I see a lot of people complain about the lack of modern gear.
It looked to me that it was actually set before the introduction of GPS and EPERBs.
Although if he had no GPS you might expect he'd know how to use a sextant.
"The early bird catches the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese."
He did have modern GPS equipment. Unfortunately for him, it was right where the shipping container punched a hole in his boat and ruined the equipment. His GPS was the laptop device that he picked up, saw was crushed, and thus threw aside. His radio wasn't crushed so he took it above deck to rinse out the corrosive saltwater and let it dry in the sun.
The movie wasn't set in the 70s but he was sailing a 70s-vintage boat. The credits revealed three 1978 boats were purchased in California and "gave themselves up for art."
Interesting. I didn't consider that. I just thought he had an old boat. It could very well be set in that time period just so people aren't wondering about GPS.
There is another scene where Redford grabs a package with emergency equipment (or, maybe his raft....I can't remember) and it is clearly marked "1979."
Setting it in the 70s would indeed remove that confusion, but we know that's not the case because he did have a laptop GPS device. We saw it clearly when he picked it up to check for damage. He also had a satellite phone, which he took above deck along with the radio. But when he opened it it appeared too far gone to rinse out and save.
The raft, and other emergency equipment, would have been stowed when the boat was new and thus would be the same vintage as the boat. Maybe that's why he woke up to find a puddle of water in the raft. An old raft could have deteriorating seams and cracked vinyl, allowing seawater to leak in.
I think a lot of the confusion can be attributed to the lack of dialogue. It's easy to miss details when the characters aren't discussing them. Without any exposition you have to watch intently and answer any questions yourself.
I think a lot of the confusion can be attributed to the lack of dialogue.The real problem is a lack of narration, preferably by Redford himself. Moby Dick (1956) is one of my favorite sea movies. No one since has equaled Gregory Peck's portrayal of Ahab, but in a way he's not the central character. What would it have been like without "Call me Ishmael ... and I only am escaped alone to tell thee."
Huge container ships didn't exist in the seventies. There was little trade with China then.
One of the 'points' of the movie, to me, was the very real hazard these lost containers present to small craft. Thousands -- thousands -- of them are lost every year.
Also, there have been several cases of these large ships not coming to the aid of distressed mariners, contrary to an international tradition that's hundreds of years old, that you *always* help a distressed mariner, even if they're from an enemy country.
International trade is a Good Thing, but what we have now is co-dependence. And it's ridiculous.
Anyway, that's how the movie 'hit home' for me.
Are you sure container ships didn't exist then, before corporations turned to China, much of the goods were produced in Hong Kong and Taiwan - because I used to see trucks with containers a lot in the early 80s when I grew up in HK.
Also you will find a lot of early 80s action films were set in container ports
Yes but the container vessels were not this huge. Only oil carriers were gigantic back then. In order to squeeze out some profit, companies opt for economies of scale with minimum staff on board. Same pattern can be observed in cruise ship. They have become huge, too.
shareIn the early part of the movie, we're shown a glimpse of a ruined handheld satellite phone.
These devices, which use lower-orbiting satelites than their predecessors (such as Iridium), weren't available before 1999. Prior to this, the smallest satphones were laptop or briefcase sized, with separate antennae that that had to be unfolded and set on on a stable surface.
Satphones were more expensive in the early 2000s than now. I don't recall seeing many on boats or other places before around 2008.
Taken with the very large container ships shown, I'd say All Is Lost is set in the time it was made, 2010+
Interesting thought but they didn't have laptops back in the 1970s. You can see Redford's characters examining a water damaged one he pulls out of a cabinet.
Could in the 1990s, this doesn't seem to be a very time specific film.
If it's of any relevance, M/V Marit Maersk (renamed in the meantime), the first vessel that failed to save Our Man, was built in 2009.
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