{"id":83,"date":"2014-03-10T11:02:50","date_gmt":"2014-03-10T19:02:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stephenshostek.com\/blog\/?p=83"},"modified":"2014-06-10T11:09:23","modified_gmt":"2014-06-10T19:09:23","slug":"all-is-lost-film-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stephenshostek.com\/blog\/all-is-lost-film-review\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cAll Is Lost\u201d Film Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Academy Awards were handed out last week and I was surprised that one of the powerful films of 2013 didn\u2019t make it through the nominations. I thought \u201cAll Is Lost\u201d might be nominated for Robert Redford\u2019s acting or for its lush cinematography. I\u2019m including it in my blog because of the existential themes that it presents.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll Is Lost\u201d – what an epic title! Perhaps you\u2019ve felt that way surveying a complete train-wreck of a disappointment, or at the end of a business venture that didn\u2019t work out. Maybe a relationship. \u201cAll Is Lost.\u201d Dealing with loss\/failure\/disappointment is just one of the existential themes that\u2019s presented by this movie, and I\u2019ll be focusing on another theme later in this review.<\/p>\n

But first, let\u2019s back up a bit \u2013 If you haven\u2019t seen the film, \u201cAll Is Lost\u201d is a sailing, man-at-sea, stranded-survivor movie. The film\u2019s only character, listed in the credits as \u201cOur Man\u201d, spends most of the film struggling against unexpected threatening events, each of which places him in increasingly dire circumstances. As the film progresses, we watch Our Man degrade from rested to exhausted, from hardy and competent to barely holding on, from a firmly set jaw to wailing at the sky with the most gut wrenching \u201cFffffuuuuuuuuuuckk\u201d that I\u2019ve ever heard\/seen on screen. His living conditions also degrade as he downsizes from his comfortable Cal 39 yacht to a vinyl emergency raft. The film crew and director provide an amazingly realistic depiction of Our Man struggling to make things right, to hold on, to survive and live through terrible difficulties on an indifferent and sometimes violent sea. They do a powerful job of building tension as disaster progresses.<\/p>\n

After the gut-wrenching wail, and after Our Man writes an \u201cAll Is Lost\u201d letter and seals it in a glass jar that he sets afloat, the film takes a fresh tack and invites a familiar theme from the Existential-Humanistic perspective. Long out of drinking water, his body dehydrated and exhausted, in the dark of night and all hope lost, Our Man sees the light of a distant boat. A possibility to resolve his crisis is presented. Great! But now, how to attract the boat\u2019s attention?<\/p>\n

It might sometimes happen that the very means we\u2019ve been using to make things work out must be abandoned in order to get on with life, to thrive, or to live with fullness. It can be a frightening moment, facing the decision to abandon what I\u2019ve long cultivated for the purpose of keeping things under control or to make my life work out. But sometimes that abandonment is necessary in order to move forward. Some have called the decision point that I\u2019m writing about an \u201cexistential crisis\u201d \u2013 a time full of possibility for life-change. As James Bugental wrote, \u201cSimply but starkly conceived, what must occur is for one or more ways in which the client has been in her life and in her world to die in order for newer and more healthful and authentic ways to emerge.\u201d Bugental\u2019s use of the word \u201cdie\u201d may seem dramatic but it captures the depth of the crisis and the necessity for changing \u201cthe way I do life\u201d \u2013 the combined effects of my self-world constructs and my favored protective means.<\/p>\n

And so \u2013 Our Man sees the light of a distant boat! Yes! A possibility for going on after all is lost. Our Man realizes that a signaling light is what\u2019s needed. He has matches, he has paper, but he needs a container in which to make a fire on his vinyl emergency raft. A carved-out 5 gallon plastic water jug comes to hand and a paper fire soon casts a soft flickering light. But quickly the fires grows brighter as the plastic container catches fire, and then – the raft itself! The fire rages high, bright, and mighty as Our Man leaps from the flames into the water.<\/p>\n

Like the life-change in an existential crisis, Our Man has to destroy what he\u2019s been counting on for life preservation in order to save his life. A kind of dying occurs so that he can live and thrive. In this dramatic act, Our Man is transformed from a raft-dweller to a swimmer and in that liberation moves onward with life. The life-preserving raft is in flames but a signal has been sent bright and clear into the dark night. His crisis can be resolved.<\/p>\n

\"spinnaker_fw\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I won\u2019t give away the ending of the film just in case you haven\u2019t seen it.<\/p>\n

I recommend seeing \u201cAll Is Lost.\u201d The film is full of oceanic beauty, the music is equally beautiful, and Robert Redford does a masterful job of bringing Our Man alive with almost no spoken words. I love sailing and the ocean so this was a must-see film for me. But even if you\u2019re not a sailor it\u2019s a beautiful film, well worth seeing and the portrayal of existential themes is rich and enjoyable as well. Enjoy!<\/p>\n

By Stephen Shostek, Portland Therapist
\nwww.stephenshostek.com<\/a>
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\n(503)963-8600<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  The Academy Awards were handed out last week and I was surprised that one of the powerful films of 2013 didn\u2019t make it through the nominations. I thought \u201cAll Is Lost\u201d might be nominated for Robert Redford\u2019s acting or for its lush cinematography. I\u2019m including it in my blog because of the existential themes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-entertainment","category-existential"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenshostek.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenshostek.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenshostek.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenshostek.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenshostek.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/stephenshostek.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":147,"href":"https:\/\/stephenshostek.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83\/revisions\/147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stephenshostek.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenshostek.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stephenshostek.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}