I saw that man as someone who really didn't want to die but had no idea how to handle his personal losses, All Is Lost becomes a very different movie and one that I want to see again, but this time with that different perspective.

If you haven't seen this movie and want to, try walking into the theater thinking of this as a movie about a man who has lost it all and is trying desperately to figure out a way to find a reason to live. I think you'll really love it.

[Freedom45]

Originally Posted by sailndoug

sPOILER aLERT!!! Do not read if you want to enjoy this movie.....
The opening segment shows the solo sailor responding very slowly to a crash sound with the sound of water pouring in. Now if you have ever been at sea asleep, ANY new sound or even uncommon event wakes you with a start. They lost me from that moment as far as reality but I tried to enjoy it for what is was all the same. It was the scenes that depicted storms at sea but not a hair moving on his head that lost me for good. It's not that he had bad luck but just bad decisions. My wife commented on exiting the movie that it should have been called "Dumbass on a Boat". I had such high hopes for this movie. Oh well, I'll have to go back to watching "Captain Ron" for a more realistic sailing movie.

Right on...
By the way, after he hit the container, got up and looked outside, the boat was not moving, no wind, dead calm, then water splashed on the WATERPROOF Icom radio and GPS and ruined them? Then the coax unscrews itself at the mast head?
Apparently the makers of the film could't agree on what kind of anchor is best either, so they didn't put one on the boat......

[cheoah]

Originally Posted by Freedom45

Right on...
By the way, after he hit the container, got up and looked outside, the boat was not moving, no wind, dead calm, then water splashed on the WATERPROOF Icom radio and GPS and ruined them? Then the coax unscrews itself at the mast head?
Apparently the makers of the film could't agree on what kind of anchor is best either, so they didn't put one on the boat......

OK, my wife laughed at that one, but it is possible he never had it screwed on. Ever

As far as anchors go, they knew better than to open that can of worms...

Notice he did not have a gun either.

Or a frickin VHF handheld. Or 50 flares from years of expired ones, that would have gone in my fortified ditch bag once I knocked a hole in my hull, so I could put on a fireworks show for passing boats...

Still, just the fact that we're all talking about it means it's probably worth seeing. This is not about some salty-ass sailor that ninjas his way through layers of swiss cheese - in accident vernacular - or shows extraordinary survival acumen at all. He is pretty resigned, passive, and beat down.

I did see a lot of Callahan's experience in the movie, I'm sure they at least read his story.

[senormechanico]

Originally Posted by sailndoug

sPOILER aLERT!!! Do not read if you want to enjoy this movie.....
The opening segment shows the solo sailor responding very slowly to a crash sound with the sound of water pouring in. Now if you have ever been at sea asleep, ANY new sound or even uncommon event wakes you with a start. They lost me from that moment as far as reality but I tried to enjoy it for what is was all the same. It was the scenes that depicted storms at sea but not a hair moving on his head that lost me for good. It's not that he had bad luck but just bad decisions. My wife commented on exiting the movie that it should have been called "Dumbass on a Boat". I had such high hopes for this movie. Oh well, I'll have to go back to watching "Captain Ron" for a more realistic sailing movie.

LOLOL !! Post of the day !!

[sctpc]

Originally Posted by Navicula

come on...............dead calm was great....I think I will watch that tonight

HA I took your advise and just downloaded it thinking Kool a good boat movie, if All Is Lost is like that I dont want to see it, I watched 8 mins and then skipped thats one bad movie perfetic cheep garbage.
We in Australia are expected to wait till Feb to see it and the suspense is killing as it ant even popular enough to make a cam of.

[Julie Mor]

Originally Posted by sailndoug

Now if you have ever been at sea asleep, ANY new sound or even uncommon event wakes you with a start.

Exactly what I thought. I'd have to be in a coma not to come flying out of the bunk after hear a loud bang (I've done it!) That's why I think he really didn't care if he survived or not. There's no sense of urgency. But part of him doesn't want to give up. He separates the boat from the shipping container with the help of his sea anchor, not even knowing if the shipping container was keeping the boat afloat. Then, as he's floating away, he looks back and decides maybe he'd better retrieve the sea anchor. And in doing so bangs the bow right into the container.

As to the disconnected coax, I'm thinking he disconnected it before setting sail so he couldn't contact anyone and they couldn't contact him. And again, after thinking about it, he decides that's too fatalistic and goes up and re-connects it.

All through the movie he's only half into surviving his ordeal. He creates a problem, then tries to get out of it, then creates another problem and tries to get out of that. He keeps doing this until he can't get out of it anymore.

[jkindredpdx]

I'll wait until it's free on Netflix, should take long from the reviews.

[OldFrog75]

Originally Posted by jkindredpdx

I'll wait until it's free on Netflix, should take long from the reviews.

Could take a while. Expect limited distribution until Redford gets nominated for best actor.

[Julie Mor]

Sadly, it looks more and more like Our Man is really Our Dumbass. I really tried to like this movie but the only way was by seeing the main character as someone who gave up on living.

I've tried to find any hint of Chandor, the writer, or Redford, or anyone associated with the movie, that Our Man had given up all hope and was going through the motions until death was inevitable. So far, nada.

I've read numerous interviews with Chandor and Redford, watched videos of them and searched for any evidence that one or the other was a sailor. The interviews and videos pretty much said Chandor and Redford both agree that Our Man wanted to survive. I could find nothing that either of them was an accomplished sailor.

The idea for the film started when Chandor was commuting on a train and every day passed boat yards where he saw boats on their cradles and thought "There's sort of an absurdity of a boat on land." During those commutes he was dealing with the recent loss of his grandmothers and an earlier loss of a close friend and decided to write his final words. That's when he wrote, "I think you would all agree that I tried. I will miss you. I'm sorry." Three years later he he had written the screenplay for the movie and used those words at the start.

In one video interview, Chandor said he wanted Our Man to be the type of person who thinks before he acts, thus no sense of urgency. The only back story provided is that Our Man has a family or friends to whom he wrote his letter.

So it looks like all the things that made so many of us cringe were the result of a bunch of people clueless about sailing out on the open water. And all those people raving about the movie are just as clueless.

Anyone have any rotten tomatoes?