Deep Water Documentary

    The film Deep Water tells the true story of Donald Crowhurst, a British man with no sailing experience, who enters a nonstop boat race around the world in 1968. The documentary mainly utilizes pathos to develop a sorrowful viewpoint regarding Crowhurst's mindset in competing in the race as well as how he "finishes" the race.

1.)  The scene that really got to me was when Crowhurst started faking his position in the race to the British media in order to give them hope that he was overcoming the odds against him when in reality he wasn't. This ended up crushing him because he created a false expectation for himself which ultimately drove him into insanity. This scene made me angry and sad because he started to lose his mind obsessing over the race and trying to cheat his way out and sad because he had a family at home and had completely disregarded them in order to try and prove that he could do the extreme. Essentially he was giving everyone (including himself) false, dangerous hope. It was known from the beginning that Crowhurst's boat wasn't capable of taking on the dangerous waters beyond the Atlantic yet he decided to put every ounce of effort into digging himself into a hole of something he wasn't, which lead to his death.

2.) The scene that caught me off guard was when Crowhurst decided to not return to Britain and instead ended his own life at sea. When I started the film I was expecting a Hollywood ending where Crowhurst won the race/became a hero but the truth was the exact opposite. He had convinced the British media through telegrams that he had made it all the way around the world when in reality he camped out in the Atlantic the whole time and made up fake location entries. If he returned home it would've been obvious he faked everything but I didn't expect him to end his life rather than come clean and admit to the press that he lied. He made a very extreme decision as a result of the guilt he felt from lying and putting himself in jeopardy.

3.) After watching the film, I constantly wondered how Crowhurst was even allowed to race because every other man in the competition was a skilled sailor who had plenty of experience. Crowhurst got funding from a businessman to enter but it still doesn't make sense to me that the committee running the race would allow someone who had almost zero sailing experience and a faulty boat to try to sail all the way across the world. The documentary left me feeling surprised and a little angry. Crowhurst had a million opportunities to better his life and create better relationships with his family but instead he decided to embark on a journey that he knew was impossible in the end. He took a huge leap into the highest level of something he obviously wasn't anywhere near ready for yet.

4.) It is important not to use research in summaries because bias could be created unintentionally. Everybody who writes something on a film has a certain viewpoint on what they watched and their published work could be biased. Taking other people's accounts could end up creating that same bias in your summary. Also, researching could bring up certain facts on the story that intentionally weren't included in the documentary which would also skew your summary.