My first view of Gravity was the terrifying trailer that showed the space accident that forms the centerpiece of the movie's action. I wrote to friends that I didn't think I wanted to experience that kind of space terror, akin to my boycott of The Blair Witch Project because I didn't want to be frightened from going out into nature alone. But as the Gravity movie approached, I became excited about its release, clearly a great special effects job of creating a simulation of spacewalking. Anything that touches on the personal and the grandiose in space is up my alley, so I became determined to see this movie, although I get out to movie theaters about 10 times a year lately. I glutted on film when I was younger, so it all evens out I guess.
I discussed scheduling a film screening with a few friends. Should we see it at (former Grauman's) Chinese Theater, recently retrofitted to IMAX? Should we avoid the 3D effect and view it as a 2D movie valued for its content, photography and montage?
(Ira Flato is talking to astronaut Chris Hadfield right now about the movie on the radio in my kitchen...)
It took 2 weeks for me to find a time I could peel away and see Gravity. Jeff Plansker and I went to the Santa Anita mall in Arcadia for a 1:25PM screening of the 2D version. I would have been OK with seeing it in 3D or IMAX but Jeff preferred the 2D version greatly.
There were a million previews, including Ben Stiller's new Walter Mitty movie, which actually looks kind of nice, for Ben Stiller.
Gravity begins with a few statements about space: that there's no sound, for instance. However the soundtrack does a Hitchcock scare-you build into the title graphic and then suddenly goes silent, I think a minor abuse of the sound band and a hint at what was to come. Don't get me wrong, there was some brilliant sound design in Gravity, and it should have been left that way. Adding a musical score, with symphonic elements and over-arching drama and tell-me-when-to-sneeze cues, was a big mistake on this movie. You've got to wonder who signed off (the director) on the soundtrack. It comes very close to ruining a beautiful picture.
The visual effects and scene-making are astounding. The sense of being space-suited and out-of-doors from your spacecraft in the vacuum of space, is fleshed out incredibly well. This is what computers can do now, create a verisimilitude of image down to such small details, that you are fooled into being there. The shots of whirling, wrecked space stations are just unbelievable.
The shots of Sandra Bullock crying are tearfully well-done. I thought of video artist Bill Viola, who spent 10 years filming images through the distorting lens of a drop of water, and Gravity cops his lick and goes another step in one swift minute of film. I also flashed to Man Ray's famous photo (of Lee Miller) with glass beads in her eyelashes. It was loaded film, so to speak.
There's a lot to like about this film. It is so visually realistic. The earth-orbiting footage must be straight NASA video from the space station, paid for by American citizens. Maybe the film ticket should be discounted. Maybe all space movies should be discounted. We live to see this stuff and think big about the universe we live in.
I had another thought while watching the ending shots of space debris raining down into the atmosphere. Gravity is an appropriate homage to the astronauts of space shuttle Columbia, who died coming back into the atmosphere when one or more of their heat shield tiles failed to protect the cabin from the extreme heats of re-entry. The film could be called The Girl Who Fell To Earth. The whole film follows Bullock as she dives from one jetty in space to another, making her way down the ladder from orbit to entry to landfall. It is a timely plea to clean up our earth's clouds of orbiting space junk. Bullock's use of the fire extinguisher is inspired. She does some gorgeous floating in men's underwear.
There is limited dialog in the film, a nice break from the ever-talking movies. Bullock does over-narrate a few scenes, but this could be forgiven as the kind of crazy you might go as you freeze to death in space. And then the soundtrack kicks in, the most grievous error being the Avatar-ish tribal anthem at the end, and we're pushing the same old buttons again. Response 5. Response 7. Rip away the soundtrack and release the film again with just a subtle sound design version. We all deserve that kind of expansive view of space rather than one limited by a series of lazy music choices.
