The Grey

THE GREY                              B-                     

USA  (117 mi)  2011  ‘Scope  d:  Joe Carnahan           Official site

An interesting mix of wilderness fable and grim psychological drama that tests the mettle of several hard core men working an oil rig in the remote, far north regions of Alaska, narrated by Liam Neeson as Ottway, a man running away from his own personal secrets.  This ragtag group of loners may interest some, described as “ex-cons, fugitives and men unfit for mankind,” but mostly they’re a bunch of drunkards and carousers who think of little other than pleasing themselves.  Hired to shoot wolves or other predators that may attack the men at work, Ottway is a trained marksman and outdoorsman.  Add this to the movies that make great use of snow, as nearly every image of this film shot in ‘Scope by Masanobu Takayanagi beautifully captures the immensity of the snow-filled landscape.  The set up is a plane back to civilization that mysteriously crashes, leaving but a handful of survivors who are immediately overcome by the harsh and brutal elements of the Alaskan wild, also a pack of giant-sized wolves that seem to have them surrounded.  John Carpenter’s ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 (1976) immediately comes to mind, as the men must hunker down into a strategic bunker mentality to save themselves, where big shot heroes on their own are usually the first ones to make themselves easy targets.  One might wish Carpenter had the reins of this film, as he’s a master of suspense films.  Carnahan doesn’t disappoint, but the script does, adapted by the director along with short story writer Ian Mackenzie Jeffers from the latter’s work Ghost Walker.  The dialog never rises above ordinary, even as their circumstances are extraordinary, which is the film’s biggest drawback, as the extravagant landscape always overpowers the bleak interior drama. 

Once out in the frozen tundra, just seven men survive, where Ottway fends off an attack by wolves, helped by the intervention of others and wounded on his knee, but one of the others doesn’t make it through the night.  On Ottway’s recommendation, they make a break for the distant treeline, where his judgment as leader is immediately questioned, as these are not men used to paying other people’s notions any mind, but are outcasts and social misfits who follow their own instincts.  Nonetheless, in the run across the empty plain, the wolves pick off the weakest link, the one with the biggest mouth who lags behind, which leads to a ridiculous display of bravado, useless out there, as the wolves are closing in.  One by one, the men are being picked off, where all they have are primitive weapons of sticks to fend them off.  If truth be told, the over talkative early portion of the film is the least effective, as these men have little of interest to say, sounding very clichéd, but as their ranks grow thinner, the film takes on a more wordless existential quality which is a huge improvement, growing grimmer and bleaker by the minute.  The futility of their efforts begins to resemble André de Toth’s DAY OF THE OUTLAW (1959), where Robert Ryan leads a group of outlaws through a mountain pass impassable by the brutally harsh conditions of snow in winter, where one by one they start to die in the blistering cold where the wind is too ferocious to even light a fire.  These men in the Alaskan wilderness need fire to fend off the wolves and to keep from freezing to death. 

One must suspend belief to accept the premise of this film, as this does not at all represent the accurate size or look of Alaskan wolves, nor their pack behavior, as if they wanted to attack them all in one flurry, there are more than enough wolves to finish them off at any time, but generally wolves do not attack humans unless provoked.  In this film, rather than attack as a pack, which is their nature, they instead send out small scouting parties as the others look on, watching, which is simply a writer’s invention.  However, in this manner, the filmmaker is able to build and sustain tension, especially when only a few men are left, as the fatal consequences loom larger.  Using terror as the threat of the unknown, the attacks are a blur of indistinct shapes and sizes, where the evidence left behind is dismally gruesome.  Flashback sequences and hallucinations help portray the deteriorating state of mind, where the men grow delirious as well as exhausted from trying to walk through the snow to safety, hoping to find a lone hunter’s cabin around the next bend. Always holding out hope, while continually pressed into greater survival mode, the men are fully tested by the ominous void of impending gloom that hangs in the air.  The conditions are never anything but unrelenting and merciless, where God is inevitably challenged to show himself, as otherwise all is lost.  In the end, each man must face his own interior demons as he’s about to be engulfed by the unyielding indifference of the wild, as this barren landscape has withstood eons of insufferable winds and cold without any sign of man’s footprint. Interestingly, there’s a final shot that comes after the end credits roll.      

Outrage (Autoreiji)

OUTRAGE (Autoreiji)                 B                 

Japan  (109 mi)  2010  ‘Scope  d:  Takeshi Kitano

From the opening shot, an upscale Japanese restaurant featuring a gathering of stone-faced yakuza men, an all-male clan of gangsters where there’s not a woman to be seen, all but invisible in this picture of male domination where women are either nonexistent or a pleasant afterthought.  The shot of the parked cars is amusing enough, a line of luxury black sedans like Lexus or Mercedes, most featuring not one but two chauffeurs, where as the cars drive out afterwards the restaurant employees keep their heads bowed until the last car has left.  This is a film faithful to an all but extinct way of life, much like the American fascination with Westerns or the Japanese with samurai movies, where these are the last of the aging gunslingers, wealthy beyond imagination, where they run a monopoly of drug, gambling and prostitution houses, where accepting weekly payoffs keeps them in business, which they feed to the police to turn a blind eye.  There is no honor among thieves, as this cutthroat business simply eliminates its competition every chance it gets, much like a corporate buy out, where young sharks are continually on the loose eying new territory as their own.  The head of the clan is known as Mr. Chairman (Sôichirô Kitamura), where all are subordinate to him, with vying families paying him tribute and respect, even as they jockey for position through neighborhood disputes usually involving money, which they elevate to lack of respect, requiring some humiliating consequence, often involving someone’s life along with loss of territory, which means a demand for more money.  Debts are paid through human sacrifice, the greater the debt, the bigger the slaughter.  Much of it plays out like the Shakespearean Wars of the Roses, a 15th century family squabble of lies and deception, not to mention bloodlust, where ascension to the throne required total decimation of your enemies along with their heirs.   

For some reason, Kitano has developed a highly tuned skill set for filming shocking violence in yakuza movies, where harsh and unremitting gang violence is his specialty, beginning with his first film VIOLENT COP (1989), followed by two masterworks, SONATINE (1993) and FIREWORKS (1997), where much like Clint Eastwood, though with less international acclaim, Kitano always stars as the baddest dude in the movie, a one-man force, usually writing, directing, and editing his films as well.  Kitano brings an updated, modern flair to an old world genre, using a deadpan style of acting, a man of few words, remaining cool and collected while action swirls all around him, often to the point of comic absurdity, as Kitano has continually discovered ingenious ways to inflict violence or kill someone with an economy of means, like a pair of chopsticks, a knife to the neck, or a quick strike of a blade.  In this film, two men willingly chop their fingers off as a gesture of atonement, and in both cases it isn’t enough, as it is seen as a punk gesture.  This protection racket is a façade of loyalty built around a constantly shifting world of betrayal and deceit, where men are promised positions and power, but must carry out acts of retribution to earn it, where they are usually murdered themselves before they can ever achieve what they were promised.  OUTRAGE offers a placid stillness, a meditative calm at the center of all things, where brokered deals from the top provide the illusion of peace and harmony, where under the surface restless agitation reigns, where those forces better prepared to outwit and surprise their enemies are victorious, but only until someone has a chance to outwit them in return.  It’s a musical chairs game of chance where stillness is the goal, but rarely ever achieved, as it’s almost always a temporary mirage.

Arresting imagery is another Kitano trademark, featuring modernist Japanese architecture blended together with the ancient, where modern day resorts with giant windows overlook the sea, oftentimes surrounded by well-tended gardens, including the Buddhist raked sand aesthetic that offers contemplative inspiration, a touch of the divine while men are plotting how best to annihilate their opposition.  It’s interesting how Kitano himself is not a crime boss, but is mostly used as a fix-it man, a guy who cleans up other people’s messes, continually asked to bend but not break, to remain flexible to the needs of others, but never draw too much attention to himself or overshadow his superiors, where he remains a professional operative, a specialist in the trade.  While this film features an impressive cast, the ranks quickly dwindle, subject to wave after wave of attack and counter attack, where it’s often difficult to tell who’s fighting who, where all anyone knows for sure is that nothing remains static, that life remains in a constant state of flux, where in this profession a knowledge of sin is required in eradicating worse sins from within your ranks.  Skimming off the top is an obscenely futile gesture, as money is not subject to question, but is a carefully calculated staple within the yakuza business enterprises, as everyone wants it, but few control the means to hold onto it.  Men are expendable and are more easily sacrificed than losing money, so little time is spent developing friendships, as it’s all about accumulating masses of wealth and power  It’s interesting to see where a few of these men end up by the finale, those that survive, as they were likely working for them all along even as they were innocuously and invisibly distributed through various family operations.  One of the best attributes of this film is the synth musical score, very much in the atmospheric mood of a John Carpenter film, adding suspense and an elegant classicism to the movie.  Already Kitano is busy shooting the sequel OUTRAGE 2, delayed apparently by earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disaster.