Humanism

[bcholmes]

There's a moment in the movie, The Grey, that pleasantly surprised me. Fundamentally, the film follows the typical "and then there was one" story structure. The survivors of a plane crash are being picked off one-by-one by wolves until only the Liam Neeson character remains alive. He's just watched the last of his colleagues die, and he sits on the bank of a river and looks up at the sky. His character has previously been identified as an atheist, but he calls up to the heavens and says that he needs a sign. Needs it. Because everything's taken its toll. He shouts that faith isn't enough for him, and that has to have something concrete. The camera is pointed up at the sky, and everything seems quiet and motionless. And we wait just long enough that the feeling that nothing's going to happen can settle in and then... nothing happens.

It doesn't go that way in most films. Usually, that's the moment where the helicopter flies by, or we see smoke from a nearby cabin. But no. Just sky. Eventually, Neeson says, "Fine, I'll do it myself," and picks himself up.

Comments

[serene]

That's excellent.

(I think "There are N characters in the movie, and by the end, N-1 of them have been killed" is a pretty major spoiler, myself. Not that I mind spoilers at all, 'cause I don't.)

[bcholmes]

Good point. My bad.