All Is Lost

For those of you who haven't seen this movie, I'll try not to ruin it too much, but here's a quick synopsis. Robert Redford is the only character in this move; that's not an exaggeration, he's literally it, other than a man's hand and a voice on a radio. Redford is an unnamed character, out at sea by himself, facing immense difficulties and being stranded by storms and all kinds of difficulties.

Since there are no other characters in this movie, there is no dialogue. Apart from one mildly uncomfortably screamed F-Bomb, Redford doesn't even talk to himself. The movie is not silent, though, in so many other ways. From the slow crashing of waves to the intensity of middle of the ocean storms, noise is everywhere.



The cinematography of this movie is incredible; there are artistic shots and emotional ones, flowing seamlessly from one to the next to keep your eyes glued on the screen. In moments that left my friend and I watching this movie together wondering how they could have managed to shoot a scene that felt so true to a middle of the ocean storm, the creators of this movie and its one actor crafted quite a film.

In my opinion, though, the silence is what is so beautiful about this movie. Silence freaks us out; it freaks us out so much, I think, that we often do everything in our power to avoid it. If most of us were in Redford's position in this movie, we would be talking, singing, screaming, and doing everything we could think of the fill the void of silence left when you're alone.

Image from IMDB

The capturing of the silence is beautifully done in this movie, and the title All Is Lost tells us something profound about what that silence means. What is amazing is that, for Redford's character, all is indeed lost, and he knows it. No matter how much he has given in to the thought that all is truly lost, though, he continues to fight, to do everything he could to survive.

In his situation, it would have been understandable to barricade yourself in the boat, and, if it sank, to sink with it. Redford wouldn't, though, because he was embracing the situation he had found himself in. The brilliance of this movie, at least in my opinion, is that Redford's character embraced the silence and the loneliness he found himself in, and instead of giving up he kept moving.

Silence forces us to respond. What we do in the face of silence says a lot about who we are. In the face of silence we can choose either to keep going or to give up. Sure, this movie could at times be called slow, but the depth of the human spirit portrayed in it continues the action always forward, reminding us in the depth of silence that even when all is lost, there's always a reason to keep moving.