Gravity

[Passdagas the Brown]

Which is why he has Gravity as No. 1. Very little emotional heft, but very intense visuals and edge-of-your-seat tension.

I was moved to tears multiple times during Gravity. Not just by the personal story of Bullock's loss (which strikes close to home), but also by the stark beauty (and terror) of the film. The silent awe of space, the surge of life you feel when she swims into the ocean, and out onto the shore. The emotional punch of feeling as if you are standing on Earth for the very first time, viewing everything with new eyes. It's as close as one might come to feeling like a newborn. Awed and terrified at the same time.

It reminds me of CS Lewis' comments on "lifting the veil of the familiar." Fantasy, by stripping events of real-world baggage, can make one see a mundane thing anew. Green suns, and all that. Cuaron, taking us into space for the bulk of the film, only to plunge us back at the end, made us see life, and Earth, with fresh eyes. The Earth, though not a fantastical place, actually felt fantastical to me. And it was beautiful and reaffirming.

I'm sorry it didn't have that effect on you, but stating that it had no emotional heft as if it was a statement of fact is a little unfair!

But I really didn't feel like the characters in that movie were real characters; more like caricatures.

Perhaps a more appropriate word than caricatures would be "archetypes." And I would agree - Children of Men is also full of archetypal characters, including a modern day wizard (Michael Cain)! But I disagree that that's a bad thing. They are simple characters, simply drawn, and that works wonderfully in this simple story. It's refreshing to see a blockbuster film without so much clutter.

ETA: This is an edited version of my original post.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Can you elaborate on what you meant by archetypes, with regard to the two characters in Gravity? Because I just don't see that at all, based on my understanding of what the term means (largely from reading Joseph Campbell). So I am thinking that you must have a different understanding in mind, or maybe I am just not getting it. Hopefully you can help me!

[Passdagas the Brown]

Can you elaborate on what you meant by archetypes, with regard to the two characters in Gravity? Because I just don't see that at all, based on my understanding of what the term means (largely from reading Joseph Campbell). So I am thinking that you must have a different understanding in mind, or maybe I am just not getting it. Hopefully you can help me!

As a former student of myth myself, I'm happy to oblige.

Bullock, for example, is a pretty straightforward Campbellian heroic archetype (judging by the typologies Campbell lays out in "Hero with a Thousand Faces"). She goes out into the unknown, overcomes the dangers there, overcomes her fears by facing them, is enlightened about the value of life (with assistance from another archetype - the wise man/ wizard Clooney), and then returns triumphantly to her place of origin (where the film ends) - though an audience may expect that she is now well-equipped to fulfill the final heroic purpose of bringing her wisdom to other people.

Of course, there's not a 1-to-1 here (and the characters are not just archetypes), but Cuaron is a professed student of myth, and his films are full of these elements.

Children of Men is even more explicit in this regard.

[yovargas]

By that definition, every movie ever is filled with archetypes.

[Primula Baggins]

You wouldn't be far wrong, given how popular Hero's Journey is in screenwriting (and novel-writing) classes.

Archetypes at that level, I mean. I like what Campbell has to say, but it is possible to take what I think he saw as an interesting enumeration of the commonalities of human myth and turn it into a rigid prescription for The Only Good Story.

[Passdagas the Brown]

By that definition, every movie ever is filled with archetypes.

And you'd be right (in regards to modern popular cinema). With Star Wars, and it's Campbellian framework, George Lucas ushered in a completely new era of Hollywood films that basically adhere to the "Hero quest" framework. There have followed reams of books, and studies, on the subject of the popular preference for this kind of story, and movie companies are not only well aware of it, but they look for it and often insist on it for movies they finance.

Campbell essentially tried to create a typology of stories that all people, regardless of culture, tend to identify with. And the "hero journey" is one of them.

Now, Cuaron is far too inventive to simply adhere to this formula. His films are no Campbell paint-by-numbers coloring books, as some are.

But in the case of Gravity, Cuaron was telling a simple story with a simple and powerful theme. And that's why, IMO, he stuck to very simply drawn archetypal characters, with basic (yet IMO, emotionally affecting) motivations.

In this film, I had no problem with Bullock's simple narrative. In another kind of film, I may have found it too thin. The key is consistency and discipline, I think, and Cuaron has that in spades.

[yovargas]

In that context, I'd say that my beef with the movie is that it needed something very purely archetypal, a largely blank slate we could draw ourselves on, and then he messed it up by coloring in with the far from universal "mom who lost her daughter" angle.

[Passdagas the Brown]

In that context, I'd say that my beef with the movie is that it needed something very purely archetypal, a largely blank slate we could draw ourselves on, and then he messed it up by coloring in with the far from universal "mom who lost her daughter" angle.

I agree, and would have preferred a more cosmic motivation.

Though I would still argue that losing a loved one (or fearing the loss of a loved one) is a very universal thing. My guess is that plenty of people identified with that part of her story.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Thanks for answering, PtB. My response would be much the same as yov's. Which is one reason I prefer "All Is Lost" (and I suspect you would agree).

[Passdagas the Brown]

Thanks for answering, PtB. My response would be much the same as yov's. Which is one reason I prefer "All Is Lost" (and I suspect you would agree).

Agreed 100%.

[Dave_LF]

I got the soundtrack for this one (I like movie soundtracks. Among other things, they're good for drowning out other people's conversations while you're trying to concentrate on writing code). It's a good one, but you've really got to listen to it without shuffle mode--one of its features is the way it moves from cold, frightening, techno sounds to rich, triumphant, organic--even sacred--ones (no accident, I'm sure). If you had played the last two tracks for me a few months ago without telling me what they meant, I'd have guessed they were for scenes of Jesus ascending into heaven or something of the sort. What's ironic is that in fact it's almost the opposite--the events and visuals that accompany this music are those of an angel falling to Earth (and then evolving into a human). I wonder if there's something to that.

[Passdagas the Brown]

It's a masterful soundtrack, and represents one of the main reasons that I prefer more atmospheric soundtracks to John Williams or Howard Shore-style "character-based" soundtracks. The former adds subtle layers to a scene, while the latter tries too hard to tell you how to feel.

[Smaug's voice]

So you don't like Howard-Shore's music?

[Passdagas the Brown]

So you don't like Howard-Shore's music?

I do like Shore's music. A lot.

I just prefer more atmospheric soundtracks in films. The Smaug music gets closest to that, IMO.

And in DOS, I wasn't so keen on how the soundtrack was applied. Seemed far more heavy-handed than I remember from the OST on its own.

[Teremia]

Yesterday I snuck off on my own between Christmas guests and dog-walking to watch Gravity, and I did find myself very moved by it. I wish it had been filmed entirely in Mongolian or something, so that we could have avoided the sentimental chit-chat, and I wish George Clooney hadn't been in it, because EVERY time he came on screen all I could think was "here's George Clooney as Buzz Lightyear AGAIN"------but the rest of it was so beautiful and so stirring.

I think wet sand has never had a better moment in the cinema.

Also I love, love, love the scene where she's working on repairs at the ISS, and we in the audience start noticing bits of the station shaking and breaking because the debris has begun to hit, but since it's silent, she doesn't notice right away. LOVE that. So unlike films where every darn event is signaled by pompous music.

Afterward I walked home full of gratitude that I was here, with "here" meaning many things, including also the earth, the ground, the universe, and life.

[sauronsfinger]

Saw this last night and was mesmerized for the 90 minutes. Great job by our friend the Browns favorite director of the moment.

Without giving anything away - could anybody chime in on the big question the ending raises?

All of the sudden - right after she turns down the oxygen and dozes off with arms crossed over her chest - I felt it turned into a Twilight Zone episode. And the end only strengthened that suspicion.

Could anybody confirm if my suspicions were true of was this simply a happy ending?

[Smaug's voice]

Could anybody confirm if my suspicions were true of was this simply a happy ending?

I have not seen Twilight Zone so cannot comment on that, but all I know is that it was the best ending to come up with.

Hidden text.

I had really expected her to land in some town or village, amidst some people and then be taken to a hospital and the epilogue blah blah. The cliched ending for any disaster film.

But landing into an apparently remote region - right into the lap of nature - was refreshing to see. It was sort of a private reunion between Ryan and Mother Earth.
So I can only see it as a happy-ending - to be precise - a hopeful ending.

Glad to know you liked it as well. It's truly mesmerizing.

Haven't got the DVD yet!

[Alatar]

I suspect that SF is suggesting the events following her despair in the cabin are hallucination. Its an interesting idea!

[sauronsfinger]

I suspect that SF is suggesting the events following her despair in the cabin are hallucination. Its an interesting idea!

SPOILER!!!!!
skip if you have not seen it!!!







here it comes











I would go even further than mere hallucination. I would say that when she turned down the oxygen and went to sleep that was it for the real world part of the movie and the rest was something akin to LOST or one of those ZONE episodes where everybody has moved on to a different reality and shed this mortal coil.

[Smaug's voice]

Definitely an exciting thought SF!