Our Man Symbolism

In the film All Is Lost, directed by J.C. Chandor, Chandor tells this story through the eyes of Our Man and his experience of trying to survive while lost at sea.
In the very beginning of the film, the camera scans a shipwrecked yacht and we hear the confession of a man at the end of his rope. He accepts responsibility, asks forgiveness, and utters the sad and crushing lines: "I'm sorry. I tried." He seems to have made peace with his fate concluding that "All is lost here except for body and soul." The setting swing back eight days earlier to see this individual, identified as Our Man, waking up alone in the middle of the Indian Ocean on his 39-foot Cal yacht named Virginia Jean. With this scene, we can see with his appearance, clothing,

and his capability of owning a yacht, Our Man can be seen as a middleclass or an upper-class citizen. Our Man is also seen to wear a wedding ring. He is also all alone in the Indian Ocean, and later as the film progresses, Our Man writes a letter, which was the Our Man’s voiceover at the very beginning of the film. It is hinted that he is currently divorced and could’ve have possibly cheated on his family. Clues that support this is that in the letter he confesses by saying he is sorry and asks for forgiveness, and hoping that the letter will one day be reached to his loved one.
Throughout this film Our Man is can be always in some unfortunate predicament.

But even though Our Man is stricken with bad luck throughout this film, he always finds a way stays calm and always tries to fix the situation as best as he can. These types of examples can be shown throughout the whole film. The first example of this is when a shipping container collides with his ship. He comes up with a way to get his yacht away from the container away as it leaks running shoes into the ocean. Another example is when Our Man is not pleased when he discovers that his radio is waterlogged and his communications gear compromised. He tries to fix it when he climbs the mast to repair an antenna lead. But he sees storm is heading his way. He has no choice but to sail into the storm which tosses him and his boat around. His body is battered by the wind and the water, but through all of that he emerges from that horrible mess with only a cut on his forehead. Additionally, despite the feelings of puzzlement about his bad luck, Our Man has the foresight to realize that he will have to leave his beloved Virginia Jean and take refuge in a rescue craft. He gathers his meager supply of canned food, a large container of fresh water, and a few other odds and ends. He is smart enough to know that his only hope for survival is to use his sextant and nautical maps to get to a shipping lane where he can signal for help. Though his analysis and composure of the situation is outstanding, Our Man has

flaws, he is still naïve and inexperienced in this film. He planned to travel alone in the Indian Ocean. But with the sun burning his skin, his water rations compromised, and sharks circling beneath his precarious raft, Our Man grows increasingly distressed and screams out a four-letter word in anger at his plight. His distress at having his flares ignored by passing container ships is a telling that he has truly given up on everything is ready to succumb to defeat.
Though his analysis and composure of the situation is outstanding, Our Man has flaws, he is naïve and inexperienced in this film. He planned to travel alone in the Indian Ocean. Our Man is always thinking about the best will come for him. But not once, a single good moment occurred for him, he cheated death serval times, which that still didn’t help Our Man out in the long run. His yacht had sank, two containers ships had passed him up, his food supply was extremely low, and his last resort of the rescue craft was burned and destroyed.