ALL IS LOST is an action survival movie – a nearly dialogue-free thriller. It is 105 minutes in length covering a lone sailor’s 8 days of fighting the sea to survive.
Robert Redford stars alone as a man lost at sea in his boat the Virginia Jean. He wakes one morning to his boat being flooded. Overnight it had collided with a drifting lost shipping container which ripped a hole in its hull.
He goes to work using what he can find to patch up the hole and fix the pump to empty the water. His communications navigational and radio equipment have been ruined and he must quickly learn celestial navigation. After failing to outrun a storm, he is thrown overboard. Even after successfully struggling to get back on board, the boat capsizes and he abandons ship resorting to an inflatable life raft.
Despite his resourcefulness, the aged sailor is forced to deal with the possibility that these may be his last moments alive. His supplies dwindle and fresh water becomes a problem.
Two container ships pass him unnoticed despite the use of flares. Rapidly weakening, he sees a light in the distance and to attract attention lights a fire using his journal and charts. The fire destroys the raft; he abandons ship again only this time he lets himself sink. But then appears a boat and an outstretched hand.
It is dialogue free other than a few sentences at the start, a brief aborted SOS call as his radio fails and a loud expletive when the life raft springs a leak. This lack of the spoken word places the score and cinematography in sharper focus.
The score leads the audience on the exhausting journey. Composed by Edward Sharpe and Alex Ebert, it both lulls and challenges as the noise of the sea and storm breach all calm and integrity of the functioning whole. It is as though the elements of wind, water, rain and sun, are the story’s other characters. It is with them that the sailor communicates.
The cinematography clearly shows the range of nature’s elements from wild storm to drifting calm. Shots of being washed overboard, of the schools of fish swimming by and sharks circling and his drowning take us into a magical underwater world.
Being filmed on the water and largely within the confines of a sailboat and life raft, the film was technically difficult. It was shot at Baja Studios in Mexico.
Robert Redford portrays the aged sailor well in his physically and intellectually demanding role.
ALL IS LOST is written and directed by J. C. Chandor, following his 2011 feature film debut Margin Call. It shows his capacity to address two vastly different themes, stories and approaches well.
Sailors may point out that the action was not always technically sound, but are likely to enjoy the film nonetheless.
Watching the film in IMAX or 3D would give the viewer the greatest benefit especially in relation to the impact of nature’s elements.