Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

GazerRise Fantastic!

Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Lela The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

snmhanson Being a casual sailor I did enjoy the mechanics of this movie. It motivated me to want to spend more time on the water and push the limits of my own sailing. The camera work was impressive and the plot kept me interested for the most part as it provided a good balance between the sport and the interpersonal aspect of the team. I enjoyed seeing the process of training and then competing in the race as well as examining the strategic decision making process and the results of those decisions.Now, don't take the next part wrong, I did like the characters in the movie and for the most part they seemed like enjoyable and personable people. What threw me off though is that the crew consisted of what mostly appeared to be privileged kids that grew up sailing, at least half of which probably could have bought their way onto a TransPac boat if they really wanted to. Not that this isn't what I would expect in your typical high-caliber sailboat racing, since you do enter a race to win and you want an experienced crew. However, in this case it would have been nice to see more diversity and a mix of the experienced sailors sharing this experience with motivated, yet underprivileged kids. The one person who I think the experience would have had the most profound impact on didn't make the final cut. Another person who disregarded a suggestion to not go snowboarding between training sessions ended up breaking her arm and missing much of the training, but still did make it on the boat. Sure, there was probably a lot more that happened behind the scenes so I may not have the full picture, but that seems pretty representative of the inequities that many people face on a day-to-day basis and I think the film could have aimed a bit higher. I think it would have been a much better and motivating movie if it had more of a "breaking down the social and economic barriers" aspect to it, rather than just a bunch of experienced young sailors taking their sailing to the next level.To sum up, taking the age of the crew out of the equation, this was simply a documentary about putting an elite sailing team together to compete in an exclusive sailboat race. The fact that they were all in their late teens/early twenties (and probably in the best physical shape they will ever be in) wasn't a big deal to me. If you are intrigued by sailing and sailboat racing I would recommend this movie. If you are looking for a motivational feel-good movie, you may be a bit disappointed. Just my opinion of course.

zalaram 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!

lynde-1 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!

laraemeadows 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.