After reading over 200 reviews of "Wind", most of which praise it to the stars and rave and rave on, there is little I can add to such comments as "stirs the soul", "takes your breath away", "one of the best movies of all time", "should be on the shelf of every family with children", and "should be required viewing for young people and anyone bored with life". This film, one of the best examples of director Carroll Ballard's magic, will knock your socks off and blow you away with its excitement but realism (you will hear and feel the boats groaning and keening with the wind stresses!), and GREAT MESSAGES - It is about losing everything, and winning it all back again through individual and team angst and sheer will (I have shown parts of it to my science students not just for the physics of sailing, but for these timeless messages). Sailor or not, no matter how many times you watch it, it leaves you glowing for hours.

I have watched the movie "Wind" 25x. It is the only movie over 2 hours I have ever sat through without saying a single word. I started sailing 40 years ago at 6 years old. "Wind" captures the grace and beauty of sailing , the traditions in the "America Cup", the serious competitive nature of professional sailors. Matthew Modine & Jennifer Grey had a fun chemistry, evident intelligence which came through in their acting, Rebecca Miller was a lovable flake as the heiress. I can't say enough good things about this movie and wish more had seen it. I don't know if re-releasing it now would make it do better at the box office. Sadly, Francis Ford Coppola's contributions seem barely known. The recreation of the small margins then defined victory vs defeat were portrayed with great accuracy to the original race.

Or so says Abigail Weld (played by Rebecca Miller) at about the mid-point of Wind. Personally, I hadn't thought about it much either way. But I'm also not sure what director Carroll Ballard's own views on the subject are, or if he was at all successful in getting them on film. He certainly makes the sailboats into quite a brilliant on-screen spectacle, but there's a lack of personal feeling here. A missing piece to the overall picture. There's certainly a huge emphasis on human-to-human drama that Ballard's four other features lack. Coming from the director who, by this point, had made a pair of highly personal films where the two main themes were isolation and loneliness, I somehow found that aspect to be conspicuously lacking from Wind.The film opens underwater, looking up into the sun and a man floating on the surface. Will Parker (Matthew Modine) winds his way through the cove as Kate Bass (Jennifer Grey) looks on. It feels almost like a scene out of The Black Stallion. He comes to shore, and they talk about what could or may happen in his future. Matthew Modine is a good actor, and he tends to play normal, everyday people. He's likable, sure he is. I doubt that anyone truly hates Modine as an actor. But the character of Will Parker doesn't have a whole lot of deep internal conflict. Sure, he has decisions to make - but nothing resembling the dark corners of the soul in a character like Tyler from Never Cry Wolf. Actually, most of the other performances are quite good, if a bit underdeveloped. Stellan Skarsgård, in particular, is enjoyable to watch.There's lots to enjoy about Wind - if you're not looking for anything complicated. From a scriptwriting standpoint, a central theme is either missing, or maybe a little confused. Events and conversations seem to repeat themselves in an attempt to overfill in the blanks. But here's the problem - for all intents and purposes, the film doesn't really begin until 48 minutes in. When the scene shifts to six months later in the Nevada desert, it quickly becomes clear that anything which happened previously was merely a set-up for the rest of the film. In fact, the ensuing scenes are of all far higher caliber than those preceding them. A certain parallel comes up between the recapture of the America's Cup and the subplot of Will trying to get back together with Kate. Not exactly the most original bit of scripting ever.So what really makes Wind worth the watch? The real star of the film - its cinematography. This is truly a great-looking film. John Toll makes a lot of what might otherwise be dull technical work into a stunning visual display. Many scenes stand out beyond his obviously brilliant work in the sailing sequences. The part where Kate tests a sail out in the desert is absolutely breathtaking. Just like Carroll Ballard's other films, the most visually stunning photography is in the quiet moments. But since Wind runs a little short on those, the camera-work doesn't find much time to wander. The music, on the other hand (composed by Basil Poledouris) is really nothing special. He does everything well but nothing new. This is not a movie you go to for its soundtrack. It must be said that the lack of overall cohesion in this film is disappointing. It is a very slight story, not possessing of any real meat or meaning. The actors have neither the quality of dialogue nor the specific motivation to live up to John Toll's cinematography.I've read interviews where Carroll Ballard talked about his relative unease with the drama between characters in this film, how it didn't flow as well as expected. And I sympathize with that. But at the end of it all - who really cares about the America's Cup anyhow? Not the average film-goer, apparently. And, unfortunately, not me either.

As a long-time sailor and racer, I admit that most consider a sailboat race like watching the grass grow, but they've done a great job of producing exciting racing scenes, while having so few technical inaccuracies that the most avid of us keep rewinding to review and debate. Take good note of the early dinghy racing scenes. I don't believe they used any trick photography: things really can happen that fast.Of course, there's a larger set of stories, the classic love stories: between men and women, of sailing, of ideas, of ideals; the rough retelling of the Dennis Connor story (though I place Robertson/Weld as Connor, not Modine/Parker); an accurate representation of the "Old Boys'" network that *is* big-money yacht racing --I've met "Abigail Weld" many times; and the "absurdity" of a desert-based effort winning the Cup, a nod to the Melges' campaign.The photography is astounding, the character development (the reason for the film's length) good, and the music complimented everything admirably.That it's "about" sailing will turn many off, but those of us with a love of the sea and sailing hold this as a classic to be cherished.