''Wind'' is a 1992 film directed by Carroll Ballard and starring

Matthew Modine Matthew Avery Modine (born March 22, 1959) is an American actor and filmmaker, who rose to prominence through his role as U.S. Marine Private/Sergeant J.T. "Joker" Davis in ''Full Metal Jacket''. His other film roles include the title character ...

Jennifer Grey Jennifer Grey (born March 26, 1960) is an American actress. She made her acting debut with the film ''Reckless'' (1984), and had her breakthrough with the teen comedy film '' Ferris Bueller's Day Off'' (1986). She subsequently earned worldwide ...

and

Cliff Robertson Clifford Parker Robertson III (September 9, 1923 – September 10, 2011) was an American actor whose career in film and television spanned over six decades. Robertson portrayed a young John F. Kennedy in the 1963 film '' PT 109'', and won the 19 ...

Plot

The film is centered on the America's Cup series of

yacht A yacht is a sailing or power vessel used for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a , as opposed to a , such a pleasu ...

ing races and uses them as a backdrop for both an action/adventure and a romantic storyline.

Cup events depicted in the film

A host of events that occurred in the

1987 America's Cup The 1987 America's Cup was the twenty-sixth challenge for the America's Cup. The American challenger ''Stars & Stripes 87'', sailed by Dennis Conner, beat the Australian defender ''Kookaburra III'', sailed by Iain Murray, in a four-race sweep ...

held off Fremantle Australia were translated into film and presented as events occurring to the characters in the movie, including the following: * Will Parker striking the buoy while rounding the final mark was taken from Chris Dickson's final race against Stars & Stripes 87 in the Louis Vuitton Cup Finals.

Kiwi Magic ''New Zealand (KZ 7)'' "Kiwi Magic" was the America's Cup challenge boat sailed by Chris Dickson in the Louis Vuitton Cup Challenger series held in Gage Roads off Fremantle, Australia during the summer months of 1986 through 1987. She was Ne ...

was just six seconds back of Dennis Conner's boat when Dickson made his only major mistake of the summer, striking the buoy while rounding the final mark. He was obliged to re-round, ending all hope of catching Stars & Stripes 87. * Jack Neville spearing the "Whomper" was taken from the Defender Semifinals, when Australia IV introduced a new sail they called the 'gennaker', an enormous asymmetrical hybrid that pulled Australia IV even with the leading Kookaburra II. As the Bond team came up, Peter Gilmour luffed hard, spearing Australia IV's gennaker and splitting it in two. * The broken mast of the ''Platypus'' occurred to ''Challenge France'' in the middle of the third and final challenger rounds robins. ''Challenge France'' was unable to continue in the regatta. * The boat collision occurred in the Defender series, when ''Australia IV'' struck Peter Gilmour's ''Kookaburra II''. * The protests and media briefings occurred multiple times throughout the regatta, and at times were quite contentious. *Stellan Skarsgård's character is based on

Burt Rutan Elbert Leander "Burt" Rutan (; born June 17, 1943) is a retired American aerospace engineer and entrepreneur noted for his originality in designing light, strong, unusual-looking, and energy-efficient air and space craft. He designed the recor ...

, who constructed a wing sail for Dennis Conner's 1988 catamaran “Stars & Stripes”.

Cast

as Will Parker *

as Kate Bass *

as Morgan Weld *

Jack Thompson Jack Thompson may refer to: Sports * Jack Thompson (footballer, born 1892) (1892–1969), English footballer who played for Sheffield United and Bristol City * Jack Thompson (1920s footballer), English footballer who played for Aston Villa and Brig ...

as Jack Neville *

Stellan Skarsgård Stellan Skarsgård (, ; born 13 June 1951) is a Swedish actor. He is known for his collaborations with director Lars von Trier appearing in ''Breaking the Waves'' (1996), ''Dancer in the Dark'' (2000), '' Dogville'' (2007), ''Melancholia'' (201 ...

as Joe Heiser *

Rebecca Miller Rebecca Augusta Miller, Lady Day-Lewis (born September 15, 1962) is an American filmmaker and novelist. She is known for her films ''Angela'', '' Personal Velocity: Three Portraits'', '' The Ballad of Jack and Rose'', ''The Private Lives of Pipp ...

as Abigail Weld *

Ned Vaughn Ned Vaughn (born November 20, 1964) is an American film and television actor who served as vice president of the Screen Actors Guild prior to becoming the founding executive vice president of SAG-AFTRA. He resigned that position on 21 August 201 ...

as Charley Moore

Production

The film was inspired by the

New York Yacht Club The New York Yacht Club (NYYC) is a private social club and yacht club based in New York City and Newport, Rhode Island. It was founded in 1844 by nine prominent sportsmen. The members have contributed to the sport of yachting and yacht design. ...

's loss of the 1983 America's Cup through the events of the

. Several of the

12-metre class The 12 Metre class is a rating class for racing sailboats that are designed to the International rule. It enables fair competition between boats that rate in the class whilst retaining the freedom to experiment with the details of their designs. ...

yachts that participated in Cup races were used in the movie. "Wind" contains some of the best, most realistic, on deck big-boat sailing sequences ever portrayed. America's Cup skipper Peter Gilmour, whose aggressive sailing during the 1987 defender selection series earned himself a place on the defender boat for the America's Cup, was "Sailing Master" for the film. He was on board for all of the sailing sequences, controlled the boat while they were flying the "Whomper", and can be seen in many of the boat scenes, surreptitiously laying a hand on the opposite wheel. Lisa Blackaller, daughter of America's Cup skipper

Tom Blackaller Thomas David Blackaller, Jr. (January 6, 1940 – September 7, 1989) was a world-champion American yachtsman, America's Cup helmsman, sailmaker, and racecar competitor. He was a two-time world champion in the Star class keelboat, a world champio ...

, acted as sailing double for Jennifer Grey for the small boat races in the

International 14 The International 14 is a British racing sailboat, crewed by two sailors. The class was established in 1928. The boat is a developmental sailing class and so the design rules and the boats themselves have changed dramatically over time to keep ...

class at Newport. ''American Eagle'' (US 21), the red 12 Meter ocean endurance champion sailed to fame by Ted Turner in the mid-seventies, was used as the trial horse sailed by Will Parker in preparation for the America's Cup. The boat had been a finalist in the 1964 Defender selection series but lost the selection to ''Constellation''. The 12-meter yachts depicting the America's Cup races were the more modern boats from the America II Syndicate, '' America II'' (US 42) and '' America II'' (US 46). The boat repainted as ''Boomerang'' and later as ''Platypus'' was depicted by US 42, and ''Radiance'' and then later ''Geronimo'' were depicted by US 46. US 46 had been sailed by John Kolius in the 1987 Louis Vuitton Challenger Selection Cup races. Many of the film's port scenes were filmed on location in and around

Newport, Rhode Island Newport is an American seaside city on Aquidneck Island in Newport County, Rhode Island. It is located in Narragansett Bay, approximately southeast of Providence, south of Fall River, Massachusetts, south of Boston, and northeast of New Yor ...

, with the sailing scenes of the International 14's competition and the America's Cup races filmed off

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. Parts of the film were also shot in

Green River Green River may refer to: Rivers Canada * Green River (British Columbia), a tributary of the Lillooet River *Green River, a tributary of the Saint John River, also known by its French name of Rivière Verte *Green River (Ontario), a tributary of ...

Wendover Wendover is a market town and civil parish at the foot of the Chiltern Hills in Buckinghamshire, England. It is situated at the point where the main road across the Chilterns between London and Aylesbury intersects with the once important road a ...

, and the

Bonneville Salt Flats The Bonneville Salt Flats are a densely packed salt pan in Tooele County in northwestern Utah. A remnant of the Pleistocene Lake Bonneville, it is the largest of many salt flats west of the Great Salt Lake. It is public land managed by the Bur ...

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

. Shooting took twelve weeks, beginning on 25 February 1991."Wind", ''Cinema Papers'', January 1992 p18 New Zealand's long time America's Cup commentator Peter Montgomery also lent his voice to the simulated television coverage of all Cup races in the film.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack is available on CD from BSX Records. The score was composed by

Basil Poledouris Basil Konstantine Poledouris (; August 21, 1945 – November 8, 2006) was an American composer, conductor, and orchestrator of film and television scores, best known for his long-running collaborations with directors John Milius and Paul Verho ...

. Also included on the same CD is the Soundtrack to the 1981 television movie ''

A Whale for the Killing ''A Whale for the Killing'' is an American television film that aired on ABC on February 1, 1981. It is loosely based on a true story by environmentalist Farley Mowat, about a whale that is tortured by a fisherman. The incident happened near Bur ...

'', also composed by Poledouris.

Reception

''Wind'' holds a 50% rating on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, based on 12 reviews, and an average rating of 6/10.

Box office

''Wind'' grossed $96,798 at the box office in Australia. The movie flopped at the US box office.

References

External links

*
''Wind''
at Oz Movies * *
Sailors prospective from Scuttlebutt on the movie production

in the Washington Post by Desson Howe - September 1992
Review
in the Chicago Sun-Times BY ROGER EBERT - September 1992 {{DEFAULTSORT:Wind (Film) 1992 films 1992 independent films 1992 romantic drama films 1990s sports films 1987 America's Cup American independent films American romantic drama films American sports drama films American Zoetrope films America's Cup Competitive sailing films 1990s English-language films Films directed by Carroll Ballard Films scored by Basil Poledouris Films shot in Australia Films shot in Rhode Island Films shot in Utah Sports films based on actual events TriStar Pictures films 1990s American films