We went to see Liam Neeson’s newest film, The Grey.
I know there is a previous thread about how wolves are treated in this film so let’s get that over with - yes, a couple of wolves die, but trust me when I say the wolves do NOT get short-changed in this film. If anything, PETA should apologize to Human Rights associations.
This film was smarter than I expected it to be - there was some good discussion on dying, death and faith. Even though the characters are the stereotypical rough and rowdy Alaskan workers with shadowy pasts, you get to care for them on a different level.
After a plane crash (not a spoiler if you have seen any of the trailers for this film) a group of survivors has to move on to try to escape their environment, which happens to be smack dab in the center of a large wolf community.
These wolves are not cute and cuddly.
Liam’s character knows quite a bit about wolves, and we learn about the Alpha and Omega, about their territory and what that means, and about how wolves think individually and as a pack. The wolves in this film would scare the bejesus out of Rambo.
Without spoiling the film, I think it is safe to say whatever you think is going to happen in this film probably doesn’t happen. Yes, there are a couple of minor cliche’s here and there, but there are plenty of surprises you were not expecting.
Oscar bait? No.
But for an action film, it was smarter than most with some great food for thought and a plot that makes you care about many of the characters that in other films would simply be “another one bites the dust”, so what?
And the ending?
Well - once again, probably NOT what you expect.
Thank you for that mini-review!
I saw the trailer a couple of weeks ago and am looking forward to seeing this on Tuesday. I read a review somewhere (can’t remember where) that criticized the portrayal of wolf behaviour in the movie as being somewhat romanticised and/or demonized but I’ll wait to form my own opinion.
I can’t find the other thread on this movie here, anyone know where it is?
You’re right this was not what I expected. Going in, I didn’t think
this would be the Saddest Movie Ever. Seriously, every fifteen minutes there was another depressing, lonely, violent, bleak death. Over and over. I don’t cry too easily at movies, but I was starting to get pinpricks in my eyes by the end of this one.
But yes, it was well-made. The plane crash scene felt horrifyingly real. I did start to get annoyed by Neeson’s stock know-it-all character, though considering how things ended I guess maybe he didn’t know it all…
Speaking of which, did anyone else think it was crazy they left the crash site? Yes, the wolves were surrounding them, but a) they had enough metal they could have barricaded themselves in somehow; b) they would have had more oil to keep fires going; and c) even if it took a while, wouldn’t a rescue plane have been more likely to find them there than off wandering around in the forest?
Well fuck. At least that was my first reaction to the whole movie. I’m still trying to figure out how much I liked the movie.
[spoiler]
I like how they didn’t have god come rescue him. What I didn’t like was the damn shaky cam that is used way too much. I’d like to see what’s going on, I don’t want to be apart of the movie, I want to watch it.
I did like that no one lives, quite surprised at that really. Though I guess if I would have been paying attention I would have seen it coming with the poem. [/spoiler]
The behavior of the wolves in this film is ridiculous. Wolves would never behave the way they do in this film. Yeah, I know it’s a movie, but it would make more sense as a monster move than it does as a genuine living beings movie. We know too much of the truth about wolf behavior to sell this.
Having said that I do think they treated death far more realistically and believably than is usual in adventure films.
This was much my reaction. Being interested in survival narratives and techniques, I was really excited about this movie. I was disappointed that the film had the wolves behaving so bizzarely, and the humans behaving so stupidly.
I ended up being able to appreciate it as an existential fable – Waiting for Godot as an action film, basically – but it was not what I was hoping for.
I also liked the ending, but I was disappointed to hear afterwards that there is a scene after the credits that basically contradicts the ending before.
I just looked that up.
That kinda sucks that they did this after the credits, but my comment about the extra ending, with spoiler:
We didn’t stay to see that final scene that shows Liam, alive after his battle with the Alpha wolf. That said, there were tons of wolves circling the final battle, so you would have to assume it was a symbolic fight and he didn’t make it back to the local Four Seasons for dinner that night. Still - this is really sophomoric writing to leave a loophole like this after the credits, knowing 95% or more of your audience has left the theater and will not see it. I suppose if they ever have a Grey II, this would be the starting point, but still - a poor decision that ruins what was an effective ending. Glad I didn’t stay to see it, and hope they edit that out for the DVD.
Just watched this as a rental, and this was my take. I actively hated it, really, for being so fiercely contemptuous of science. (Oh scriptwriter? Let me introduce you to a little something called hypothermia.) And also for the humans behaving so stupidly. (This plane presumably has a black box which rescuers can home in on. Also a fuselage which could be fortified against the wolves. Gosh, we’d better get away from here as fast as possible!)
It’s like someone took the script for The Edge (a really good survival movie) and gave it over for a rewrite to a bunch of C-student teenage boys.
Also, the poem featured in the movie is really, really, REALLY awful. It starts with a bad paraphrase of a Shakespeare line and then runs out of anything to say, so it just starts repeating itself. Yes, I get that the poem was supposed to have been written by an amateur, but they keep coming back to it like they think it was worthy of William bloody Yeats.
Some spoilers below. I just watched this thing. There are so many problems with it, it’s difficult to know where to begin. I’ll list the obvious:
This starts out in Prudhoe Bay, with a bunch of guys being drunken assholes. There is no alcohol allowed at Prudhoe, let alone a bar complete with waitresses.
The opening scenes show forest-covered mountains. The nearest mountains are the Brooks Range, 200 miles south, and there isn’t a tree until the other side of said Range, and even then they’re sparse for a very long way. In fact, there aren’t any hills to speak of on the entire Arctic Coastal Plain. It’s tundra.
Neeson is shown in his room with a scoped rifle. The camera then pans over a box of shotgun rounds. A short while later, he shoots a wolf with the same bolt-action rifle, then after the bar scene goes outside and places what is clearly a shotgun in his mouth.
This is all in the first few minutes of the movie, so you can understand why I’m panning this. Then comes the plane crash, which is obviously still on the Arctic Coastal Plain (no trees, ground blizzards). So off they go, in a blizzard, headed south, without scavenging extra gloves, scarves, etc. first. South? There is nothing south until you get to Fairbanks, which is about 400 miles south of Prudhoe Bay, and in a country that large, you could easily miss even a city that size. There are a few pump stations along the way, but without the pipeline or the Dalton to guide them, they’d be hopelessly lost and, without food, dead in a couple of days from exposure. And then there are the obligatory Eternally Burning Torches to light their way at night.
Now, the acting was fine. As was the idea of the story (minus the silly wolf-pack part of it). I suppose they had to put in some sort of threat other than just the remote Arctic environment and the hopelessness of their situation without food or shelter. . .wait: no they didn’t. Suspension of belief is necessary in some films, but I couldn’t get past much of this.
Oh yeah, forgot to mention the entirely bullshit dubbing of what was either lion roars or bear roars or both for the wolf noises. Wolves snarl or growl, you morons.
I was fine with the wolves being more like monsters. It served the larger story and theme. Jaws didn’t behave like a real shark just for thrills sake, here there’s something more existential happening.
From the trailers, I thought the wolves were mutated in some way. Neither looking or behaving like real wolves. The Alpha was the only one abnormally large, but we were suppose to believe they were normal wolves, behaving normally. Instead of being creative, the writers decided to falsify facts.
Also, I didn’t understand…
…when the guys crossed the ravine, then climbed/fell down through the trees to get to the lower level, how did the wolves get down there?
I just finished this movie and yeah, it was bad. I didn’t watch after the credits. Oh well. The wolves were extremely unrealistic. I also noticed the lion roars. Other than that it was slower and more boring than I expected.
It’s been a while but I’ve just watched it and did a search for the movie.
Was the following just a coincidence:
The character John calls out to Jesus as he tries to lift Pete’s head out of the water to save his life when Pete’s foot is caught between rocks.
John the apostle baptizes Jesus in a river, which would involve lifting Jesus’ head out of the water to make him born again.
Peter the apostle is told by Jesus that he is a rock and it is on that rock that he will build his church. Peter comes from a Greek word that means “rock”.
As for God not coming to John’s aid, I’m not sure. We see the sun as an intense source of light behind John and John is kneeling before he fights the alpha wolf. That seems like one of those God-was-with-you-in-invisible-mysterious-ways-and-gave-you-the-strength stories.