All is Lost (J.C. Chandor, 2013)

[Sonmi451]

I've been thinking about that, and perhaps coded allegory might be a more accurate description than satire. Regardless, that little snippet does not disqualify any other meaning in the scene. Screenwriters don't usually include the keys to the puzzle in their scripts. Besides, we could easily then argue about what Chandor meant by "keep up appearances". If this is indeed an allegory about global capitalism, or the financial crisis, then why might a man in Our Man's position want to "keep up appearances"? Hmm

[warren oates]

Well, if we're laying all our interpretive cards on the table, I'd say that, for me, this film is actually a super subtle feminist manifesto. Did you notice how, in Chandor's first feature, Margin Call, there was really only one woman? Bad trouble happened. In this film, there's not a single woman! Even worse trouble. Hence, he's clearly hinting that these manly worlds need more women to stave off disaster.

But, wait, there's more: Women don't shave their faces. And it was only after Our Man's vainglorious decision to shave that the shizzle really hit the fan for him. Hence, no shaving = yes staving off disaster. QED.

[matrixschmatrix]

Honestly you could really, really easily make this movie a religious allegory-

Spoiler

a man is moving through the world happily alone when trouble strikes, he fights as hard as he can but cannot win, and finally gives up everything and accepts the celestial hand reaching out for him

and I'd prefer not to do that, so I'm just going to assume that it's designed simply enough that it's open to whatever allegorical reading you want to place on it.

[warren oates]

Yeah, but we'd need a lot more evidence -- backstory, context, v.o. even -- to justify a full-on religious interpretation of the whole film. Which is why the larding on of that stuff in the images and music near the end rings so hollow to me. He's not grappling with religious issues in voice-over like A Man Escaped's Fontaine. And he really isn't just walking through a normal everyday existence when suddenly beset by seemingly random Job-like tragedy, like the protagonist of A Serious Man. Our Man's willingly chosen a hugely risky endeavor. Sailing alone can be treacherous on the best of days.

[Mr Sausage]

To be fair, piloting a boat on the ocean is an easy symbol for our precarious position as we make our way through life.

Also, any allegory is going to have to grapple with authorial intent, too, as allegories by nature are explicitly designed.

Also: very few works of art are as open to multiple, contradictory interpretations as is often claimed in internet arguments.

[Sonmi451]

Our Man's willingly chosen a hugely risky endeavor.

Sarcasm aside, you don't see the parallels here with Chandor's first film? I view this as a clear companion piece.

[warren oates]

To the extent that he's gambling, Our Man's only betting his own life, and it's purely existential. He's not playing casino games with everyone else in the world's money, only to be suddenly and rudely surprised when he notices -- a split second before everyone else -- that it's all crumbling down. And he's certainly not gone into this without a good deal of experience (though perhaps not as much as FG's uncle) and a stock of personal grit.

The film is bookended with the presence of international commerce in the form of container ships -- blah blah blah. I get that aspect of it. And a concern with and critique of global capitalism is implied there. But it's certainly not the central interest or thesis of the film.

[Sonmi451]

Yes, I didn't mean it was literally the same story.

And the container ships are clearly the most obvious examples, but I'm much more interested in Our Man's actions. His cool detachment, his phony confidence, his ineptitude. He could easily be one of those executives from Margin Call.

[FerdinandGriffon]

Sonmi, the very fact that he's called "Our Man" renders it almost impossible for the film's point of view to be critical of the character. This is an amusing idea but you're working against the grain.

[warren oates]

I agree with FG.

His seeming "cool detachment" could apply to a majority of the male protagonists in action cinema, but, in this film, it's definitely a function of the fact that he doesn't speak (because there's no one to speak to) and the filmmaker consciously withholds inner thoughts that he might have offered in voice-over. But since you're interested in his actions, I'd say the best way to interpret Our Man's "coolness" is to see just how it works in the film. Early on in the thread someone raised concerns that Our Man didn't seem worried enough about his problems. Judging by his actions, though, you can't say this. As he does his best to trouble shoot every next problem with an almost relentless intensity, pausing just a few times to attend to needs like sleep, food and drink. An absence of outright panic doesn't equate to the presence of a pathological lack of concern. Our Man mostly manages to keep a cool head, but he's hardly detached from his situation.

His so-called "phony confidence" is absolutely debatable. I don't see the case for that at all, and you certainly haven't made one. Same with his supposed "ineptitude." The best arguments for that label come from FG via his uncle. But I and a few others earlier in the thread -- including other sailors like matrix's father -- have already gone through most of them point by point, concluding that many of the less optimal decisions Our Man makes -- while not decisions that someone who's sailed around the world many times previously might make -- are plausible within the context of his relative experience and of the pressure of on-rushing events. If you haven't bothered to compare this to other true survival stories, then that might be one reason why this protagonist strikes you as so unequivocally "inept." Most survivors, even ones you might judge as more experienced in their pursuits than Our Man, don't make every decision perfectly. But that hardly makes them "inept." Because, in the end, there's really only one standard above all else that bona fide survivors are judged on: that they've made enough of the right decisions in the right order to come back alive. In the script, Our Man's survival is unambiguous. That the finished film itself withholds this ultimate moment is hardly evidence that it deems him and his efforts to have been "inept."

[FerdinandGriffon]

Even I wouldn't call Redford* inept, as most of his stupid decisions seem less the blunderings of a fully formed character than the plotting and dramatic manipulations of the contemporary Hollywood mode of filmmaking. I never got the impression of watching an idiot, I got the impression of watching a sometimes stupid film about a supposedly smart person.

*I refuse to call Redford "Our Man". I mean, how presumptuous can you get?

[Sonmi451]

Okay okay, if I went too far with the character critique, I blame Redford and his damn natural aloofness!

[matrixschmatrix]

I will again point to the very conscious in-box sextant and the mockingly beginner-oriented reckoning book. I think he's meant to be a smart man who isn't terribly experienced and doesn't really know what to do in the situation in which he's caught; his decisions make sense for the ones you would make with the materials at hand, and didn't feel terribly screenwriter-y to me.

[Black Hat]

Isn't that a bit like asking; "What on earth was Fontaine doing in the back of that Gestapo car?

No. It's not but it's really here nor there in the grand scheme of things.

I'm equally baffled by the suggestions from others above that Our Man's taking the time to shave is "inane," which somehow becomes a sign of his "incompetence." As in true survival stories, not every decision taken here is optimal or actively contributes to the most pressing goal. But shaving is s silly thing to criticize. Our Man chooses to groom himself the way that a man on death row might -- to take a moment to ground himself in everyday humanity, hope and normalcy. It's a perfectly understandable decision, and, from the standpoint of his awareness of his own psychology, a rather smart one.

Well said. Even in the most harrowing of circumstance you still have to live. It goes a long way to keeping you sane.

I will again point to the very conscious in-box sextant and the mockingly beginner-oriented reckoning book. I think he's meant to be a smart man who isn't terribly experienced and doesn't really know what to do in the situation in which he's caught; his decisions make sense for the ones you would make with the materials at hand, and didn't feel terribly screenwriter-y to me.

I'm definitely in this line. I think 'Our Man' was another way of saying 'regular guy' or 'average Joe'.