All Is Lost - Überleben ist Alles

This is one to watch, especially if you have watched and enjoyed Cast Away. To be honest I did not expect to like it so much, knowing the type of movie this is. It is really fascinating though to realise how well this movie goes on based purely on one man's resourcefulness. The pace of the film is great with the action scenes keeping me on the edge of my seat. Redford in his late 70s gives a truly solid performance confronting his misadventures with extreme calmness and pure dignity. The character gives real time lessons on how to survive under such dire circumstances. A film dedicated to mortality. Quite different from what you may have seen in related films. I definitely recommend it!

When I saw the movie, All is Lost, I thought I was watching a movie based on a true story. The movie is very realistic in that it portrays perfectly the way I think someone would feel out in the ocean all alone. Many people will probably not like this film for how little dialogue there is in it.

For sailing enthusiasts this film does have a few reality checks. But for the most part I felt very much the same as Our Man, the character in this film. This is a credit to the director and his ability to make the audience feel vested in the main character's survival. This movie, while very good, does move slow at times. And while I am not a sailor I did notice a few of the reality checks in this film too.

What really makes the movie for me is that there are actual ocean disasters that are eerily similar in how they play out for the main character in this film. If know of some of these you will understand why this movie and its portrayal of the main character are so well done.

The ending is something left entirely to the viewer to interpret. But even that I found to be very realistic and probably the best part of the movie. This movie does a great job of trying to show the viewer how even when you seemingly do things right, bad things can still happen. It follows the old adage of "when it rains, it pours" or "one thing after another".

All is lost or is it?

Redford is great and this film shows how such a simple idea with one actor can work. As a filmmaker, it was interesting to see how a dialogue-free movie can work visually with a story that reminded me of Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea." For me, the story was a metaphor or allegory for life and our struggles. Cinematography was good, shot on the Arri Alexa, one of the hot cameras at the moment. The lack of dialogue and having only one actor made it a meditation for me on the visual elements. I hope Redford gets Oscar nomination. I'm inspired that a veteran like Redford had confidence in Chandor to go on this experimental film journey together.

Here we follow a solo sailor who experiences an extraordinary run of bad luck. We follow in detail his attempts to extricate himself. Right from the beginning, the life-threatening accidents that befall him seem insurmountable, but he is a tough man who attempts to deal with them one after the other. It becomes a grim battle for survival.

You do not need to be a sailor to enjoy this movie. And indeed if you are a sailor, apparently you won't enjoy it, as shown by the numerous wealthy reviewers lambasting the film because of the technical sailing details. Apparently a lot of rich old guys think they could have done better than the character in this film.

If you're not much of a sailor (like me), you'll spend a good deal of time wondering what he's doing and marveling at his self reliance. I don't know whether the sailing part was realistic. To enjoy the movie, it doesn't matter. It all seemed bone-crunchingly realistic, although at one point I did wonder whether an exhausted 77-year-old has the strength to haul himself up the side of a sailboat like that.

This is an unusual film for several reasons.

First, there is almost no dialogue. You can watch it with the sound off.

Second, it is set completely on two vessels in the Indian Ocean, but the camera almost never scans the horizon. We rarely actually see the sea or the entire boat. Sometimes there are several astonishing shots of the boat from underneath. All this gives the film a strangely claustrophobic feel, despite its maritime setting.

Third, the protagonist is a taciturn, very competent sailor who also happens to be a man in his late 70s. The movie has nothing to say, but yet much to say, about old age.

This movie is like "Gravity" in that it depicts a human being in extremis. The main character is not the sailor, but Fate. The sea represents a brutal and uncaring universe. Like "Gravity", the ultimate message is: when sh*t happens you can lie down and give up, or you can deal with it. The choice is up to you. Most of us have a hard time with that because it's easier to curse Fate and condemn the universe as unfair.

Robert Redford now an elder certainly in the final years of his acting time and life gives a performance to remember. And that's just a turn as a plain sailor man who without a name and really he has no words to say during the film! It proves that actions speak louder than words! Anyway "All is Lost" is a moving film of one man's will and determination to stay alive as the scenes show the forces of mother nature can put us at our strongest as a human will resort to many methods for the chance to live. The film is a tale of a sea collision involving a shipping container at sea. And Robert Redford is the sailor man at sea in the Indian ocean on the yacht when a powerful storm that's very violent hits the high sea. By watching you see how it's one character's struggle to survive and live. It proves that you should never give up it takes a lot of courage and will to live as just like the high sea life too is a violent storm many times. Overall this picture doesn't do many words it's actions of a struggle for life speaks the loudest and Redford in his wise age perhaps gives his strongest and smartest performance.