The best moments in Mighty Mary -- the lively retelling of the America's Cup's first all-women sailing crew and their Herculean task to defy the naysayers in a male-dominated sport -- come from contrast.
The contrasts are somehow obvious and unexpected, men vs. women, underdogs vs. odds, competitors vs. conditions, expectations vs. reality. However, filmmaker (and Olympian!) Mary Mazzio does commendable work to deepen the contrasts into something worth celebrating and getting furious over as you hear more of the story.
Sailing is an inherently cinematic sport. Filming big sailboats crested against the shimmering sea automatically grabs your attention; heightening the beauty of the ocean with the thrill of chase adds zest to the waking life. Mazzio
doesn't need to force good footage because she's bound to get plenty by what's already been filmed. It's just cool to watch sailboats racing against other sailboats. Mighty Mary enters the fray with a good foundation.
However, the sociopolitical realities that begin to seep in the boat, ones that should be spine-rattling but still manage to follow well-worn tropes of what happens when rich guys in preppy yacht attire go talking in backrooms, add urgency to a multi-decade look back. You're left inspired by this documentary, and also mad as a hornet's nest.
It's fun to get to know the various crew members of the America3, the Koch brother-backed all-women sailing crew who cleared the bar and challenged sailing bigwigs like Dennis Conner. There aren't any dull moments in this, complimented by a swift approach to storytelling and engaged narration from Elizabeth Banks and Hugh Jackman. It's easy to root for the Mighty Mary crew, even if we just scratch the surface of who they are and how they work.
However, the third-act reveal of what happened before the Mighty Mary crew finally took down's Conner's Stars & Stripes crew in a pivotal America's Cup competition will get your blood boiling and reframes the pleasant documentary into something more pressing. The remorseless thud of sailing's upper crust descends in the most anti-competition, good-ole-boy balderdash imaginable and makes you second-guess the supposed purity of the sport. However, the Mighty Mary crew sails on despite the eye-rolling technicalities. They're winners, even in loss.
Like all good sports documentaries, Mighty Mary captures the feeling of watching a big sporting event live and underlines the rigor of what it takes to be successful on the high seas. While you're left with a bittersweet taste in your mouth that's entirely not the fault of the documentary, you're still glad you learned a story that may have gotten lost to sailing time if not for Mazzio's dutiful capture. There's great basis here for a narrative feature. Even if we don't get one, it's still nice to have this out on the water. Sailing looks tough, but Mighty Mary is an easy sit.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: 'Mighty Mary' is a commendable jaunt into a great sailing story
