All Is Lost could be seen as a thesis as to why Robert Redford is a good actor. His generation of talent are elder statesmen in both mainstream and independent films. Mr. Redford helped to create the Sundance Film Festival and besides his work as an activist, Mr. Redford is also a talented Director. In All Is Lost we never learn his character's name. He do not ever learn why we went out on a voyage into the open sea alone and aside from a short opening narration by Redford and garbled up radio communication there is no dialogue in the film at all. Everything rests upon what the audience intimates from Redford's character's actions and that is why I think this film is like a visual thesis that showcases why Robert Redford is one of the great American Actors of his and just about any generation.
It is not that he is the only person who could pull something like this off. There are a great many, but Redford brings something to the film that is pure and instinctual that just seems like a perfect match. That is why as we learn from the filmmaker commentary and extra value features the script was written with him in mind as their first choice.
The story is simply a lone man struggling to survive increasingly bleak circumstances after the hull of his boat is pierced by floating debris. It is a man being humbled by nature and yet it is strangely lyrical and at times almost dreamlike. It kind of reminded me of an early Peter Weir motion picture.
Lionsgate Home Entertainment's Blu-ray Disc edition of All Is Lost presents the film in a beautiful 1080p/24fps high definition widescreen (2.40:1) widescreen aspect ratio with a discrete English DTS-HD MA 5.1 Surround Soundtrack. A Spanish Language Dubbed Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack is also included along with English Subtitles for the Deaf and Hearing Impaired and English and Spanish Language Subtitles.
Extra value features include four vignettes covering the story (3:45), the Filmmaker J.C. Chandor (3:17), Actor Robert Redford (4:25) as well as the sound effects design that if one could credit a second character in the story, it would be the sound itself (11:59). There is also a production featurette (3:45) as well as a four part examination chronicling the evolution of a scene from storyboards, pre-shooting with a stand-in Actor for blocking, time lapsed footage and VFX for green screen. An audio commentary with the Director J.C. Chandor and Producers Neal Dodson and Anna Gerb supports the rest of the extra value content as well as the feature itself.
A reel of trailers for Mud, Margin Call, Much Ado About Nothing, Emperor and The Conspirator wraps up what is encoded onto this Blu-ray Disc. There is also a limited time only redemption insert inside for an Ultraviolet Digital Copy of All Is Lost included within the Blue BD case too.
All Is Lost will debut on Blu-ray Disc on Tuesday, February 11, 2014 courtesy of Lionsgate Home Entertainment.
(C) Copyright 2014 By Mark Rivera
All Rights Reserved.
