Pass the Popcorn: Movies from where I Sit

Yesterday afternoon I saw "All is Lost".  I was pleasantly surprised, as the story going around is that the movie is boring and you should only go to see Redford.  Not true.  The film is an adventure, filled with gripping details about how a person can survive with the equipment standard on a sailing boat.  The equipment is fascinating, and, by the way, I am adverse to boats, boating and especially being in a sailboat.  The character's ingenuity is remarkable, but always believable.  Redford lets his face do his work, and it is not a slient movie, as there is a voiceover at the beginning, and he occasionally speaks to himself.  The cinematography is gorgeous, and you feel you are on the boat, in the same way you feel up in space in "Gravity", which this movie reminds me of in several ways.  There is the isolation of the characters, the adversarial nature of the sea and space, the final reaching out to the idea of others. 

First mistake is naming the film "All is Lost".  It makes you assume he dies.  I haven't seen "Lone Survivor" with Mark Wallberg, but there are similar complaints about that title.  This is a technical film, in a way, and the title should be something like:  Sumatran Sea or Year Away.  Anything but the current title.  Secondly, that title makes the metaphor obvious, when it should be something we work out as viewers.  "Gravity" allows us to see what the movie "means", but "All is Lost" assumes we can't figure it out and constricts us.

I love the ending, because it could be anything.  Is he rescued?  Is it an hallucination?  Is it an image of heaven?  Is it about needing a helping hand and not being alone on the planet?  It's all of those things.

I love the big cargo boats, all business, who first cause the accident, then don't see him, the little guy, in their rush to commerce.  It takes a tiny, one person boat to truly see another human being in need and danger.  That is a beautiful message.  We look to the big entities, but our salvation is usually one on one with our ordinary fellow human beings.

So now I think it is a pity this film wasn't seen more, and Redford's performance.  There is no one to blame any more.  The Oscar nominations are out, so it got lost in the shuffle.  A few gems always do get lost.  But not all is lost.