All Is Lost

"13th of July, 4:50 pm. I'm sorry... I know that means little at this point, but I am. I tried, I think you would all agree that I tried. To be true, to be strong, to be kind, to love, to be right. But I wasn't. And I know you knew this. In each of your ways. And I am sorry. All is lost here... except for soul and body... that is, what's left of them... and a half-day's ration. It's inexcusable really, I know that now. How it could have taken this long to admit that I'm not sure... but it did. I fought 'til the end, I'm not sure what this worth, but know that I did. I have always hoped for more for you all... I will miss you. I'm sorry."

So says 'Our Man' at the beginning of the film. Save for an SOS call and a few cries of help and agony, this is all the dialogue we get.

'Our Man' in this case is an elderly guy (played magnificently by the elderly Robert Redford) lost at see. His boat suffers a leak after colliding with a shipping container at sea. Although he initially is lucky enough to have a few days of sunshine and quiet sea - giving him time and opportunity to fix the leak as best he can, after the first of occasional rough days, the boat suffers more damage. Eventually, he has to leave the wreck behind and try to survive on the life raft, drifting in open sea. The goal can only be to stay alive long enough for a ship to come near enough to see and rescue him.

This is all the film is - a man in a boat or raft, trying to survive. I am not the world's greatest Robert Redford fan, but as I said, he is magnificent in All Is Lost.

He has yet to win an Oscar in an acting category. Just saying.

8/10

The Chase

A small town in Texas is in upheaval because Bubber Reeves escaped from jail. He was sitting in for one of a string of felonies. On the run, the prisoner he broke out of jail with kills someone and takes of with their car. So now the authorities also want Bubber for a murder he did not commit.

A handful of people in his hometown want to help him. There are Anna, his wife, and Jake Rogers, son of the rich man that practically owns the town. The two have been lovers for a long time (and everyone except old man Rogers knows) and now want to help Bubber by providing him money and a means to make a run for it.

The local Sheriff, who doesn't quite believe that Bubber had anything to do with the murder does his best to try and return him safely to jail because quite a few of the town's inhabitants have been drinking through most of the night and are out for blood. Sheriff Calder takes a beating from an especially anxious trio.

Eventually, a lot of the town folk make it out to Lester Johnson's junk yard by the wharf, where Bubber is said to be hiding out. Various drunken parties have relocated there and the people start throwing Molotov cocktails into the yard and singing songs asking Bubber to come out. It all gets out of hand and an explosion severely injures Jake. He dies some time later.

Bubber finally surrenders to the Sheriff, who takes him calmly to jail but on the steps, the idiotic trio cause one last ruckus and one of them guns Bubber down.

Good film with a fiery finale and a great cast.

7/10