Once More Into the Fray

SPOILERS

I’m updating the draft of my book and came across what I wrote in one of the later chapters:

“Coincidentally, The Grey is the title of a quality film that I’ve seen, starring Liam Neeson as a person who protects oil workers in Alaska from being attacked by grey wolves. The film is partly a study in depression and fighting one’s demons, as the character played by Liam Neeson intends to kill himself at the beginning of the film and then decides not to, but the film then stays just as depressing from there. He and the other oil workers survive a plane crash, then have to survive an assault from a pack of grey wolves. There’s a great moment in the movie where the pack of wolves is eerily peering into their encampment from above, a scene similar to nightmares I had as a child.

There’s a poem that is used as a motif for the movie that goes:

I decided to revisit this movie, as I believe it to be Neeson’s best. What makes it so good to me is that it’s a film about death disguised as a survival film. All of the characters are getting picked off by death one by one throughout the movie and it becomes obvious toward the end that Ottway (Neeson’s character) isn’t going to make it, either.

One way of interpreting the color scheme in the movie is that white represents life, black represents death, and grey represents an in between state, or a state of heading towards one’s death. This is seen early on in the movie when Ottway, very much alive, is wearing a bright white coat heading into the bar. When he leaves deciding to kill himself, but decides not to, his clothing color has changed to grey the next day getting onto the plane.

The subsequent plane crash is probably my favorite of any movie. When the survivors get together is when other very strong performances occur. Frank Grillo as Diaz is great, as is Dallas Roberts as Hendrick. There’s a great moment between the three when they all shake hands and tell each other their first names when Diaz has given up to die.

I love the fact that it’s the real elements the actors are battling and not fictitious snow and/or cold air. It makes the movie so much more real and believable. The wolves are well done and whatever animatronics they used were indistinguishable from the real thing. The soundtrack or theme is great, too.

The movie is not completely without flaws, though. Ottway would be dead from hypothermia within minutes of getting out of the river and it’s a long stretch to believe that he would even be able to walk for a bit to discover that he’s been walking towards the wolf den. There’s other moments too, like the fact that Ottway was ejected from the plane. This doesn’t make sense, but it does reinforce the color scheme of white being life, as he is thrust into the snow very much surviving the plane crash.

The ambiguous ending is perfect, though, because the outcome is already known. Ottway, still in his grey shirt squaring off against the alpha wolf, mostly black in color, means Ottway is going to die. Ottway is going to both live and die on this day, and probably the wolf too. But, neither are going out without a big fight. What I don’t like is the tacked on post-credits scene that shows the alpha wolf likely taking its last breaths with Ottway laying on the wolf with it unclear whether he’s alive or dead. The scene is unnecessary.

I find the criticism of the movie’s brief discussions of God to be unfounded, whether it be criticism against atheism or theism. These are real men having real discussions about God.

Grade: A+