The Grey
Director: Joe Carnahan
Cast: Liam Neeson, Frank Grillo, Dermot Mulroney and Dallas Roberts
Director: Joe Carnahan
Cast: Liam Neeson, Frank Grillo, Dermot Mulroney and Dallas Roberts
Once more into the fray,
Into the last good fight I’ll ever know.
Live and die on this day.
Live and die on this day.
This is a poem written by director Joe Carnahan (Smokin’ Aces & The A-Team) and used very well in The Grey. Those four lines sum up the film’s effort to allegorise life and death. To deliver poetic justice in a commercial survivor film about men and wolves.
The film starts off in a refinery in remote Alaska as Liam Neeson, called just Ottway in the film, lists reasons why the men and the town are condemned. He deems the people there as social misfits, not good enough for normal society. And before you know it, the whole group is heading back home and their plane crashes. A handful of survivors then are forced to battle extreme cold and a pack of wolves on the prowl. Nothing new in the premise, we’ve seen a band of people surviving the odds plenty of times before. Case in point The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno and the countless zombie classics. But The Grey touches upon lesser exploited themes of imminent death.
Even the darkest souls, the greyest characters will find their hands trembling and lungs gasping in fear when faced with inevitability. Some chose to fight on to survive a few moments more, others give up and perish. It is this theme that makes The Grey more than a $25 million film with a bankable action star. The film and its story force you to reflect upon the choices made by its characters. On why some of us survive times of adversity and others don’t.
The narrative of the film has its moments of high drama. These scenes stand out as perfect metaphors for the frailty of our existence and the inevitable nature of our life. That is interspersed with moments of surreal thrills born from the howls of menacing CGI wolves and their gory human hunting. Neeson when not punching, running and jumping around seems at home in his character. A tough Irishman with nothing to hold on to in life except the memory of his love and the poem written by his father.
Not to say everything in The Grey is pitch-perfect. Its biggest flaw is the use of CGI wolves. The animals look like caricatured beasts more often seen in over-the-top sagas like 300. That robs the film of its reality. Also most plot developments can be guessed well in advance. Despite the minor flaws, the film delivers high drama in all honesty and so does Liam Neeson in a performance worthy of applause. Do not leave the theatre till the credits roll off because right at the end is a short scene that amps up the climactic drama even more.
Into the last good fight I’ll ever know.
Live and die on this day.
Live and die on this day.
This is a poem written by director Joe Carnahan (Smokin’ Aces & The A-Team) and used very well in The Grey. Those four lines sum up the film’s effort to allegorise life and death. To deliver poetic justice in a commercial survivor film about men and wolves.
The film starts off in a refinery in remote Alaska as Liam Neeson, called just Ottway in the film, lists reasons why the men and the town are condemned. He deems the people there as social misfits, not good enough for normal society. And before you know it, the whole group is heading back home and their plane crashes. A handful of survivors then are forced to battle extreme cold and a pack of wolves on the prowl. Nothing new in the premise, we’ve seen a band of people surviving the odds plenty of times before. Case in point The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno and the countless zombie classics. But The Grey touches upon lesser exploited themes of imminent death.
Even the darkest souls, the greyest characters will find their hands trembling and lungs gasping in fear when faced with inevitability. Some chose to fight on to survive a few moments more, others give up and perish. It is this theme that makes The Grey more than a $25 million film with a bankable action star. The film and its story force you to reflect upon the choices made by its characters. On why some of us survive times of adversity and others don’t.
The narrative of the film has its moments of high drama. These scenes stand out as perfect metaphors for the frailty of our existence and the inevitable nature of our life. That is interspersed with moments of surreal thrills born from the howls of menacing CGI wolves and their gory human hunting. Neeson when not punching, running and jumping around seems at home in his character. A tough Irishman with nothing to hold on to in life except the memory of his love and the poem written by his father.
Not to say everything in The Grey is pitch-perfect. Its biggest flaw is the use of CGI wolves. The animals look like caricatured beasts more often seen in over-the-top sagas like 300. That robs the film of its reality. Also most plot developments can be guessed well in advance. Despite the minor flaws, the film delivers high drama in all honesty and so does Liam Neeson in a performance worthy of applause. Do not leave the theatre till the credits roll off because right at the end is a short scene that amps up the climactic drama even more.
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