Movie Review for Deep Water

Summary: The voyage of Donald Crowhurst, one of the nine yachtsmen who joined a 1969 "London Times"-sponsored competition to make a highly publicized solo trip around the world. Crowhurst, a former engineer, but hardly the most experienced sailor, attempted this feat in a boat that he designed himself. A few weeks into the voyage it began leaking. Continuing through the vicious waters of Cape Horn appeared to be suicidal, but returning home meant humiliation and financial ruin.

                         Reviews of Deep Water
By Toddy Burton of Austin Chronicle (7/0)
            The film evokes a visceral understanding of solitude at sea.

By Michael Sragow of Baltimore Sun (7/0)
            ...the less said about this film the better. It's that good.

By Jamie Russell of BBC (7/0)
            Stories celebrating heroic journeys are commonplace, but this is a sobering, anti-heroic tale of ...

By Mark Feeney of Boston Globe (7/0)
            Astonishing tale is diluted...

By Michael Esposito of Chicago Tribune (7/0)
            The documentary effectively blends contemporary and recent interviews with film and tape recordin...

By Michael Esposito of Chicago Tribune (7/0)
            ...effectively blends contemporary and recent interviews with film and tape recordings made by Cr...

                         Reviews of Deep Water
By Robert Koehler of Christian Science Monitor (7/0)
            Deep Water's account of a modern Icarus is frighteningly clear in its perceptions and aftershocks...

By Jeff Vice of Deseret News, Salt Lake City (7/0)
            This is pretty heady stuff, and it's constantly enthralling, particularly for something that has ...

By Anna Smith of Empire Magazine (7/0)
            A sad story, but well told, with respect for its subject and an eye for the Shakespearian tragedy...

By Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly (7/0)
            ...a spooky, moving doc...

By Bruce Feld of Film Journal International (7/0)
            In a sense, the subject of this film contributed a good deal of material to his cinematic biograp...

By Blake French of filmcritic.com (7/0)
            ...recounts the first round-the-world boat race, and the tragic adventures of a one man who stood...

                         Reviews of Deep Water
By Kent Turner of Film-Forward.com (7/0)
            Not only is this an incredible saga of Jack London proportions, it's also a great detective tale.

By Andrew Pulver of Guardian [UK] (7/0)
            [An] expertly assembled and engrossing documentary.

By Kirk Honeycutt of Hollywood Reporter (7/0)
            Deep Water is a stunning documentary that not only beautifully elucidates a nearly forgotten inci...

By Bruce Westbrook of Houston Chronicle (7/0)
            For this gripping and amazing documentary, such truth emerges not just from the facts, but also t...

By Beth Accomando of KPBS.org (7/0)
            But more startling are the original tape recordings and 16mm films made by the solitary competito...

By Scott Foundas of L.A. Weekly (7/0)
            It is the point -- and the power -- of Deep Water that the vast, unknowable fathoms of the sea ar...

                         Reviews of Deep Water
By Glenn Whipp of Los Angeles Daily News (7/0)
            Humane and haunting.

By Anthony Lane of New Yorker (7/0)
            Deep Water confirms all the mythical terrors that lurk in our dreams of the sea, and the best per...

By Frank Swietek of One Guy's Opinion (7/0)
            This isn't primarily an adventure story, though it's very suspenseful; it's first and foremost a ...

By Jason Ferguson of Orlando Weekly (7/0)
            Deeply researched and compellingly presented, Deep Water is as much about one man’s misadventures...

By Jeanne Aufmuth of Palo Alto Weekly (7/0)
            A tangle of turbulent seas and emotions.

By Steven Rea of Philadelphia Inquirer (7/0)
            Remarkable.

                         Reviews of Deep Water
By Pam Grady of Reel.com (7/0)
            Nearly 40 years after he attempted to transcend his everyday life of limited horizons and money t...

By Robin Clifford of Reeling Reviews (7/0)
            It is a sad, finely crafted documentary that must not be missed, if you call yourself a real film...

By James Berardinelli of ReelViews (7/0)
            Deep Water is a documentary, but it's also one part adventure film, one part Greek tragedy, and o...

By Sean Means of Salt Lake Tribune (7/0)
            Not merely a documentary portrait, but an engrossing drama with more twists and turns than your a...

By Jean Lowerison of San Diego Metropolitan (7/0)
            One of the year’s best documentaries.

By G. Allen Johnson of San Francisco Chronicle (7/0)
            ...incredible and heartbreaking.

                         Reviews of Deep Water
By G. Allen Johnson of San Francisco Chronicle (7/0)
            One of this year's better studies of the human soul.

By Bill White of Seattle Post-Intelligencer (7/0)
            With the discovery of films and audiotape from the first solo, non-stop nautical race around the ...

By Moira MacDonald of Seattle Times (7/0)
            Some beautiful shots give unexpected texture to the film, such as an underwater capture of a boat...

By Nick Schager of Slant Magazine (7/0)
            A true-life tale of inadvertent self-destruction, Deep Water's generic title belies its haunting ...

By Nick Funnell of Time Out (7/0)
            Charting the thin line between courage and foolhardiness, it’s a poignant portrayal of the excruc...

By Tony Medley of tonymedley.com (7/0)
            ...a compelling portrait of a man who is terminally befuddled and ends up abandoning his wife and...

                         Reviews of Deep Water
By Ken Fox of TV Guide's Movie Guide (7/0)
            Echoes the dark poetry of Coleridge's Ancient Mariner and Poe's Arthur Gordon Pym, men who sailed...

By Brian Tallerico of UGO (7/0)
            Despite the flaws in the structure and story of Deep Water, Osmond and Rothwell display great ski...

By Urban Cinefile Critics of Urban Cinefile (7/0)
            This well crafted and engaging documentary is a ripping yarn of a man's mansize adventure going h...

By Deborah Young of Variety (7/0)
            The pic should suck even landlubbers into a whirlpool of gripping adventure, overblown ambitions ...

By Julia Wallace of Village Voice (7/0)
            Given that the tedium of months on the open seas could and did drive a man insane, co-directors L...

By Joe Morgenstern of Wall Street Journal (7/0)
            An enthralling documentary about an Englishman named Donald Crowhurst who, in 1968, set off on a ...

                         Reviews of Deep Water
By John Beifuss of Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) (3/5) Login Required (Login Required)
            This is fascinating stuff... that would be better served by a magazine article or book.

By Ed Scheid of Boxoffice Magazine (6/1) No reference
            Deep Water successfully combines the pressure of the competition with an intriguing character stu...

By Joshua Katzman of Chicago Reader (3/4) No reference
            Osmond and Rothwell's depiction of his unraveling is an exquisitely structured drama.

By Bill Stamets of Chicago Sun-Times (3/4) No reference
            Osmond and Rothwell do a commendable job of mining a rich archive of material.

By Josh Bell of Las Vegas Weekly (3/4) No reference
            As a portrait of obsession, competition and, finally, delusion, Deep Water is haunting and engros...

By Rachel Saltz of New York Times (3/4) No reference
            A fascinating documentary about the first single-handed around-the-world sailing race, begins lik...

                         Reviews of Deep Water
By Marc Mohan of Oregonian (3/4) No reference
            This was a story that made front pages in its day but has been largely lost to history, and now i...

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