ALL IS LOST: What An Annoying Movie!

Could go on a bit about the incessant idiocies of this film garnering the Oscar buzz of an all time epic, and extolling the greatest acting of Redford’s storied career. It’s a mystery that this film is so bad. How is a film made and marketed to portray sailing a sailboat as realistic this shitty? What a second rate unwatchable, un-enjoyable farce. Even if you try overlooking the endlessly stupid complete lack of attention to detail and realism, the plot isn’t much of a plot at all. No back story, no credible ending, and not a credible body of a film built as a vehicle for Redford in a fashion that in this sailor’s estimation takes away from his great career in film much more than it adds to it. Try bailing Bob and not sleeping in the hammock above the rising waters for three days, nor sailing on the wrong tack to increase the water getting into the BIG HOLE, nor using a boat hook in the first place nor sailing your holed boat back into the container- smack. worst sailing movie ever.

In all fairness, I should note some other sailors have said positive things about the movie, e.g,, at this Sailing Anarchy forum discussion: forums.sailinganarchy.com/index.php?showtopic=152309

Although the discussion does quickly degenerate from movie criticism into jokes about naked women and arguments about politics, as tends to happen over there.

Charlie

It’s very much like that annoying Viagra commercial where the tag line is something along the lines of ‘you’ve reached the age of knowing how to get things done’ and then the guy sails on with the genoa tight against the windward shrouds.

Charlie, with such a stringent true to life standard we never would have had a “Whomper”.

It’s a movie.

Heh heh, this is the best & most entertaining movie review I’ve ever seen. What a silly movie. Keep em coming Charlie!!

You know what drove me crazy. The boat clearly has a roller furling head sail in the beginning of the movie and then doesn’t in the middle? That and every thing else mentioned in this post. I was disappointed because of the wasted potential. They could’ve done something really interesting and, I think, they had the man to do it with, but obviously squandered that opportunity. A real shame.

We have only just seen this movie for the first time on cable. Although we have very little sailing experience, my husband and I certainly picked up on many of the errors outlined. Yes its was annoying…but now here’s the thing. The movie for us was a wonderful metaphor. Life is absolutely like this story…(we have just had 12 years of it). Especially as one becomes older, you can suddenly get caught napping and find yourself in all sorts of strife… and if you are NOT highly prepared, very aware of your surroundings and hone your skills, then the smallest errors can sink you. As we know the wide world is full of sharks, full of those who ignore you, despite being desperate, full of silly mistakes, and you can be left with only very deep loss. Thank goodness for Hollywood endings to help keep us believing in the good fairy.

As soon as this film started I thought who is this old guy? why is he barely able to move around his yacht or capable of doing even the most basic of tasks?

I’ve seen many guys like that in our marine trying to take out and/or land their 1/2 million dollar new 40fter and don’t even know what SB or Port is. They are out there.

I am NOT a sailor! I love the sea and I scuba dive. So my knowledge of boats is very limited.
Firstly I assume fitting the ‘Storm Jib?’ is important, so why shave before doing this important task?
Why try and fix a radio when you have a sat phone? Try and fix that first, surly
Why stay attached to a sinking boat?
How the hell did he manage to stay with the boat when it turned upside down?!

@Dave: I did watch the movie, unfortunately. I believe I mentioned that. And no, I am not a child, unfortunately. Ah, to be 12 yo and know what I know now! Not sure what you’re saying about the radio, but yes, I understand they both receive and transmit, Both functions involve the antenna.

My friend watch this movie once in a while. We concider it a comedy There are so many issues with it that it makes us laugh every time we see it. Obviously the director knows nothing about boats or sailing. One you may have missed. Did the self propelled container hit with such force that it mangled the steel on the containor’s corner (even though it collided with a fiberglass / wood hull sailboat)? ?

Thank you all for these insightful and hilarious comments! I am halfway through the movie as I write this, and all the painfully stupid writing was driving me crazy- I have had some sailing experience (more than Mystery Man it seems) and I kept thinking why is he so daft and unprepared. So, I went looking for what those who are experienced would say. Glad to see so many who found this as infuriating as I did.

ABSOLUTE RUBBISH I COULD WRITE A BETTER STORY

The movie “All is Lost” documents a torturous litany of appallingly bad decision making and lack of survival instincts on the part of a rather inept single handed sailor played by Robert Redford. The only redeeming value of this entire film is as a cautionary tale of what not to do in an emergency. Screen it at your local yacht club to spur outraged, thought provoking debate.

WARNING MAJOR SPOILER TO FOLLOW.
Sadly the encounter that initially damaged Redford’s yacht is very plausible. It is well documented and not such a rare occurrence that cargo containers do become dislodged from container ships in severe weather. Due to air and buoyant items of cargo they do not sink, but may float in a semi-submerged state for quite some time. However, running into one at speed under sail in a collision sufficient to hole the boat is not something any sailor I know would calmly sleep right through!

The very first instinct, even for a child beyond the age of seven, would be to stuff something into that hole. I was nauseated as, in complete contrast to such a normal reaction, Redford wandered aimlessly past the gaping aperture watching as bucket loads of water poured into his boat. Once he went on deck, ignoring the fact that his sails were still diving the boat onto the container he launched a bizarre attempt to use a sea anchor to drag the container away from his yacht.

Once the yacht was separated from the container, Redford prioritised the retrieval of his sea anchor at further risk to his badly stricken yacht. He manoeuvred the boat in such an irresponsibly way that sent even more water gushing into the damaged starboard side of his yacht. This reckless endeavour culminated in a second, entirely avoidable, collision with the container. Decent boat handling skills could have accomplished his goal without risking holing the boat a second time. Far more importantly, why stress over the sea anchor when your hull is damaged and your boat is still taking on water? By this time I was certain the poor man had a death wish.

During a lengthy sailing career, I was unfortunate enough to endure capsize offshore so I can say from experience that the hero’s instincts are truly unfathomable. For me, after the most obvious breaches in the deck and coach-roof integrity were temporarily plugged, “get the water out of the boat” became a single-minded obsession. Once water is well over the floor boards for the length of the vessel it is hard to determine if that water is still coming in, but paranoia convinces you that there might be further damage to the hull. As a scared sailor with a large bucket it takes a lot of serious bailing before you start to feel that you are really getting the situation under control.

Large quantities of water ranging freely inside a boat represent unstable, uncontrolled ballast which poses a serious threat to the stability of the vessel. A small wave hitting the hull can tip the boat enough to send gallons of water hurtling to one side where yet more water pours in to complete the roll. Even the sailor’s movements to either side of the centre line can be enough to precipitate this critical shift in water ballast. From overcrowded life rafts to large ships there is ample evidence of sinking due to the shifting ballast of people and/or water; capsize is usually rapid and irrevocable. However, oblivious to the danger, at one point Redford suspended a hammock above all that water so he could drift peacefully off to sleep! I was gob smacked.

This single handed sailor was very poorly prepared before disaster struck, but he continued to compound the crisis with poor decision making. A temporary plug, such as a pillow, could have blocked the hole enough to stem the flow of water into the boat before focusing on a more robust repair. However, even when Redford finally gets around to patching the hole, his repair looks incredibly flimsy. At a point where the integrity of hull, deck or coach roof has been seriously breached it is important to consider that the situation might get a whole lot worse. Normal precautionary measures would compel you to have the life raft at least ready just in case, plus prepare the items you might need to take with you if it did become necessary to abandon ship.

Aside from his sluggish recourse to clearing dangerous quantities of water from the interior of his boat Redford failed to prepare for a further deterioration in his circumstances. Without bothering to ascertain his position for days on end he sailed on aimlessly. Focused on getting his radio going he failed to consider that assistance or rescue might require an accurate latitude and longitude.

I was surprised that the director had Redford use the distress call “SOS” rather than the more publically recognized marine distress call “Mayday.” If our hero didn’t think he was in imminent danger of sinking, he should have used the distress call “Pan, Pan, Pan.” Problems with his radio after it was saturated, cleaned up and dried out, prompted him to make a sortie up the mast to fix the antenna. This radio would have been of limited use to him functioning perfectly and I was not sure why the antenna might have come adrift in the first place.

Despite seeing an approaching storm he fails to prepare by shortening sail. With a flimsy repair that might not hold up to strong battering in high seas he does not employ any tactic that might help the yacht weather the storm. He decides he really needs a shave; why? Is he sprucing up for a date or preparing to meet his maker? He waits until the high winds are placing huge strains on his damaged yacht before digging out his storm jib. Our intrepid hero then delves in a locker to fish out an intriguing piece of equipment that looks brand new and unused: his safety harness. If he was using this for the first time I doubt he had jack lines set in place along the deck to clip onto.

With the ornamental wind vane tenaciously guiding the boat possibly with recourse to artificial intelligence, Redford emerges from the hatch after removing all of the washboards. Despite the conditions he never bothers to close the hatch or replace the washboards unless he is down below. In foul weather most sailors just climb over the boards leaving them in place while briefly opening and closing the hatch as little as possible. This man must have an affinity for water!

The drama as Redford is washed overboard trying to get his sails under control, but a lucky reprieve does not scare him into wearing a life jacket and shortly after that stunt he has ditched that brand new safety harness. Even the terrifying experience of rotating the cabin does not compel him to be more cautious with the main hatch, as always, left wide open with all the washboards removed as he goes on deck – without even bothering to don his foul weather jacket or the harness.

How could anyone ignore the danger of a wide open hatch in those conditions after experiencing a capsize? Redford heaves a rope over the side to trail as a drogue, something he should perhaps have considered doing much earlier. He is not tethered to the boat when it is capsized yet again. Unbelievably he makes the highly dramatized journey under water only to miraculously appear in the cockpit as the boat rights itself. A huge volume of water would have swept inside the boat via that gapping hatchway, but Redford still doesn’t think to just close the fxxking hatch.

Seeing that the mast has how snapped, with most of it in the water Redford decides he must cut it loose. A feeble looking tool appears from nowhere to snip that standing rigging like cheese wire. Wow! Who would have thought it was that easy to cut the complex entanglement of a broken mast free from the boat? Not! It takes big bolt cutters, both hands and considerable force to cut standing rigging. It appears there were no technical advisors from the sailing community involved in the making of this film.

Exhausted Redford goes below. Although he does finally close up the main companionway hatch, he ignores water that is steadily streaming in through a large hole. Instead he prioritizes removing the remainder of his foul weather gear. How delusional is that? Most of us would have remained fully kitted up ready to go back up on deck. Redford is knocked unconscious after hitting his head as he is hurled violently across the cabin of the boat. I cut my head when our boat was capsized; such wounds bleed profusely. Although the blood loss drains your strength, the sheer adrenaline rush due to the enormity of the danger you are in keeps you going like the Eveready bunny.

Redford recovers to find the cabin awash again, but he doesn’t feel compelled to bail, instead he decides it is time to launch his life raft. Remembering to leave the main hatch wide open in the catchment position before exiting the boat, he then decides to keep the life raft tethered to his stricken yacht. Despite the possibility that if the boat sank it would drag his raft with it, he drifts into a blissful sleep. The yacht is still afloat when he awakes so he returns to get items he will need in the raft. After retrieving supplies and digging out a well buried sextant he spends time in the dangerously swamped boat at a mirror applying butterfly closures to his head wound. A more logical person would surely postpone this task and take the mirror into the life raft for signalling.

By now Redford should have learned to close the damn hatch, but no. If he had just bailed out his boat and made additional repairs to the damaged hull he could potentially have saved it from sinking. Abandoning a yacht for uncertain survival in a life raft is a drastic step and entering the raft should have been a serious wakeup call for him. It was time to take survival seriously.

He had no clue how to cope, but did he even bother to read the life raft manual? I doubt he read: be prepared and ready to catch water if it rains; cautiously ration all of your food; keep bailing water out of the raft and check for air leaks; set a discipline for keeping a vigilant lookout for ships as you drift into shipping lanes and learn to catch fish to supplement your diet. Apparently he learned a special method of instant position plotting and he did try to fish. Would someone who lacked the basic common sense to catch rain water really have the smarts to devise a solar still?

Who would spend money on expensive electronics and not bother buying a single EPIRB? I took my own EPIRB on yacht deliveries. GPS should be regarded as an aid to navigation not a poor excuse to avoid bothering to learn the most basic skills. A sextant is not something to be taken on passage as a quant old-world talisman. After Redford reads up on how to use his sextant he takes sights without bothering to move filters or even adjust the sextant arm to take his readings. There is no evidence of him taking times, using tables or making any calculations at all before he miraculously puts a mark on his chart. Delivering yachts in the pre GPS era I revelled in star sight navigation but, even with my NC77 calculator, working out a position was far from instantaneous.

Sadly ships really do pass stranded mariners in life rafts without ever seeing them. The life raft is such a tiny speck on that vast expanse of open ocean and no one on watch is expecting to see it. Rescued yachtsmen have told of these devastating close encounters with ships that passed right on by. Unprepared for the need to fire off his flares Redford fumbled with them and his delayed efforts were not enough. Redford could perhaps have maximized his chances of being spotted by directing the signalling mirror right at the ships bridge. If he had bothered to read the life raft manual, which he obviously didn’t, he would have know that that is what the signalling mirror is for.

Redford was his own worst enemy right up to the point of his very lucky rescue. In desperation he started a fire in a combustible container right there inside the life raft. If he had set the container ablaze on the water downwind of the raft it might have looked like a plausible risk to take. Are we expected to believe that he was ready to give up just as the chance of rescue became a viable possibility? That the entire raft was soon engulfed by fames was predictable. By chance it was a large enough conflagration to capture the attention of the ship’s crew and they rescued him.

Trying to make sense of this unbelievable saga I watched as the credits went up searching for an explanation. Was this a poor rendition of a true account told by a hapless rescued mariner? No. I was horrified to read that in the making of this appallingly badly scripted film not just one, but a total of three Cal 39 sailing boats were sacrificed. After a career spanning decades at sea, over 150,000 miles of ocean yacht deliveries, sailing right round Africa, across the Pacific and a total of thirteen Trans-Atlantic crossings including competing in the Whitbread, I would dearly love to have salvaged just one of those boats. I felt absolutely gutted by such a disgusting waste. My advice, only watch this movie to learn lessons from the numerous catastrophic mistakes.

What the crap did he do with the plastic bag and the jug to be able to drink the water? I couldn’t tell what he put on top of it. That’s driving me nuts. And for the record, this movie should be called “Time is Lost,” cos seriously. ?‍♀️