The Grey

I can think of few working film makers I am as simultaneously aware of and ambivalent toward as Joe Carnahan. I have never seen Narc, nor do I feel compelled to do so despite the generous kudos it has accumulated in some circles. Smoking Aces was stylish and intermittently entertaining, but primarily crude and pointless. The A-Team was just plain pointless, no qualifiers necessary. So, to be blunt, nothing about the man's oeuvre does much of anything for me. Liam Neeson however, has long been a favorite. Dating back to Krull and the Mission, but Darkman was what cemented his leading man persona for me. Wounded and soulful, yet imposing as hell and charming when he wants to be. Of more dynamic and multi talented leading men, there are few.

So, when I first saw the trailers for The Grey, I dismissed Carnahan's involvement as nothing more than apparent affinity developed between him and Neeson during production of The A-Team. Now I love a good man Vs. nature film, especially the sort that juxtaposes the two as iconic, existential rivals. Hope and eventuality. Faith and stone cold reality. The trailers and promotional materials did a fine job conveying this deadly serious thematic component as well as the striking, artistic element at play. I was prepared for that and avidly awaiting the challenging complexity inherent to the non commercial proposition watching tired, bloodied men mauled by wild animals and succumbing to the elements entails. On that level, the film succeeds wildly.

It is gorgeously shot, breathtaking even. I didn't know Carnahan had that sort of an eye. An eye that could distill every fascinating facet of his timeless story into the indelible, unforgettable image of a single file line of men struggling through a merciless blizzard with infinite whiteness swallowing them on all sides. The plane crash that strands them in this wasteland is as impressive as any I've yet seen conveyed on film, all the more impressive for how viscerally realized it is on such a clearly minuscule budget. Impeccable sound design and photography on all fronts coming together with assured direction and superlative performances to present a technical marvel of a film that manages to explore the weighty issues of faith, life and death. Aside from some minor quibbles with elastic notions of realism, most everything about this meat and potatoes effort worked for me.

There Be Spoilers Here:

Here's the problem. The aforementioned promotional material hinged largely on footage of Neeson strapping broken mini-liquor bottles to his knuckles with electrical tape and charging into the fray against a behemoth alpha male wolf to do bloody, chaotic battle. The way this footage was edited and scored implicitly promises the viewer that they will see the other side of that arresting notion once they plunk down their hard earned cash. The Grey does a beautiful job bringing you to this moment, then smash cuts to black at the exact moment the trailer did. Roll credits. As the scene was building, I began to get a queasy feeling this was going to be the case, but when it actually came to pass, I was shocked at how disappointed and frustrated I was. I (and clearly, vocally the audience I saw it with) felt betrayed and more than a little cheated. The movie the internet sold to me as Liam Neeson: Wolf Puncher gave me a little more of what I hoped was going to be there than I thought it would and absolutely nothing of what I was certain would be there.

I read here and there some people comparing this phenomena to the woman suing Drive for a misleading trailer. I don't buy that. I'm an intelligent film goer who educates himself before buying a ticket. I knew what I was getting into with Drive and felt the trailer effectively portrayed the film as arty, surreal and hyper violent. I've also read people saying that if you wanted to see that fight, then you are an idiot. That it would have been stupid and looked ridiculous. With this, I also disagree. The Grey is a story of a man grappling with his will to live and I desperately wanted to see him put everything he had into that fight once he made the decision to, against all odds and with no reason or faith, not go quietly into that night. If the film makers couldn't have figured a way to present this moment the entire film had been building to without it being laughable, then they just weren't trying hard enough.

While I do disagree with Carnahan's decision to not show that fight, I respect his right to make that choice. He is an artist, this film forcefully confirms that, and this film is indeed an important piece of art. Not necessarily for the story, performances or technical merits, all of which are solid and in some cases well above par, but for the strong reactions and lively discussion it has engendered among film fans. It has been of great interest to me to read the fallout today and see separate camps spring up on either side of the debate. So many nuanced positions being taken and passionately argued. It is irrelevant whether or not any is more right than the other. The meaningful thing is that this film has people talking, thinking and discussing a piece of cinematic art. Not to nitpick how faithful it was to some superhero's convoluted origin story or whether the two leads had an off screen liaison that destroyed one of their marriages. Nothing so trivial. The discussion is about what these characters lives and deaths meant and how it resonated or didn't with each individual. This film has moved people and made them contemplate their mortality, their mettle and what they love most and hold most dear. It is a somber, lofty exploration of weighty issues and should be regarded accordingly.

I appreciate a film that dares to be this bleak and still somehow reaches the multiplex. It was magnificent to see this on a huge screen with pristine projection and eardrum decimating sound. It upset me, it infuriated me, I laughed, I cried, I nodded approvingly at Neeson's bad ass antics. I was moved and felt strongly about it. That it has had this effect on most is undeniable and should be acknowledged. Even if it didn't play out exactly as some of us might have preferred, we should be grateful it has inspired thought and discussion that has engaged both the head and the heart.