"So we were going east all right, which is a total Gerry..."
One of the most important accomplishments of renowned arthouse and indie director Gus Van Sant is 'The Death Trilogy". It consisted of three separate movies (Gerry, Elephant, and Last Days) that acted as reflections on existentialism and death, filmed in an unconventional manner that emphasized time and space much more than character and plotting. Of the three, Gerry is the most acclaimed; a story of two male friends being lost in a desert, low on dialogue and action but extremely thick on atmosphere and philosophical implications.Release Year: 2002
Country: United States
Genre: Psychological drama
Director: Gus Van Sant
Screenwriter: Casey Affleck, Matt Damon, Gus Van Sant
Cinematography: Harris Savides
Music: Arvo Part
Editing: Casey Affleck, Matt Damon, Gus Van Sant
Actors: Casey Affleck, Matt Damon
Country: United States
Genre: Psychological drama
Director: Gus Van Sant
Screenwriter: Casey Affleck, Matt Damon, Gus Van Sant
Cinematography: Harris Savides
Music: Arvo Part
Editing: Casey Affleck, Matt Damon, Gus Van Sant
Actors: Casey Affleck, Matt Damon
The term "Gerry" refers to the nicknames of both main characters (their real names are never revealed), and also used by them to refer to something dumb in general (apparently, it can be used as either noun, verb, or adjective, as in "Stop being a Gerry", "We keep Gerrying this", and "You're so Gerry"). There is a lot of these 'Gerry-situations' in the movie, starting from how the two friends being lost in a desert, without having any food or water on them. From there, it's a (very) slow romp through the vast landscape as their hope of making it out alive steadily fades away.
If the idea of watching two people stumble along slowly and occasionally mumbling to each other for almost the whole movie's duration sounds terribly dull to you, then stay far away. Van Sant constantly favored long camera shots throughout, with each shot averaged 10 minutes in length; the grand total of shots is 100, which is a remarkably low number for a feature film. Majority of them are tracking shots of the two characters walking (often bereft of sound except for the steady, crunching, noise of footsteps) or simply shots that locked in a certain part of the massive landscape. Again, if you cannot bear having to stare at the same thing (sky, canyon, two people walking) for 5-10 minutes, Gerry will probably bore you out of your mind.
However, once we're willing to adapt with the extremely slow pace and soak in the atmosphere, we shall be able to appreciate what Gerry has to offer. The cinematography is oftentimes beautiful, but more importantly, it reflects a Human vs. Nature conflict in its purest. There are no hungry predators or natural disaster, yet the overwhelming canyon, boundless sand, and scorching sun all combine into Nature's ruthless punishment for living mortalsstupid Gerry enough to underestimate it.
(the above screenshot, by the way, represented what I consider as the movie's best scene; it is when Gerry [Affleck] somehow got himself rock-marooned while Gerry [Damon] look at him from far below. The far-away angle of the camera, the quiet exchange between the two, and the laborious length make the scene so much more effective than it supposed to be).
The acting and characterization are as minimalistic as they could ever be, yet so much can be inferred about the two characters. Affleck and Damon, who also co-wrote and co-edited the film, establish their characters' relationship and behavioral dynamic not through lengthy exposition or dramatic moments, but through sparse exchange of words and--more importantly--through the many periods of silence, either the comfortable kind or the tense kind of silence. The deceptively flat and unemotional acting conceal a complex set of emotions beneath the surface, which culminates in the shocking ending.
The plot of Gerry never really becomes more complicated or dramatic than the premise of "two friends got lost, walk in vain", and yet the underlying themes brim with the density; of male relationship, arrogance, hopelessness, faith, and death as the ultimate form of mercy. Above all, it is a quiet and elegant observation of two mortals flailing around something so overpowering, ageless, and oppressive.
If the idea of watching two people stumble along slowly and occasionally mumbling to each other for almost the whole movie's duration sounds terribly dull to you, then stay far away. Van Sant constantly favored long camera shots throughout, with each shot averaged 10 minutes in length; the grand total of shots is 100, which is a remarkably low number for a feature film. Majority of them are tracking shots of the two characters walking (often bereft of sound except for the steady, crunching, noise of footsteps) or simply shots that locked in a certain part of the massive landscape. Again, if you cannot bear having to stare at the same thing (sky, canyon, two people walking) for 5-10 minutes, Gerry will probably bore you out of your mind.
However, once we're willing to adapt with the extremely slow pace and soak in the atmosphere, we shall be able to appreciate what Gerry has to offer. The cinematography is oftentimes beautiful, but more importantly, it reflects a Human vs. Nature conflict in its purest. There are no hungry predators or natural disaster, yet the overwhelming canyon, boundless sand, and scorching sun all combine into Nature's ruthless punishment for living mortals
(the above screenshot, by the way, represented what I consider as the movie's best scene; it is when Gerry [Affleck] somehow got himself rock-marooned while Gerry [Damon] look at him from far below. The far-away angle of the camera, the quiet exchange between the two, and the laborious length make the scene so much more effective than it supposed to be).
The acting and characterization are as minimalistic as they could ever be, yet so much can be inferred about the two characters. Affleck and Damon, who also co-wrote and co-edited the film, establish their characters' relationship and behavioral dynamic not through lengthy exposition or dramatic moments, but through sparse exchange of words and--more importantly--through the many periods of silence, either the comfortable kind or the tense kind of silence. The deceptively flat and unemotional acting conceal a complex set of emotions beneath the surface, which culminates in the shocking ending.
The plot of Gerry never really becomes more complicated or dramatic than the premise of "two friends got lost, walk in vain", and yet the underlying themes brim with the density; of male relationship, arrogance, hopelessness, faith, and death as the ultimate form of mercy. Above all, it is a quiet and elegant observation of two mortals flailing around something so overpowering, ageless, and oppressive.
No comments:
Post a Comment