Conference bookie::movies

149.0. "Wind" by 12035::RIVERS (may this vale be my silver lining.) Thu Apr 22 1993 13:34

    Wind stars Matthew Modine, Jennifer Grey, a rather weird Cliff
    Robertson (Mr. AT&T himself), and a bunch of lesser and un-knowns.
    
    It's about yachting.  Yeah, yachting.   
    
    Now, if you don't like sailing, don't like the water and don't give a
    hoot about yatching, then this probably won't be a movie for you
    (unless you *really* have a thing for any of the stars, in which case
    you might find something interesting to watch).
    
    I like sailboats, hence the appeal of the movie for me. 
    
    The plot is fairly simple.  Boy and girl, both from the Newport, RI
    area, are both avid and exemplary sailors.  Boy crews on the big racing
    yachts of some very blue blood yacht club (of course, what racing yacht
    is financed by non-blue bloods?  Ah, but watch the movie....).  Girl
    has umpity ump mastery of aerodymamics, wants to go to school and do
    that sort of thing.  Boy wants to captain racing yacht.  Boy and girl
    have to reach some sort of compromise when boy is finally offered
    job on one of the larger yacht (there's this cool little racing bit on
    two man boats that really fly...one of the Olympic class
    yachts, but I digress).  She wants to go to school, he wants her to
    stay, he says, Be My Tactician (the person who stands behind the
    captain and offers suggestions during a race), they flip coin.  Girl
    decides to stay behind, with a "This better work or...."
    
    It doesn't.  Girl is very apt tactician, but yacht racing, is for
    BOYS, silly and yacht club big wigs won't hear of a GIRL on a boat. 
    Boy is unhappy about this, but to soothe his hurts, he's offered
    important position (tactician, I think) on one of the big 12 meter
    boats (America Cup yachts).  Breakup scene, our lovers part ways, she
    goes off to school and wherever and he goes on to race in the America's
    Cup with Cliff Robertson at the helm.  Cliff, unfortunately, is weird,
    and he loses the final, letting those pesky Aussies take home our
    beloved trophy.  Blame is put on Boy's shoulders, though, even though
    it isn't his fault.  Great shame (we are led to believe) falls across
    the entire face of Rhode Island, America and certainly, our hero.
    
    Years pass.  Cliff Robertson's character is even weirder.  Girl has
    moved out to Nevada and is working in teeny tiny little airport making
    weird plans with a weird German (?) boyfriend.  Boy decides of visit
    Girl after All These Years and make up.  Ah, but she has this new
    boyfriend.  No problem, a bit of vying male tenseness, we all get along
    and out of this, in the middle of a salt flat, Boy decides that it's
    time to redeem himself, American yachting and general American honor
    by, dammit, building his OWN yacht and entering the America's Cup
    Challenge.  Who's going to built this?  Why himself, Girl and Girl's
    new boyfriend.  (not only can they sail, they can design and build
    yachts, too.  Wow.  I was very impressed).  Only building racing yachts
    takes oodles of money.  
    
    [side note:  I think Ted Turner or Dennis Conner was asked something
    like "So, how much money does it take to get into yachting?" and the
    reply was, "If you have to ask how much, you don't have enough."  I
    believe it....]
    
    Where will our heroes get the financing?  Can Boy and Weird New
    Boyfriend get along enough to design a yacht?  Will we get enough
    wind/Indian/Mysticism?  Will Girl and Boy get back together?  Will they
    make the challenge?  Will they win?  Can America be restored to the
    great country it was before [insert look of shame] They Lost the Cup??
    
    Watch the movie.  :)
    
    The plot takes a lot of suspension of disbelief, needless to say. 
    Not a whole heck of a lot to recommend as far as characters being
    particularly interesting goes (I liked the eccentric New Boyfriend). 
    You're asked to believe a lot of things happened without anyone showing
    it to you.  But, the sailing scenes are really cool.  They even look
    exciting.  The boats are sharp.  The action (when it happens) is fast
    paced.  Oodles of lovely cinematography (the director, I think, is
    Carroll Ballard, the guy who brought us the lovely but boring Black
    Stallion).  Jennifer Grey looks good no matter what she wears.  Matthew
    Modine is All American Gosh Darn Good Lookin'.  And again, the sailing
    scenes are neat.
    
    **.75 out of ****  (*.75 due to sailing scenes)
    
    
    kim

    Kim -
    
    I loved the movie, too, if only for Mr. Modine.
    
    Great review. Makes me want to rent it and see it again.
    
    Catherine
    

    Not to be confused with ...
    
                               The  Wind
    
    US 1927 MGM
    
    Lillian Gish, Lars Hanson, Montagu Love, Dorothy Cummings.
    
    A sheltered Virginian girl goes to live on the rough and windy Texas
    prairie, marries a man she dosn't love and kills a would-be rapist.
    
    'So penetrating is the atmosphere that one can almost feel the wind
    itself and taste the endless dust.'
    
    'Unrelieved by the ghost of a smile...but its relentlessness is
    gripping...a fine and dignified achievement.'
    
    Bucko...