I titled a January 2013 post....All Is Lost....Or Is It. In October of that year Robert Redford....at 77 years of age....was the only character in the film....All Is Lost. Alone on his sailboat in the Indian Ocean....it sustains damage....and eventually sinks. The cinematography is great....especially considering that most of the film....(all the scenes were ocean scenes).....considering that most of them were filmed in a tank that was made for the making of Titanic.
I might not have been ten years old when I saw for the first time....1957's....Abandon Ship....that starred Tyrone Power as the officer in charge of a lifeboat built for 9 that had about 26 people either in it or hanging onto the side. The film is gripping. Even by today's outrageous standards it is gripping. The lifeboat will supposedly sink if some of the people are not jettisoned. Wear a sweater if you watch the film....(it's free on your computer)....wear a sweater because you will feel that you are in the boat.
Tyrone Power's best acting was at the end of his life....Abandon Ship in 1957....and Witness For The Prosecution also that year. After....Witness....Power signed on and began filming Solomon And Sheba in Spain. This was not going to be one of his best films. He was over halfway finished with filming when in a sword fight scene with Adonijah....(I told you that this wasn't a good film)....Tyrone Power collapsed....and died a few days later of a heart attack.
The essence of the Abandon Ship film is....some must die....that others might be saved.....and it's not the women and the weak who are kept in the boat....for they were no help keeping the boat afloat.....it was the strongest that were chosen to be saved. What struck me while watching the film again recently....was the similarity to the heated and ugly debate over pandemic restrictions and vaccinations. Tyrone Power's character represents the anti-vaccine side....'let many die so that we can quickly get back to normal in our lives.' We in America were asked....this in retrospect....to sacrifice as it turned out for two or three years of our lives to help others. We on our side refused. Personal freedom....once a blessing....has become our god. Would this pandemic have played out as it did in the early 1980s? I'm not referring to politics here....but the American character. We who used to occupy the high ground on ethics....moved on to greener pastures....golf carts and pleasure craft. We can see this also in our indifference to what is going on in the Ukraine. "Live as people who are free not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor." (1 Peter 2:16)
That January 2013 post....All Is Lost....Or Is It....ended with these words.
We have disasters ahead and we may as well know it beforehand. Fill in the blanks on what they might be. (the pandemic would be one) God's hand had departed from us long before we even heard the name Barack Hussein Obama. If His will is to awaken us one more time it will not be within a political party but over all the land and upon all those who suddenly see what we have done....and who we have become....a people who have forsaken their God. Should God open our eyes and revive us there is no power on earth that can stop it. Those on the outside will utterly abhor what they see happening. This is our hope. It has always been our hope. Apparently we have to reach bottom to see this...and are not there yet? May God have mercy upon us once again and do so entirely for His glory!
