Mark Reviews Movies: MAIDEN

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Review by Mark Dujsik | July 11, 2019

How one tells a story matters, obviously, but sometimes, a storyteller completely lucks out in choosing which story to tell. That's the case with Maiden, a documentary about the first all-woman team to participate in the Whitbred Round the World Race. As one can tell from the name the race, which has since been re-dubbed the Ocean Race, is one that traverses the globe, with teams sailing in yachts of, at the time, various sizes. Just from the description, it seems like a daunting task. Seeing it play out in footage shot aboard the eponymous boat during the 1989–90 race, though, is another matter altogether.

First of all, the trek, which began and ended in England's famous port city of Southampton, took eight months to complete. There were five stops, not counting the finish, at the end of each leg of various distances along the route, which is over 32,000 nautical miles (about 37,000 miles) long.

The physical and psychological endurance required to simply pull off a stay of that length—in terms of time and distance—on a small, cramped vessel is astonishing. Also, take into account that each leg of the race has its own challenges. One in particular—which is the longest leg of the race, by the way—has competitors sailing across the Southern Ocean, the one ocean about which most people forget, because it is so treacherous and without any safe ground to find until one comes close to one of the civilized continents. Another leg, from the west coast of Australia to the north of New Zealand, was more than half the distance of the frozen one, but that also meant that particular stretch of the race relied more on tactical racing than any of the other ones.

You don't just have to be a great a sailor to stand a chance of finishing the race. You have to be a versatile one, too—able to withstand the long slog of time, the strains of nature, and the pressures of competing against others who are at least as capable as you.

In 1989, nobody in the sport actually thought a woman, let alone a team made up entirely of women, would possess the physical and psychological traits necessary to accomplish such a goal. Tracy Edwards, a runaway of sorts from Wales via a village in England, believed differently. When she realized that nobody in the sailing world would give her a legitimate chance to participate the Round the World Race, she just went and gave herself that opportunity.

The combination of all of these components is why it seems as if director Alex Holmes has simply lucked into a great story. There's an amazing feat: sailing around the world in competition with others, with all of the obstacles that come along with it. There's a daring hero, who has been told time and again that she can't do something—that she'll, at best, embarrass herself in the attempt or, at worst, die trying. Despite the cynicism and sexism and patronizing and complete negativity, she ignores all of that nonsense, because she knows better than anyone else of what she is capable.

Finally, there's the simple, inescapable fact that—no offense intended to those who love and/or participate in the sport—sailing isn't exactly the most watched, followed, or even known sport in the world. More than a decent number of people likely will be introduced to the concept of an around-the-world sailing race while watching this film. As for the success or failure of one team—no matter how noteworthy—during one particular race from three decades ago, the outcome for the 58-foot yacht called Maiden and its all-female crew is a matter of legitimate suspense. Holmes takes full advantage of that reality.

The film offers some background before getting to the race. Edwards, whose life took an unfortunate turn after the death of her father, began her life at sea as a stewardess. From there, she was able to become a cook on a yacht participating in the Round the World Race, but her dream was to skipper a vessel in the competition. After multiple companies rejected the idea of sponsoring an all-woman crew for the race, Edwards reached out to an old friend, who just happened to be the King of Jordan.

Once the backdrop is set, the remainder of the film follows the race. Holmes' method for telling this story is entirely in the present tense. There are interviews with Edwards, her fellow crew members (including her best friend since childhood, whose importance in the telling of this tale will be clear soon enough), sailors who also competed in that race, and sports journalists at the time, who, like the male sailors, show amused embarrassment about their attitudes toward Maiden and its crew at the time. In chronologically recapping the events of the race, none of these interviewees gives away any information for what happens later.

The interviews provide the narrative, but it's the footage on board Maiden that tells the real story. It was shot by Jo Gooding, Edwards' childhood friend who served as the cook on the yacht (and almost didn't participate, following a wrist injury days before the start of the race), on a VHS camera of the era (Some footage even has the date and time stamp that many will remember from home movies). To hear about the trials and joys of the race from those who participated in it is engaging enough, but it's genuinely revelatory and enthralling to actually see all of this—the icebergs of the Southern Ocean so close and so invisible in the night, waves so strong that the boat ends up perpendicular to the water, the crowds gathered at ports to celebrate the crew's arrival at the end of a leg.

Here, then, we have a real-life high-seas adventure playing out in front of us, filled with peril and thrills, defeat and triumph, and a genuine sense of the gender politics of the era, the sport, and the culture—as well as how Edwards' own attitude about her place amidst them evolved over the course of the race. Maiden is a stirring and suspenseful documentary.

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