# Movie: All is Lost



## julianj08 (Feb 20, 2017)

Recently saw the with a critical eye has a sailor... I thought how Robert Redford reacted to the disaster was accurate as related to what I or most sailors would have done in that situation... what bugged me a little was he was so calm... 

Do you think he accurately portrayed what most seasoned sailors would have done??

John
Allmand 31


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## mikel1 (Oct 19, 2008)

A lot of people "jumped all over it " when it came out for all sorts of detail issues . . . .


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## Minnewaska (Feb 21, 2010)

There was a thorough review of that movie, back when it was released. From a sailors perspective, I thought it was ridiculous. The impact damage itself was not realistic. Exactly how would you hole the mid-ship side of the boat, while sailing forward? Especially in such calm seas that the container would stay aside. I think I recall him using a crescent wrench on a round knurled antenna connection. It was full of idiotic lack of attention to detail.

In the end, it wasn't a sailing movie at all. It was a movie about losing all options and what a man would do when facing their death.


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## twoshoes (Aug 19, 2010)

That movie has been ripped to pieces on more than a few forums around the web, but I found it entertaining. Like any flick with technical/professional subject matter, a better technical advisor...or at least one that was listened to, wouldn't have made for a very entertaining movie.

It should have been named, _The Unluckiest Sumbitch on the Planet._


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## capttb (Dec 13, 2003)

> Do you think he accurately portrayed what most seasoned sailors would have done??


Nope, I wouldn't shave when the boat is leakin' and I'd have shot that damn flare gun directly at the bridge of the freighter to get their attention.


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## Arcb (Aug 13, 2016)

I didn't have an issue with him staying calm. There are lots of cool cats out there and I'm sure the long distance solo sailing crowd has it's fair share.

Any way, you can't let panic take charge in a survival situation.


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## MikeOReilly (Apr 12, 2010)

I’ve been avoiding the movie since it came out, but just recently watched it. I found it completely frustrating that they put so much effort into creating a realistic space with the boat, and had an apparently competent and realistic skipper, but then inserted some completely unrealistic and downright stupid events and actions.

I don’t recall all the details that got me annoyed (it’s a completely forgettable movie), but his actions right off the cuff were silly for someone who was clearly thinking straight. He leaves his sails up, which is good, but goes on a tack that heels the boat so the hull starting taking on water. He puts himself in incredible danger while retrieving the sea anchor (why?), and his fibreglass repair would never have held in the next storm, or even to heel against.

But to top all that off, after making the impossible repair, and having it impossibly survive, and getting himself going, and learning how to do astro nav to incredible accuracy without any almanac (another impossibility), he then basically does himself in with stupid decisions regarding sail choices, and leaving the hatch open.

Silly movie...


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## krisscross (Feb 22, 2013)

I don't think he was unlucky in this movie. Steven Callahan hit a container in the middle of the night and his boat sunk in minutes, barely allowing him to launch the life raft and grab a ditch bag. He spent next 76 days drifting towards the Caribbean. He wrote "Adrift", a book that every sailor should read.


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## twoshoes (Aug 19, 2010)

It wasn't just hitting the container, the poor guy couldn't catch a break through the whole ordeal. As far as the technical blunders, ever try to watch a war movie with a military member (lots of my family), a medical drama with an MD (my wife's best friend), or any variation of CSI with an actual police forensic technician (one of my best friends)? When we watched _All is Lost_ I was the annoying jerk being critical of everything the whole time.


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## albrazzi (Oct 15, 2014)

When I first reviewed this movie it was suggested it was not about sailing but about handling adversity or something like that. It failed on both counts for sure ridiculous continuity wise and just poorly done. Sly did one about F1 cars driving around town throwing manhole covers around with the sticky tires, just as bad.


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## amwbox (Aug 22, 2015)

twoshoes said:


> It wasn't just hitting the container, the poor guy couldn't catch a break through the whole ordeal. As far as the technical blunders, ever try to watch a war movie with a military member (lots of my family), a medical drama with an MD (my wife's best friend), or any variation of CSI with an actual police forensic technician (one of my best friends)? When we watched _All is Lost_ I was the annoying jerk being critical of everything the whole time.


That's pretty much what it is. Details that aren't right...but which 99% of the audience would be oblivious to as they aren't sailors.

It's the same reason anyone who's been in the military at all is irritated by nearly all portrayals of soldiers and warfare. The movies get it ridiculously wrong...but again...nearly everyone is oblivious.


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## twoshoes (Aug 19, 2010)

amwbox said:


> That's pretty much what it is. Details that aren't right...but which 99% of the audience would be oblivious to as they aren't sailors.
> 
> It's the same reason anyone who's been in the military at all is irritated by nearly all portrayals of soldiers and warfare. The movies get it ridiculously wrong...but again...nearly everyone is oblivious.


Yep, I just watched _Hacksaw Ridge_ recently. The amount of deadly accurate hip-firing was insanely ludicrous.


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## MarkofSeaLife (Nov 7, 2010)

krisscross said:


> Steven Callahan hit a container in the middle of the night and his boat sunk in minutes, barely allowing him to launch the life raft and grab a ditch bag. He spent next 76 days drifting towards the Caribbean. He wrote "Adrift", a book that every sailor should read.


Crapalotty.

When I left the Canaries headed to the Caribbean I had the book on board which I started reading after 2 days. He was 2 days out of the Canaries when he was sunk.

I kept reading

He kept sufferin

I kept looking around for containers.

I got more and more scared.

He nearly died.

I thought I would die.

He was terrified and so was me!

Do NOT read this book on a solo passage!

irateraft:


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## MarkofSeaLife (Nov 7, 2010)

.


Nor Perfect Storm!


.


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## capttb (Dec 13, 2003)

When we bought our first keelboat my inlaws gave my wife the book "Cape Horn: One Man's Dream, One Woman's Nightmare", they never liked me.


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## Towguy (May 8, 2016)

MarkofSeaLife said:


> .
> 
> Nor Perfect Storm!
> 
> .


when my wife took sailing lessons with my teenage kids ,many years ago[lazers],it was too rany or stormy to go out..so in his wisdom the instructor thought they should all watch ,The Perfect Storm.??? last week in corpus Christie in 30 knot winds ..she did not want to go out and would not take the helm,our instructor thought it was a fine breeze, we were reefed,no prob..:cut_out_animated_em


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## Towguy (May 8, 2016)

twoshoes said:


> It wasn't just hitting the container, the poor guy couldn't catch a break through the whole ordeal. As far as the technical blunders, ever try to watch a war movie with a military member (lots of my family), a medical drama with an MD (my wife's best friend), or any variation of CSI with an actual police forensic technician (one of my best friends)? When we watched _All is Lost_ I was the annoying jerk being critical of everything the whole time.


well i always have a problem when a towtruck is used in a movie,,in the pelican Brief the heros are towing their Suv and he spools out the winch line till its wipping back and forth way behind...The winchline just holds up the sling which is firmly attached to the body,,,in the dukes of hazzard when the general jumps over a barracade using a deck truck for a ramp ...well therte is a winch at the front of the deck,never mind clearing the cab,,i know,i know finding un believable stuff in the duke of hazzard is shocking...i could go on and on.........Ralph


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## boatpoker (Jul 21, 2008)

Technical BS wasn't a problem for me but ...... There's a hole in my boat so I'm going to have a nap and shave !!!!!! that's when I turned it off.


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## MikeOReilly (Apr 12, 2010)

boatpoker said:


> Technical BS wasn't a problem for me but ...... There's a hole in my boat so I'm going to have a nap and shave !!!!!! that's when I turned it off.


That was it!

Major disaster happens. Solo sailor manages it systematically and wisely, but then he proceeds to do a bunch of stupid things than not even a complete newbie would do. Why?

They take all this effort to make the boat and scenario as real as possible, and then they screw it up with stupid and impossible events - why? Who would this movie appeal to except sailors/cruisers. No dialogue? No plot? No character development? The only good thing was the realistic sailing scenario, but then they toss in this litany of stupid and impossible events that any cruiser would recognize as dumb.

Silly movie...


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## aeventyr60 (Jun 29, 2011)

I could only watch it for 15 minutes or so..what a load of crap.


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## Minnewaska (Feb 21, 2010)

krisscross said:


> I don't think he was unlucky in this movie. Steven Callahan hit a container in the middle of the night and his boat sunk in minutes, barely allowing him to launch the life raft and grab a ditch bag. He spent next 76 days drifting towards the Caribbean. He wrote "Adrift", a book that every sailor should read.


I thought Callahan believed it to be a whale and his homemade boat had been previously damaged. Watertight compartments kept it afloat, while he had stayed tethered to the mother ship, in his raft, long enough to return several times for some supplies, before the tether was torn off.


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## MarkofSeaLife (Nov 7, 2010)

Minnewaska said:


> I thought Callahan believed it to be a whale and his homemade boat had been previously damaged. Watertight compartments kept it afloat, while he had stayed tethered to the mother ship, in his raft, long enough to return several times for some supplies, before the tether was torn off.


Could have been like that. I was distracted reading it.


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## eherlihy (Jan 2, 2007)

Like Mike, I just recently watched this movie and was very disappointed. 

Starting with, Paul Newman waking up on the boat, which is in the doldrums, ghosting along, yet it somehow hits a container with enough force to knock a three-foot hole in his hull?... Errr... OK, but if he were moving fast enough to do that, how could the container still be embedded - sideways - in his hull? Give me a break, if he were moving fast enough to create the hole, the boat's speed relative to the container should have been great enough to pull the container out of the hull. Unless the container was shot at the hull somehow... 

The technical aspects of the movie became less plausible from there... The entire movie was pure fantasy.

The movie should have been titled "Why You Should Never Sail in a Sailboat."


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## midwesterner (Dec 14, 2015)

eherlihy said:


> ...Starting with, Paul Newman waking up on the boat, which is in the doldrums,...


I'm wondering what movie you saw with Paul Newman ? (it was Robert Redford).


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## mbianka (Sep 19, 2014)

One should take any thing that comes out of Hollywood with a grain of salt. They don't make documentaries they make entertainment that never has to be true to life. Just has to look good on the screen and bring the audience in.
That said I never looked to this film as a how to survive a collision. More of a reminder that one wrong turn can lead to the next out on the water.

FYI for a look behind the scenes about how the movie was made: THE BIANKA LOG BLOG: ALL IS LOST: THE MAKING OF THE MOVIE

I once had a date with a gal who spent nine days in a life raft. She met a guy with a boat (she had no experience). Guy did most of the sailing became sleep deprived. Woke her up in the middle of the night and told one of the worse things has happened. A line fell off the deck and got wrapped around the prop. Instead of waiting to dive on on it he decided to try and put the prop in reverse which caused the shaft to be pulled out of the transom. Since he was running on little sleep his decision was to abandon the boat and they got into the life raft. They drifted around for a number of days. He then told her he was going for a swim. Went over the side and never returned. She remained in the raft getting weaker by the day. A fish jumped into the boat on the last day and she was trying to use all her strength to try and remove it. When all of a sudden the white hull of a cruising sailboat pulled along side. A cruising couple saw her raft and came to investigate. She never even noticed it until they pulled up along side. She was one lucky gal.


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## rbrasi (Mar 21, 2011)

All is NOT lost- according to Box Office Mojo, the worldwide grosses on this film were $13 million+, plus $4.5m for DVD/Blue ray purchases. So on a production budget of $8.5 million, it netted its investors $9 million. Not so bad for a paid trip to Mexico, three Cal 39s and and hanging out with a Hollywood legend (Redford, not Newman). As a work of commerce, meh. As a work of art, hey, we're still talking about it, right?


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## Capt Len (Oct 9, 2011)

Could have been rescued by a Japanese tour boat who thought he was Clint Eastwood .(happened to me once) What the world needs is better plot writers.


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## scubadoo (Apr 5, 2014)

The thing that torqued me was his constant victim attitude....from the get go and at each turn of events he seemed to be asking why me? 

It seemed like he was beaten from the start. The will to survive didn't seem strong in him.


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## krisscross (Feb 22, 2013)

Minnewaska said:


> I thought Callahan believed it to be a whale and his homemade boat had been previously damaged. Watertight compartments kept it afloat, while he had stayed tethered to the mother ship, in his raft, long enough to return several times for some supplies, before the tether was torn off.


Could have been a whale, but the boat still sunk in a few minutes. He made 2 trips back before the tether got torn, which even in his opinion likely saved his life. His boat was completely full of water during the second trip and shortly after that even the mast disappeared under water. The point was that this movie's hero was rather lucky as compared to some real life collision stories.
I don't think the movie was that terrible even as they could have hired a better production consultant to make it more realistic. Or it could have been a take on a character who wants to sail around the world with no experience and $10,000 budget. I have seen a few of those people.


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## mstern (May 26, 2002)

I saw it right after it became available on DVD (I must have gotten it on Netflix or something like that). I have to agree that the inaccuracies and "wait a minute, that's just stupid!" moments were distracting. They didn't completely spoil it for me, but they definitely detracted.

My wife decided about 10 minutes into it that she wasn't going to watch. She said she knew that if she watched, it might make her nervous about going sailing (she's 'fraidy scared enough as it is). Good call. At least she didn't have to hear me yell at the screen when RR decided to do something dopey.

Hey, at least someone recognized that there is enough beauty and drama in sailing to have it drive a major studio motion picture. I can't believe that no one has made a movie about the Donald Crowhurst story yet, especially since the book Outerbridge Reach used it as the basis for a best-selling novel.


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## capttb (Dec 13, 2003)

They did make a movie (Deep Water) about Crowhurst and the scene of him leaving England in an untried homebuilt plywood trimaran that looked like it was trying to come apart in a very small chop made it obvious that the boat wasn't a circumnavigator. And when I googled it someone in the UK has remade the Crowhurst story this year as a theatrical release. The original documentary was the most depressing thing I've ever seen, don't know how it could be improved any in the re-make (The Mercy).
The Mercy (2017) - IMDb


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## AJC506 (Nov 3, 2016)

midwesterner said:


> I'm wondering what movie you saw with Paul Newman ? (it was Robert Redford).


Definitely Sundance, not Butch


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## eherlihy (Jan 2, 2007)

midwesterner said:


> I'm wondering what movie you saw with Paul Newman ? (it was Robert Redford).


At least I didn't say Barbara Streisand...


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## mstern (May 26, 2002)

capttb said:


> They did make a movie (Deep Water) about Crowhurst and the scene of him leaving England in an untried homebuilt plywood trimaran that looked like it was trying to come apart in a very small chop made it obvious that the boat wasn't a circumnavigator. And when I googled it someone in the UK has remade the Crowhurst story this year as a theatrical release. The original documentary was the most depressing thing I've ever seen, don't know how it could be improved any in the re-make (The Mercy).
> The Mercy (2017) - IMDb


 I've seen Deep Water and agree that it was a powerful film. I was thinking that the story could be the basis of a fictional or docudrama "based upon" kind of theatrical movie. I certainly didn't know about The Mercy. Thanks TB. It certainly has some star power with Colin Firth and Rachel Weisz. Gotta check Netflix for that baby.

I learn me something new every day!


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## Minnewaska (Feb 21, 2010)

rbrasi said:


> All is NOT lost- according to Box Office Mojo, the worldwide grosses on this film were $13 million+, plus $4.5m for DVD/Blue ray purchases. So on a production budget of $8.5 million, it netted its investors $9 million. Not so bad for a paid trip to Mexico, three Cal 39s and and hanging out with a Hollywood legend (Redford, not Newman). As a work of commerce, meh. As a work of art, hey, we're still talking about it, right?


That's not how the math works. The production company spend the $8.5mm, but typically gets half, or less, of the box office. The theaters and the distribution company get the rest. This flick lost a fortune, because it was a dud.

Some literary license is fine, particularly when necessary for a camera angle or to create a drama. This flick simply had major lack of attention to detail, for no good reason.


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## DonScribner (Jan 9, 2011)

Minnewaska said:


> There was a thorough review of that movie, back when it was released. From a sailors perspective, I thought it was ridiculous. The impact damage itself was not realistic. Exactly how would you hole the mid-ship side of the boat, while sailing forward? Especially in such calm seas that the container would stay aside. I think I recall him using a crescent wrench on a round knurled antenna connection. It was full of idiotic lack of attention to detail.
> 
> In the end, it wasn't a sailing movie at all. It was a movie about losing all options and what a man would do when facing their death.


Yeah, like set fire to your life raft


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## capttb (Dec 13, 2003)

DonScribner said:


> Yeah, like set fire to your life raft


The DIY Viking Funeral, getting the timing right is always tricky.


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## gptyk (Mar 20, 2013)

Saw it when it just came out on DVD. On a mooring. In about 30kts of wind. Sound didn't work - obviously it didn't matter. 

I knew exactly what the movie was when Redford goes to try to push the container off with what looks to be a typical West Marine boathook. 

We all laughed at that scene. Anybody that's ever been on a boat knows that if you did that the boathook would break. It went downhill from there.


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## capta (Jun 27, 2011)

I think the criticism of his shaving is way off base. One of the best ways to get one's self back on track and moving forward with hope, is to do something intimately familiar, in this case shaving. 
I agree with "In the end, it wasn't a sailing movie at all. It was a movie about losing all options and what a man would do when facing their death."
I've been in some stressful situations at sea on both big and small craft and I believe calm and collected beats a mad rush to accomplish a chore, whether it's a life and death one, or not.
It's always sad when the movie makers blindly make a movie about anything, but mostly about boats for me, without consulting a professional advisor in the field. The opening scene in White Squall was so bad that it put me off a movie that might have been good entertainment.


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## RegisteredUser (Aug 16, 2010)

Minnewaska said:


> ....
> Some literary license is fine, particularly when necessary for a camera angle or to create a drama. This flick simply had major lack of attention to detail, for no good reason.


I know it's fiction...not real, OK?
But please give me a chance to 'pretend' it is for that moment.

All of those 'realist whatever' TV shows were junk, imo, and I was very disappointed to learn of their great popularity during that time.
Are we really that dummed down and stupid... 
I tried to watch one..and got pissed off.

With this evolution in communications, the young people are getting and taking advice/guidance from their peers these days - not their parents.


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## mbianka (Sep 19, 2014)

gptyk said:


> Saw it when it just came out on DVD. On a mooring. In about 30kts of wind. Sound didn't work - obviously it didn't matter.
> 
> I knew exactly what the movie was when Redford goes to try to push the container off with what looks to be a typical West Marine boathook.
> 
> We all laughed at that scene. Anybody that's ever been on a boat knows that if you did that the boathook would break. It went downhill from there.


That did not bother me since I think that is the first thing most of us would try since it's probably the closest thing within reach. I may be wrong since it's been awhile since I saw the movie. I think he finally deployed a sea anchor to finally move it away. But, the memory is foggy if that was the case.


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## PhilCarlson (Dec 14, 2013)

The two things that make me chuckle about the movie even now:

1. He had to fashion a lever for his manual bilge pump because his had long since gone walk-about. (Be honest, how many of us are missing that part) 
2. His sextant and how-to book were still in the shipping carton. He obviously thought to himself before setting sail "I should have one of those..." threw it in a locker and almost forgot about it when he was abandoning ship.

Haters will hate. I enjoyed the movie; a willing suspension of disbelief adds to the experience. 

Of course it's not technically accurate. It's not a documentary, its entertainment.


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