BEFORE: If you've grown accustomed to the way I tend to organize my movie-watching, you'll realize that there's no other place to watch this film, other than between two other Redford films, simply because there's no credited actors in this film except for Bob himself. You might also surmise that I'm working up to linking to "Avengers: Age of Ultron" by taking advantage of the fact that Redford was in the 2nd Captain America film, providing an easy link to Chris Evans. Great guess, but after the Redford chain ends, I'll still have a week before the Avengers film opens, so I've had to find another way. Don't worry, I'll get there.
THE PLOT: After a collision with a shipping container at sea, a resourceful sailor finds himself, despite all efforts to the contrary, staring his mortality in the face.
FOLLOW-UP TO: "Life of Pi" (Movie #1,325)
AFTER: I wonder how many reviewers referred to this film as "Butch Capsized and the Sunburned Kid." Or am I the first? Anyway, after all the Cary Grant and Marx Brothers movies, it's a nice change to watch a film made in this millennium, the last one for me was "Someone Like You" back on March 1. Sure, the whole point of this project is to catch up on the classics, but it's also nice to work a more modern film in here and there.
This is a film that practically demands your focus, just because there's barely any dialogue. With a typical film you can sit in your living room, check your e-mail, read the paper, make some food, because the dialogue will still keep some of your attention while you multi-task. But if you do that here, you might miss something visual going on here that explains what this troubled sailor is doing to try and improve his situation.
And if you're lucky, like I was, there will be a thunderstorm in your area that manages to coincide with the one on the screen, providing a greater sense of wrap-around sound that you could possibly get by any set of multiple speakers. Several times I had to pause the DVD just to determine if that last crack of thunder was in the film, or in the actual real reality. See if you can make that happen, I recommend it.
Some may get turned off by the lack of dialogue - "Wait, you mean I have to pay attention and figure out what's happening? What a drag, man. I didn't know watching this film would be, like, work." Well, perhaps it should always be. Perhaps you should be like me, and always be ready with a notepad to jot down your questions, or things you might want to research when the film is over. To the film's credit, they don't make "Our man" (as defined by the credits) talk to himself excessively about what's happening, which would be helpful but unrealistic. Other than a distress call and some choice expletives, this is true acting without speaking.
That said, or perhaps unsaid, I wish I knew more about sailing, in the same way that watching a boxing film makes me wish I knew more about the "sweet science". I've seen other films which have tackled the issue, like "Lifeboat" and "Life of Pi", so most of what I know about boating and survival at sea comes from movies. That's everything from "don't drink seawater" to "try and limit exposure to the sun" to "hey, watch out for sharks". (Also, try to make sure there's not a tiger hiding somewhere on your lifeboat...) I don't sail, I don't even swim, and I try to make sure that if I go on a boat, it's in a place like the Caribbean (where there are no icebergs, duh) and there are ample lifeboats, plus an endless taco bar every day at 2 pm on the Lido deck.
(See, this is an essential part of survival training that most people don't talk about. As soon as you set foot on a cruise ship, your goal should be to eat as much food as possible, as many times per day as the cruise line will allow, if not more. There's breakfast delivered to your cabin, 2nd breakfast available on the promenade, then you've got brunch, and lunch, and the aforementioned taco bar, then you've got to get a snack in the lounge because it's a full three hours until dinner, then there's dinner itself, and then late-night Chinese food and dessert if you've still got room. It's kind of like being a maritime Hobbit. Why is this important? What if the ship does sink, and you end up in a lifeboat, or worse, on some island with just coconuts and pineapples? In that case, you'll be glad you ate well beforehand. What if you fall off the side of the boat? Well, just to be safe you'd better eat a lot before that happens, because if you can increase your size, you'll be less dense, and therefore more buoyant. It's just good science.)
So that's why I can't understand why someone would go to sea in a ship without a buffet - man is just not meant to live on cans of beans and MREs. Trust me, I've been eating veggie burgers for 2 months now, and they just don't compare to the real thing. (Thank God that calories don't count when you're on vacation, like even a road trip to Atlantic City.) Plus, "our man" seems to be exerting a lot of energy, whether he's patching the hull or raising the sails or hoisting the jib (is that a thing?) so why doesn't he need to eat more?
But I acknowledge that there is a certain class of people who (apparently) sail for sport - these are the same sort of people who ride bikes up mountains instead of down them (go figure), or will hike up a trail when there's a perfectly good tram or ski-lift available. You know, adrenaline junkies. But this leads me to wonder if this is just a film about sailing, or if it's intended as a metaphor for something. I think sometimes I might have become a stress junkie, seeking out high-pressure projects at work with tight deadlines, just to get that rush of satisfaction when the quarterly payroll report or the SAG contract gets filed just before time runs out.
I've been the de facto captain of an animation studio for the last week, with my boss out on tour making appearances at screenings across the country, and my days have consisted of putting out one (figurative) fire after another, so I can empathize with our man. As soon as you get the boat bailed out and patch the leak, a storm system rolls in and you're back under the gun. Survive the storm and now you've got to get the boat righted and the radio repaired, or situations to that effect. Combine all that with a head cold and you've got me, a guy who can't get more than three hours of sleep at a time, and who's ready to crash at 6 am, when most normal people are getting ready to start their day.
Without naming specific films, I've noticed a trend among the 25 or so Redford films that have already been a part of this project, and that's a fairly high mortality rate for Redford's characters. Will this be another film where the Sundance Kid doesn't survive until the end credits? I can now name at least 8 films where he doesn't. I can also name 3 films where his characters go to the Plaza Hotel - "The Great Gatsby", "Barefoot in the Park" and "The Way We Were".
Also starring (n/a)
RATING: 6 out of 10 shipping lanes
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