Click on FULL SCREEN and enjoy!
This is a cautionary tale. By the time this movie was made, Paul Eling Johnson had become a bit of a sad sack who still lived on his boat alone, had nobody and no-one and his boat was in a barely floating condition, and he didn't sail anymore. He had found an accepting and non-judgemental community who treated him lovingly and with respect, despite his addiction and often wandering about in an inebriated state. A story of freedom bounded by alcohol and poverty. As the filmmakers stated, "This film is a contemplation about his choices after a lifetime of freedom before he embarked on his final journey of no return."
You know, when you go to youtube.com's front page to search for something and you see a whole list of their latest "suggestions" which you normally ignore and move on from?
This morning I was - again! - facing their latest "suggestion" of "The Sailor | Full Movie - What is the price of freedom? Paul Johnson sailed the world all his life. He loved, drank, and lived foolish, never truly living on land. Now he is turning eighty. What is at the end of such a journey? Is there loneliness?", uploaded as recently as Oct 18, 2022.
I had watched it before but it is so compelling that I watched it again, especially on this quiet morning which lends itself to introspection. And introspective it is! Even though none of us live on a boat, we are all ageing, no longer relevant and dissolving as I type this and you read it.
It is a brutally honest movie about a man who led a fascinating life. A man who designed, built and sold yachts. Who became rich at some point and who led it all go. And who is now looking back on his life.
Take your time to watch it. It is not your ordinary story of wild storms and sailing adventures. It is more like a confession, a search for the meaning of life. This documentary tries to shed a light on this question.
SPOILER ALERT: the scene at the end of the movie where the mooring line is tossed in the water suggests that he simply sailed off one day and was never heard from again. Instead, Paul Erling Johnson, born in England in 1938 and a world-renowned sailor and builder of boats, never left his mooring and lived for another three years after this movie was released. He died aboard his boat on June 28, 2021, aged 83.
He didn't seem to have remorse for the way he chose to live his life. I can only hope that when I am a few years from my end, I feel the same.
P.S. And here's the documentary of the making of the movie:
