1
hr & 31 min, color, 2013
The frontier of motion picture
technology continues to expand beyond
anything that our grandparents could have envisioned. It stuns me to realize that “Gravity” could
not have been made as it was made probably as little as two decades ago; the
wherewithal of photography and special effects and digital ingenuity simply did
not yet exist. Even Stanley Kubrick,
trailblazer that he was with “2001: A Space Odyssey” in 1968, could not have
quite matched the visual clarity that is demonstrated during this amazing hour
and a half. I am not enough of a
scientist or camera buff to explain exactly what we see or how or why. I simply never recall spending the entire
running time of a movie feature in which nothing is nailed down and there is no
ground under anyone’s feet. Deep space
drift is the norm, from opening shot to the very last (well, almost). Anyone subject to extreme dizziness or motion
sickness under the slightest provocation will have a difficult time keeping
eyes on the screen for very long. And if
you have a pathological fear of heights, the kind that would keep you away from
amusement park rides, or a morbid fear of flying, your time might be better
spent on something closer to the earth. But
for us space adventure nuts I could not recommend anything more appropriate.
There was a time when the
genre of science fiction was relegated to low status, something on the order of
a Mickey Mouse watch among timepieces.
Or a circus sideshow! The
technology was so primitive that even among the scariest of the bunch one would
have to make an effort not to laugh. The
plots were often quite corny, and set decorations were generally cardboard in
texture. This was due not only to
primitive methodology but to the fact that back then we did not know as much about
the universe as we do now. Martians were
dreaded aliens. Today we know that the
red planet is uninhabited and we have sent probes far enough to discover
galaxies by the thousands and still we possess no proof as yet of life off the
earth, and certainly not within our solar system. “Gravity,” like “2001” in its time, is a watermark
signaling the advancement of science fiction as a motion picture art form,
though it does not by any means compete with the 1968 masterpiece in the realm
of imagination or in its mysterious allure and magnetism or its poetic
power. It does not have the far reach
that Kubrick achieved. It is only a
trip, not an odyssey, though it is a very exciting trip.
There are no alien creatures
in this one or psychopathic computers gone berserk. The enemy is space itself, as we are subtly forewarned
in a preface. Two NASA technicians
(Sandra Bullock and George Clooney) at work performing an installation on an
orbiting satellite some distance from their spacecraft, are surprised by a
sudden hail of debris that drives them from their place of work and sets them
spinning un-tethered to anything but each other. One of them describes the feeling: “like a
Chihuahua being tumble-dried.” In short
order they discover that the spacecraft as well as the satellite has been
destroyed by the merciless swarm and all inhabitants of the craft killed. Besides that, all radio contact with ground
control in Houston has been cut off. A
freak accident, courtesy of the stratosphere, for which there has been no way
to prepare! They are alone and must
improvise their own means of reentry.
They are the only players in this drama; there is no intercutting to
NASA or anything happening on the ground anywhere. Everything happens in orbit, though we do
hear voices coming through the radio transmission before the debris storm
strikes, before the radio cutoff.
It appeared to me at first that
the hardware was going to be the star of the show all by itself, that the film
was largely a tech experiment. But in
short order it became clear that we have a human drama after all, thanks for
the most part to Ms. Bullock. Even with
all that space suit covering her from head to foot and with all the twists and
turns her character is forced into, during which even her face is for the most
part difficult to observe beneath the plastic covering – even with all that the
soul of the woman she portrays emerges.
We learn that this is her first time in orbit and that she heads up a
project that she has had to fight to get funds to complete. Can we begin to imagine what it must be like
for this catastrophe to occur on your first space voyage?
We also learn that she is a
mother whose four-year-old daughter and only child met instant death from a
fall incurred on a playground. This loss
has had both a shattering and a numbing effect on the course of her life,
propelling her into her work where she can best forget that cruel circumstance
and bury her feelings. Now she herself
is threatened with annihilation by a freak collision in another domain of
existence. A tendency toward fatalism
slows her down, dulls her reflexes.
Clooney, head of the mission they share, her commander-in-chief at the
moment, labors against this tendency of hers and is challenged to awaken her
slightly slumbering survival instinct.
Clooney himself is something
of a study. He is well cast to play a
super efficient astronaut who tries to relieve the mental stress of his
co-workers with the use of light banter and wild yarns, many of which they have
all heard him tell before. He can switch
in a second from good-humored companion to a no-nonsense commander giving
inflexible, on-the-spot orders. The way
he mollifies Bullock’s fear and redirects her activity, with both of them
tumbling head over heels and sometimes in reverse rotation, is quite
touching. Of course the tether that
connects them does not have unlimited durability, and they know that one hail
of debris is not all they will have to confront. The inevitable separation comes, and the
ensuing developments test the moral fiber of them both.
In a word, those are not
manikins or robots inside the suits; they are real human beings, engaged in a
solitary fight for survival that reminded me somewhat of another 2013 release –
“All Is Lost.” (To read my review of it,
consult the blog entry for February 24, 2014.)
That one takes place at sea. This
one occurs in another ocean, so to speak, just as perilous and cruel, where
improvisation is likewise the only means out of harm’s way. Perhaps the most moving moment occurs when
Bullock uncovers foreign voices and tries to alert them as to her location to
no avail, but she overhears the sounds of a barking dog and a baby’s cry that
put her mind momentarily at ease and give her a measure of needed hope.
“Gravity” is the first
science fiction movie ever to win an Oscar for Best Directing. Alfonso Cuaron is listed as the movie’s
director; it was he who won the trophy.
But considering the kind of complex job “Gravity” is, a gigantic puzzle
with more pieces to fit together than meets the eye, I daresay he accepted it
on behalf of his gifted crew. Where did
direction in the conventional sense overlap with so many other very needed
skills? A movie is almost never the work
of one individual; it is a joint endeavor, many hands giving at least a sense
of direction to produce the final product.
So I feel compelled this time to list the names of those I suppose
deserve a share in that award:
Producers – David Heyman,
Nikki Pemy, Chris DeFaria, Stephen Jones
Director of Photography –
Emmanuel Lubezki
Visual Effects Supervisor –
Tim Webber
Production Designer – Andy
Nicholson
Animation Supervisor – Max
Solomon
Film Editors – Alfonso Cuaron
and Mark Sanger
Co-writers – Alfonso and
Jonas Cuaron
Camera Operator – Peter
Taylor
These, of course, are just a
few among a myriad of contributors, including Stephen Price who has given us a
powerful score and an unseen Ed Harris as the Mission Control voice coming
through the airwaves.
“Gravity” is, in the final
analysis, more a tribute to human resilience and courage and all their
attendant qualities than it is to the majesty of space, which comes off also as
a sly beast that has to be tamed as much as the science of space travel has to
be mastered. And we have just begun the
process of taming and mastery.
To read other entries in my
blog, please consult its website:
enspiritus.blogspot.com. To learn
about me consult on the website the blog entry for August 9, 2013.
In my previous blog entry I reviewed the movie version
of the novel “The Book Thief” and somehow the last name of the book’s author,
Markus Zusak, got chewed off. It came
out Markus Zu. I have not been able to
figure out how it happened; I must have gotten distracted in some way. Please accept my apologies for that error and
note his real name – Markus Zusak.
