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3 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
., 17 June 2009
10/10
Author: kipper112 from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Morning Light came out in theaters at the end of 2008, only to meet sub-par reviews. The reviews seemed to have common themes critiquing the chosen sailors ethnicities, economic backgrounds, 'good looks', and the movie's lack of interpersonal conflicts that are to be expected in a cookie cutter reality-TV type movie. However, all of these statements seem to be based on the given persons mindset going into the movie. If you are looking for a show or movie with a range of personal backgrounds and a fair bit of drama, The Bad Girls Club or the vast majority of MTV shows currently airing would be a far superior choice to Morning Light. Morning Light is the documentary of 15 sailors, all between the ages of 18 and 22, as they train for, and embark on their first major ocean race. There has been some skepticism as to how the crew members were cast, but each and every one of those kids were chosen solely based upon their sailing ability in order for the kids to have the best, and safest, shot possible at completing, and doing well, in the transpac. A small bit was based upon who could act normal in front of a camera, but that was to avoid the interpersonal drama often associated with such movies. This is a very fun, very real look at ocean racing and although it can be enjoyed by all, people with a bit of past sailing knowledge are the ones who will really enjoy, and get the most out of, this movie.

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Remarkable Movie, 19 December 2009
9/10
Author: zalaram from United States

This movie is not for everybody, clearly, as judging from the previous comment! Let's start out by first mentioning that this movie is a sailing movie first and fore most, and it is a documentary. Those of you looking for Real Worldesque drama look elsewhere. Those of you looking for a well made documentary that captures the essence of a sport, look no further than Morning Light.

The movie tells the tale of a contest set up by the late Roy Disney. Disney is a life long sailor, and having devoted his life to the sport of sailing, as well as bringing sailing to the youth, he came up with a way to bring a rich mans sport to the future of the sport, young college sailors. Roy Disney's ambitious goal is played out beautifully throughout the movie, and with the Walt Disney $$$ backing it, they have successfully made one of the best looking documentary's ever. Really the camera work was fairly remarkable. Non-sailors will not be able to understand the total lack of space aboard a Transpac vessel, and the shots that those camera workers got were remarkable.

The greatest testimony I can give for this movie was when we showed it at the Yacht Club that I work at. We had a rainy day and were running out of ideas to keep the children at bay, but had this movie unopened in the office. The kids were really taken by it, and they learned that all the skills they were honing on the water in smaller boats can be translated directly to the larger ocean vessels. While sailing has for the most part been left to the "rich white men" (as the previous commenter put it) the sport has understood that and has made an elaborate effort to bring sailing to everyone. As the director at the largest sailing school in the midwest, I must say that movies like this are exactly what the sport needs. With gas prices at record highs and only going up, why wouldn't sailing be a popular sport in the future? Hopefully documentary's like Morning Light will continue to be made even after Roy Disney's passing. Rest in Peace sir!

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0 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Top Student Sailors selected for Difficult Transpac Ocean Race, 17 October 2009
8/10
Author: lynde-1 from Canada

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. It is a documentary movie about a group of young sailors who are brought together by a most benevolent and charitable Roy Disney, his beautiful and creative wife and their crack squad of sailing coaches. Ultimately, thirty elite sailors have to be pared down to the fourteen who will race the boat "Morning Light" in the difficult Transpac Ocean Race. The photography is gorgeous. The reasons the coaches give for choosing the lucky sailors who eventually take part in this challenging endeavour are as interesting as the hurdles which befell the young sailors along their journey such as safety, night sailing, mechanical repair and sheer endurance. This movie is a delight and is real life as opposed to a hokey drama. Well done!

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13 out of 41 people found the following review useful:
The Slip and Slide of Cinema, 20 October 2008
2/10
Author: laraemeadows from United States

What happens if you put fifteen young, good looking adults in the same place, and make them compete to join a team that will participate in one of the most elite races in sailing? As it turns out, nothing but sailing in the documentary Morning Light.

Roy Disney wanted to get young sailors in the TransPac race so he bought the Morning Light, and set off to get the best to man it. Fifteen mostly obscenely rich, mostly white, all good looking, young sailors, Chris Branning, Grahm Brant-Zawadzki, Chris Clark, Charlie Enright, Jesse Fielding, Robbie Kane, Steve Manson Chris Schubert, Kate Theisen, Mark Towill, Genny Tulloch, Pieter van Os, Chris Welsh, Kit Will and Jeremy Wilmont are chosen to vie for eleven spots on the Morning Light. They go sailing, talk about sailing and look at sail boats.

A reasonable person would venture a guess that a bunch of young virile men in a competitive situation trapped in a small space with a couple of women might bring some sexual tension. It would be expected that directly competing to participate in one of the most elite races in sailing, the TransPac, would cause outbursts or the occasional jockeying for attention or recognition. The powerful part of competitive reality TV…er movies… is the strong emotional connection between the people on the screen.

Watching Morning Light is like trying to swim on a slip and slide. While it is wet and you can move across it swiftly on your stomach, you can't drown in the story because the water is only there to lube you up. Nothing that would make the audience submerge into the depths of the people or circumstances even grace the screen.

Morning Light has the emotional depth of a sociopath. We might as well be watching, "How to sail: A Step by Step Guide for the Rich and Moronic," because it offers equal levels of emotional expressiveness. They did not make me wonder or care about who would be selected to make the team, if they won the race or how they got along. Instead of asking myself questions of wonder during the movie, I often asked myself, "Who cares?" On the plus side, I do know far more about sailing than I ever did before, maybe enough to encourage me to buy a sail boat – if I could afford one. Until then, I hope Disney leaves Morning Light out at sea.

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