Revisited: The Grey

Hey readers, I formally apologize for not posting any content for the last month. I was involved in an accident which landed me in the hospital and got me stuck in a cast for three and a half months and on top of that, I've been very busy with school and such and I simply haven't had time to write here or even go to the movies.

That being said, here's an article that I wrote for a journalism class that I'm taking. The teacher I submitted it to said that it was one of the best papers he's ever seen from a student so, yeah, enjoy it and please excuse the lack of sarcastic tone, as this was more of a formal review.

There are some films that take the same old, tired formula of movie-making, reskin it and call it a new thing and there are other films which seek to create something new. The Grey is the latter of these types.

The 2011 film, The Grey stars Liam Neeson and is about a small group of survivors trying to stay alive after a plane crash in the dead of Alaskan winter. The handful of men finds their situation to be increasingly dire as they realize that they’re being hunted by a pack of highly intelligent and territorial wolves.

While the rest of the cast is a bit dull, Liam Neeson does a phenomenal job at acting out the film’s emotionally distraught protagonist who is struggling to cope with the (implied) death of his wife. In the very first scene, he attempts suicide but is interrupted and loses his nerve. Over the course of the movie, he acts out some impressively dramatic moments that can be heart wrenching to watch such as in one scene where he fails to rescue a drowning man and the audience can really feel a sense of agony over the situation largely thanks to the convincing acting.

Despite the general blandness of the bulk of the supporting cast, this film does not take death lightly. Whereas in most films, characters are simply picked off and are hardly spared a moment’s remorse from the crowd members, here every death is an emotional undertaking. The Grey forces the audience to feel for every character and one of the ways it does this is through it’s remarkable ability to illustrate a situation in a way where it’s easy to insert yourself into the film.

The best example of this, and what is likely the most poignant scene in the movie, would be during a scene wherein one of the survivors, who has sustained a substantially damaging leg wound, decides that he’s gone far enough and sits down never to move again. The sequence is painted in such a way that it’s easy to put yourself into it. The feeling of sweat and humidity building up underneath your heavy winter coat, the exhaustion burning through your legs. Every step you take you’re trying to convince yourself to only walk but a few more steps, the sense of dread as the gap between you and your party-members becomes wider and wider. This scene goes on for several minutes before they arrive at the conclusion to leave the man to die as per his own request. The tragic process of simply losing the will to live is captured amazingly well during this sequence right down to a final lingering shot of this man just sitting there, waiting for death. It lets the audience fully grasp the impact of what’s just occurred, reminds them that this is not a fairy tale where everyone lives happily ever after and it lets the man ponder over whether he made the proper decision.

The film is accented with a fantastic score as well as unique and creative cinematography. What is overall a standout and impressive feat of cinema is belittled by the looming fact that the wolves depicted in the film are unrealistic. Audiences simply cannot buy into this movie due to that one absurd detail. Years of prior study shows that The Grey is anything but an accurate showcasing of wolves in action and for some reason, this is grounds to debunk the film in it’s entirety.

What does that say about modern audiences and the future of cinema? Today’s audiences have lost the ability to suspend their disbelief. The films of today are endlessly nit-picked for even the most trivial of details. Rather than stand back and look at the big picture, or simply allow themselves to forget about reality and enjoy the film, moviegoers today prefer to dissect every individual moment and scan for mistakes, unrealism and other such incidences of non-perfection.

This truly spells doom for the already bleak future of cinema. In a world that is diseased with sequels, remakes, recycled plots, CGI and shameless money grabbing, film must now also contend with audiences unwillingness to simply sit back and appreciate what’s flashing across the silver screen. What is truly an extraordinary display of emotion, drama, grit and tragedy is overridden by morose, over-analytical, acrimony; almost as if audiences watch films only to find it’s mistakes.

The Grey is a beautiful yet horrifying story of life and death. It’s a heartbreaking tale of men who are fully aware of their own impending demise and must struggle to embrace it of their own accord. Despite that many criticize it’s unrealism, one would be hard-pressed to find a film where death and hopelessness feel more real. With all of the movies out there, where faceless actors are killed off and thrown aside without so much as a flinch, The Grey stands out.