Product Description

DEEP WATER is the stunning true story of the fateful voyage of Donald Crowhurst, an amateur yachtsman who enters the most daring nautical challenge ever – the very first solo, non-stop, round-the-world boat race.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9336 in DVD
• Brand: WELLSPRING/GENIUS
• Released on: 2007-12-18
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
• Formats: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: 1.00 pounds
• Running time: 93 minutes

Customer Reviews

Modern-day greek Tragedy
This is a beautiful and completely compelling film; the story of the last voyage of Donald Crowhurst, a completely batty amateur of the finest British tradition, a man with a young family and a struggling business who becomes inexplicably fixated on an utterly forlorn quest to win the 1968 Sunday Times solo, non-stop round-the-world-yacht race.

Archive footage reveals that from the earliest stage Crowhurst, a tubby, cardigan-wearing thirty-seven-year-old inventor, had no idea what he was taking on (but at least he was dressed for it: in a tie and slacks as he set off on the race!), what he was doing, or how his plan had a hope of success, yet bizarrely he was financed, filmed, represented by people who ought to have known better, and most strangely of all allowed, even out of his garden shed, by his wife, a woman revealed by the documentary to be otherwise a sober, sensible, reflective and thoughful woman. One of many tragedies catalogued was that no-one had the wherewithal or gumption to tell this poor chap - in no sense one of life's winners, and certainly not the sort to be up for a round-the-world solo yacht journey - not to be such a blazing fool.

Yet, like a Greek tragedy, plot developments thereafter pile inevitably on, compelling the poor man on when even he had twigged it was sheer madness: the oppressive terms of his financing, residual pride, his own ill-considered decisions to misreport his positions and, in the final strait, the sheer bad luck to have a couple of his competitors unexpectedly sink or go postal on him when all he needed them to do was simply complete the course ahead of him and allow him to finish in quiet, plucky British ignominy. Were it not for any of these, Donald Crowhurst might still have his unspectacular life, and still be running a failing electronics business, to this day.

But as it is, events conspired to a different course, and Crowhurst's elegaic and articulate descent into the abyss is capitvatingly rendered in this film, from logs, recordings and films he made en route, and in which he is portrayed without apparent exaggeration as a tragic hero, doomed by the course of this actions and the irresistable currents of human and physical nature, to a sad end.

Thoroughly recommended.

Olly Buxton

an ordinary anti-hero
In 1968 the Sunday Times of London sponsored a race to see who could circumnavigate the globe --solo and without stopping. Prizes were offered for the one who finished first and the one who finished fastest. Nine sailors entered the race, but this documentary film focuses on three contestants in particular-- Robin Knox-Johnston, who finished first by averaging 92 miles a day for 312 days (28,704 miles) and who appears in the film; the Frenchman Bernard Moitessier, who turned around just before finishing, forsaking fame and fortune for the isolation of the sea, and sailed an additional 10,000 miles to Tahiti (his book The Long Way tells his story); and then the amateur sailor and eccentric Donald Crowhurst who never should have entered the race under any circumstances. His bizarre story forms the real narrative of this film. It's difficult to say more without spoiling this film, but you can be sure that it's more of an exploration of the deep waters of the human psyche than an adventure tale. Interviews with family members and friends; archival film footage; news reels; diaries, audio tapes, 16mm film and ship logs by the sailors; and still photos lend authenticity to the pathos of this deeply human story. Two of the film's producers were John Smithson and Paul Trijbits who made Touching the Void.

Not for fans of the book
If you're a fan of Tomalin and Hall's The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst be aware that this documentary is a different sea tale altogether. Tomalin and Hall's book is a psychological portrait of a small town intellectual desperate for recognition and success. Deep Water, on the other hand, emphasizes Crowhurst's economic plight portraying him more flatteringly as a kind of dreamy anti-hero. Readers of the Tomalin book will like the tidbits of old film footage but may find Crowhurst's tale constrained by the nature of the film medium and the editorial accommodations likely made for family members who are interviewed throughout.