An acting great alone against the forces of nature: in “All Is Lost” Robert Redford gets into distress as a lonely sailor. The riveting survival drama, with Redford as the only (!) name on the cast list, airs tonight on TV.
Robert Redford and nature, which seems to have conspired against him – nothing else: The highly dramatic survival adventure “All Is Lost” is exciting acting cinema par excellence! Only about 50 words are lost in the shipwreck drama, Redford is the only actor, and despite all this minimalism, the film is exceedingly gripping.
Redford was denied a well-deserved Oscar nomination, but that shouldn’t stop you from catching up on the film now on TV or refreshing your memory of it: “All Is Lost” airs today, October 21, 2023, starting at 8:15 p.m. on ServusTV.
Should you have deleted the channel, which belongs to the caffeine brewer Red Bull, from your program list or simply want to do without commercial breaks: “All Is Lost” is also available as rental and purchase VOD, among others at Prime Video:
If you subscribe to FILMLEGENDEN* as a Prime Video channel, you can even access “All Is Lost” at no additional cost.
“ALL IS LOST”: FRUSTRATION AND FEAR ON THE HIGH SEAS
A lonely sailor (Robert Redford) is roused from sleep in the middle of the night: Water invades his yacht, in which he is crossing the Indian Ocean. An apparently lost shipping container, now floating around, has rammed the boat, causing it to leak. Both the radio and the navigation system are damaged. Now the man has to plug the leak and get his bearings the old-fashioned way. Maybe he can reach an international trade route in time before the heavy storm that is starting to hit catches up with him?!
“All Is Lost” was written and directed by J. C. Chandor, who delivered the acclaimed stock market drama “The Great Crash – Margin Call” two years before this wordy survival film. That was honored with an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Therefore, many Oscar experts* were sure that “All Is Lost” would earn Robert Redford a nomination for Best Lead Actor.
Not only does the iconic actor carry the entire film, using facial expressions and gestures almost exclusively to create a character that one can see intense despair, anger, panic, cautious hope and resignation. Chandor also proved himself as someone who creates Academy-regarded films – so how could Redford be overlooked in the race for the acting Oscar?
Regarding NO ONE WILL SAVE YOU, No-dialogue (sound era) movies are hard to pull off. Off the top of my head, I can think of THE THIEF (1952), ALL IS LOST (2013), LE DERNIER COMBAT (1983) and a handful of others (Chomet, Tati, etc) QUEST FOR FIRE and THE BEAR to some extent.
– Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) September 23, 2023
In the end, it did: “All Is Lost” did receive an Oscar nomination, but it was for the imposing sound editing used to create the menacing swell, the creaking of the decaying yacht, and the intimidating storm. In the lead actor race, however, Matthew McConaughey came out on top with “Dallas Buyers Club,” while other nominees included Christian Bale for “American Hustle,” Bruce Dern for “Nebraska,” Chiwetel Ejiofor for “12 Years A Slave” and a certain Leonardo DiCaprio for “The Wolf Of Wall Street.”
Despite the Academy’s lack of appreciation, Redford’s performance in “All Is Lost” is one for the film history books. Not only because the sailor is one of the quietest lead characters in the history of U.S. talkies, but also because it is so engagingly straightforward.
Unlike, say, Sandra Bullock’s overly metaphorical struggle for survival in “Gravity,” there is no clearly defined second layer of meaning vying for attention here: the fears, hopes, and unverbalized yet understandable thought processes of a man fearing for his life are the film’s linchpin.
Consistently, Chandor and Redford shrugged their shoulders during press for “All Is Lost” whenever asked about a deeper meaning or what happens after the credits roll. “All Is Lost,” in its minimalism, provides projection space for audiences willing to interpret – but of central concern is the shipwreck adventure alone.
