ALL IS LOST: The Movie

[SaltyMonkey]

Originally Posted by skipmac

Hey, don't knock Mary. That book is how I learned celestial.........


40 years ago.

There were better books, dude. I didn't like mary's.

http://www.amazon.com/Commonsense-Ce...2401283&sr=1-2

http://www.amazon.com/Celestial-Navi...ial+navigation

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by skipmac

Hey, don't knock Mary. That book is how I learned celestial.........


40 years ago.

By the way, are you sure that book was Mary Blewitt? That doesn't match the cover of my admittedly ancient copy but the cover was familiar. Anyone recognize the book he was reading in the life raft?

[SaltyMonkey]

this is the one I saw and had

[shorebird]

A more plausible Hollywood ending:
When the boat and shipping container separate, Redford scuttles the boat after removing the rig and sails.
He erects the rig and sails on the shipping container, and, using the sextant, sails the container into San Francisco Bay to a hero's welcome, while uttering the movie's only dialogue:
"We're gonna need a bigger boat."
OR
"I never have to buy another pair of shoes for the rest of my life."

Fade to Black.

[ontherocks83]

Originally Posted by Doodles

Captain Ron and Pirates of the Caribbean, now there are two "sailing" movies that were technically very accurate. Not.

I'm surprised many here were able to sit through them.

But at least Captain Ron was a funny movie to watch. Captain Ron is about a family that gets into different predicaments that happen to be on a sailboat so the technical problems can be looked over (at least for me). All is lost was a good idea in theory but bad execution on all fronts. It's too bad I like Redford as an actor too.

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by SaltyMonkey

this is the one I saw and had

That's the one. I didn't have the dust cover on mine and the pictures I found on Amazon showed different covers. Guess you can google better than I.

Not saying Blewitt's book is the best but it worked for me and gives a reasonable and accurate description of the math behind the tables.

I learned celestial about like Robert Redford except I wasn't in a life raft. Basically bought the book and the sextant, read it on the boat and navigated myself around the Caribbean, to the VI and then to Hole in the Wall light from St Thomas. It was pretty rewarding when the light popped up exactly where my plot said it would.

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by OldFrog75

I understood the property master/production designer had some experience as he was instrumental in choosing the boat(s) used for the movie.

Well he did pick a good boat for the job. Too bad they had to sink three of them for the movie.

Other than that either his experience didn't go beyond the sea wall in LA Harbor or his input was not requested for the rest of the filming.

[SaltyMonkey]

Yeha! Good for you skipmac! You learned and put it to accurate practice! What more can you ask?

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by SaltyMonkey

Yeha! Good for you skipmac! You learned and put it to accurate practice! What more can you ask?

Well at the end of the day, I guess the results are what count. It has been a while but as I recall it did take a bit of head scratching to get the technique from the Blewitt book. Might have been easier with another but once I got the process I didn't feel the need to read any of the other books so can't give a comparison.

Since it has been over 30 years since I did a sight reduction I might have to get a book to remember what to do. Maybe give one of the others a go.

[Doodles]

Originally Posted by Doug Brown

If you watch the movie - which I did last night - with the idea of "What did he do wrong?" and think of what your priorities would be or how you would approach the problems he faced, then it can be worthwhile to watch.

Otherwise, save your money and time - it isn't worth watching....

Yes, I'm sure you were disappointed. As several of us have pointed out it is NOT as sailing movie. Go to YouTube if you need an instructional video of how to sail.

Have you seen Gravity? Pilots will have the same issues if they are looking for technical accuracy. It's a MOVIE … relax and enjoy it.

[JGarrick]

I haven't read all 27 pages of posts on this thread, so my apologies if this has already been beaten to death.

In nearly any movie, Hollywood glosses over details and gets almost nothing right about any kind of technology. Hackers break into extemely high security computer installations in five minutes. Guns go off when they're dropped. People shoot down birds at 200 yards with hip shots. I once saw a photographer doing a photo shoot with flashes going off on light stands and no sync of any kind attached to the camera. I guess that guy just had really good timing.

The point is, they just don't care about those details, so long as the story is vaguely technically credible to a non-expert audience. In the case of a sailing movie, anyone who has spent a half day sailing would be an "expert" by Hollywood standards.

I watched the thing and, even with my VERY limited sailing knowledge, saw all sorts of problems and just though well, it's a nice boat, there's some nice ocean and sailing cinematography, and a nice performance by Redford as a guy who, because of disinterest or incompetence, ends up either dead or nearly so (depending on your interpretation of the ending).

[SaltyMonkey]

SaltyMonkeys rating:



out of

[mottseng]

Rented the movie last night and enjoyed it. Didn't spend time analysing it just watched it and enjoyed it.

[Captain Ludd]

Originally Posted by mottseng

Rented the movie last night and enjoyed it. Didn't spend time analysing it just watched it and enjoyed it.

Me too.
I couldn't help myself from analysing until I realised nobody is perfect and it wasn't a training film.
Worth a watch I'd say.

[irwin37]

Waited for the movie to come out on rentals, glad I did. No it was not a training movie but some effort to making it realist would have been nice. Let alone the 90 mins of silence from Redford, Don't know about anyone else but when I am alone, I tend to talk to myself and curse a lot when things don't go right. Think its kind of natural. I have also been know to move a little faster when things go wrong. Wake up to water in the boat and a hole in the side and just sit and look at it, don't think so, and I would not be using a WM collapsible (the wife noticed that one) boat hook to pri me off, how about the emergency tiller or the spinnaker pole. Once free from the container, I would be stuffing the hole best I could right away not sailing around to get my sea anchor back with a hole in the side of the boat. Glassing the hole would come later. He deploys his life raft gets on board take a nap with it still tied to the sailboat so that he will know when it sinks because it will either sink the life raft or ripe a hole in one of the air chambers, but hay why not cause were going burn the life raft anyways, come on you might not be thinking all that well but light a fire in your only life raft, what did he think was going to happen? After all of this it appears he was only out there for 5 -10 days ? Mean while a Mexican is found after a year floating around and looks to be in good shape considering the circumstances.

I will stop now.... but I could keep going.....