Two Years at Sea (2011) User Reviews (4)

There will be Beard

[tieman64 · 29 November 2013]

The first feature-length film by experimental filmmaker Ben Rivers, "Two Years At Sea" watches as a former sailor, Jake Williams, lives a solitary life in the Scottish wilderness. Devoid of dialogue, we watch as Jake spends his days washing, eating, cooking, fishing and so forth. Occasionally Jake constructs simple tools with bits of industrial refuse.

Jake Williams was the subject of another Ben Rivers film, 2006's "This is My Land". Both films are shot in black and white (with antique cameras), both salivate over a nature that is as beautiful as it is inhospitable, and both are slow and languid, Rivers submerging his audience in the rhythms of Jake's way of life.

Most of Rivers' films have been about outsiders and the socially marginalised. Like Williams, Rivers is himself somewhat self-reliant, going out of his way to eke out a career "beyond society" and outside of convectional industries. Whilst "Two Years At Sea" does not intend this, its grim portrayal of life off-the-grid sets up several false assumptions; self-sufficiency or "back to nature" lifestyles need not be anti-social, anti-communal, low-tech or pre-civilisational.

6/10 – Occasionally powerful, "Two Years At Sea" is mostly ponderous and slight. Worth one viewing.

2 years somewhere

[juantheroux · 2/10 · 3 June 2023]

At sea only in the sense that the sole actor seems without purpose.

It's really about a hoarder choosing to live alone in the wild.

Black and white grainy film, low light, out of focus close ups.

I kept wondering what his set-up was. Does he have electricity?

Yes - there's a record player working. Does he have hot water?

Yes, he takes a shower, though he has no soap. What's in that huge house? A lot of junk mostly. Is he a hoarder? What does he eat? Who knows. Once he makes a sort of soup outdoors,.

Where does he go on his walks? Nowhere, except to find a place to sleep. He drives his jeep somewhere, so he must have access to gas. He builds a kind of boat, at least something that floats, where he can maybe meditate and of course sleep.

There's a black cat in the house but the man doesn't interact with it.

He never talks, not even to himself.

At the end, we still know nothing about the man as we watch his face slowly disappear from the screen.

2 stars? Well, there are a few nice shots of nature and of his beard.

Terrible, terrible, terrible

[darren-153-890810 · 3/10 · 20 May 2012]

There's no point clicking the spoiler button because there literally is no plot, no narrative, nothing.

I get the concept, guy lives live as a hermit, he does mundane things like walk through the beautiful countryside and falls asleep loads. He doesn't need material things, he's quite content this way.

Every now and then you see old photographs of his family which makes you wonder what actually happened to them. There's no clue at all. All I can think is this is the life he has chosen, or maybe he does see them but we don't see that. Either way, who really cares.

Its shot in black n white with the only dialogue being socks.

Some of the music is OK

Quite simply one of the dullest films ever made

Tedium

[Jamzo · 3/10 · 5 June 2012]

Oh Lord, this is simply one of the dullest films I've seen in a long time. I have to advise that this contains a spoiler - that's right - there's no plot anyway. Long shots where nothing happens. Some still photos hinting at a life beforehand. A scene where we watch him sitting on his inflatable and then for fully five minutes watch as it drifts a few metres back to shore. And the long long slow finish.... Tedium beyond belief. I went as I believed in a certain review in The Guardian that suggested there was something in here which was thought provoking - "Quietly enigmatic, valuable work." Enigmatic - well yes, if you call being wilfully opaque, enigmatic. But valuable? I disagree.