"All Is Lost" comments (for only those that have seen this Redford movie)

[Ken Heyman]

I thought it might be interesting to post some observations regarding this movie.
If you haven't seen it-read no further so as not to spoil the story line for a future viewing.

For starters, one would think that if their vessel collided with an errant cargo container, that the collision would wake the skipper, as opposed to the water splashing around the cabin.

Also the method of freeing the boat from the container with a deployed drogue seems questionable.

What say you ?

Ken

[Brent Evans]

I agree.  How did it hit him so far aft?  Presumably he was under sail. . . 
Other issues;
1. Why go shave prior to the storm instead of deploying that storm sail before it hit? 
2.  What about the condition of his VHF antenna and the need to climb the mast? 
3.  Didn't you think he procrastinated on pumping out the boat after the repair?  I'd have done that first. 
4.  No apparent ditch bag (or usable, protected hand-held VHF)
5.  Didn't he have a smoke flare for daytime use?

I guess I should give him a break:  he was exhausted, injured and alone.  Despite these criticisms, I enjoyed the film very much!

[lazybone]

Its a movie

[Ken Heyman]

Good points---as far as shaving- hey he is Robert Redford.
He did seem to have his pumping priorities juxtaposed although to be fair, maybe he could only do a bit at s time due to exhaustion.
Since he evidently had no handheld water resistant GPS and was relying on a new "out of the box "sextant for navigational purposes, he may have wanted to learn its use prior to the voyage . It was quite bizarre watching him read the instructions while in crisis . In that he didn't have the "tables",
the best he could do was figure out  latitude with a high noon reading. Also he could have dead reckoned from his known position from when he collided and maybe derived a more accurate position .
BTW, he never donned a PFD----go figure
Ken

[Mike and Joanne Stimmler]

And if you've never used a sextant, learning it ain't gonna happen in a few minutes while in a crisis.

Mike

[waterdog]

So years ago I enthusiastically dragged Tracey in to watch "Perfect Storm".  I loved the book. Loved the movie.  Realized with horror my mistake as we were exiting the theatre and Tracey says "We are never going to go sailing offshore."

Set me back years.   I had to sell Mexico as a "coastal cruise" and by the time the J-boat we sailed with hit whales and sank, she was too busy hand steering, surfing down huge seas to question the distinction between coastal and offshore.  

So she is now at the point where crossing an ocean in a little boat seems like a reasonable thing to do.

If we go to see this movie, will I suffer another setback?

[Ron Hill]

Steve : I had a similar experience:

When we first got our C34 back in 1989 I went to Boat US and purchased an inclinometer.  After sailing with it onboard for the first month, I noticed that it never read above 10 degrees heel.  I took it off and determined that it was faulty and even tipping it by hand - the little ball would not exceed 10 degrees heel on both sides.
I took it back to boat US and demanded a replacement for the faulty inclinometer - BAD MOVE as when the new one exceeded 10 degrees my "crew" demanded that I reduce sail!!

Captains - think ahead and determine what might happen!!   A big thought

[Dave DeAre]

Saw All is Lost last night and agree with all of the above. However the most illogical incident was when Redford's radio revived and he used it to call "SOS" repeatedly. You would think that any knowlegable sailor would know that the International Distress signal is "Mayday, Mayday, Mayday"

We went out to dinner afterwards and the group discussed and noted the above and many more discrepancies, making for lively conversation. That said we enjoyed the film. Too bad the filmakers did not have a consultant from the Catalina 34 Forum!

[Analgesic]

We went to the early show last night followed by dinner with 5 sailing couples, all of whom fit the stereotype of husbands acting as captains but very capable wives who know more than they let on.  First, great, great film that must be seen on the big screen for the full effect.  The two hour dinner was full of opinions expressed on what Robert Redford did right or wrong, how we would have done things differently and, somewhat to my surprise, the wives were equally opinionated usually with accurate assessments of the problems, dilemmas an decisions to be made.  All I can say is great night, go see it before it is out of theatres.  You'll think about it and talk about it for a while. 

[Mark Sutherland]

Leaving the main hatch/cabin top cover wide open during the storm is a good way to fill the boat with water.  In spite of this, the boat didn't take on any water during the rollover with top wide open.  Carrying a heavy battery up to the deck to test the radio seemed like a lot more work thank carrying the radio to the battery.  I wanted to like the movie but didn't.

[Clay Greene]

How about not wearing a PFD at any point in the entire movie?  Or not having jacklines rigged on the boat?  Or clipping his harness to a lifeline and then pulling himself back aboard by hand?  And he should have tried to heave-to in order to ride out the storm.  That would have reduced his chance of being rolled plus he could have backed the sail to port and kept the damaged starboard side inverted upward.  That likely would have worked better than the drogue. 

I wish there had been a bit more sailing in it and a little bit of a back story as to why he was on the voyage.  Starting with the collision focuses only on the negative of ocean sailing without showing all the positives.  Compare "All is Lost" to "Gravity," a very similar film, but one which has more lead-in before the disaster so you at least get a sense of the characters and care about them a bit before they are dealing with a life-threatening situation. 

[Kyle Ewing]

My wife and I saw the movie this weekend and had many of the same observations. 

I got the impression the character wasn't a very experienced sailor, almost like he gave up a previous life (as a corporate executive?) to sail around the world and leave his life behind.  The story I told myself about his shaving before the storm was that he was used to shaving every morning before facing the corporate storm so he was falling back on his old habit.

The loose VHF cable at the mast head tells me the boat wasn't that well prepared (how would it come loose if not properly tightened?) and some of the seamanship questions raised here also supports that he wasn't that experienced.  I concluded that he made the decision to sail around the world, bought the boat, and left on short order.  The sextant seemed like a going away present he buried deep in the boat--the card the only reference to a life off the boat.  He spent a lot of time going back into a nearly sunk sailboat to get it.

Karen and I also concluded that he collided with the container days before the water came in.  In the opening scene the container was high in the water.  Perhaps the boat somehow became joined to the boat and he couldn't free it until it sank.  It was the container starting to sink that caused the water to come in. 

I also came up with metaphors about globalization, India's role in the world (why take place in the Indian Ocean?), large corporations (i.e. inter-modal shipping companies vs. a small fisherman), etc.

As a pure sailing movie I was disappointed.  It reminded me of a gritty Cast Away, the Tom Hanks survival movie.