willoneill wrote:Based on the trailers, I was expecting a Taken-esque "Liam Neeson goes badass on a pack of wolves", but it's definitely not that at all. In fact, I would call it more of a serious meditation on death (and a little bit on "manliness" for lack of a better word). There's not a lot of action, but plenty of poignant moments. Plus, what I would call the perfect ending, though some may not like it. This is definitely one of the best Liam Neeson performances I've seen it a long time.
Sorry for the years later thread bump on this but I caught the film on television last night and surprisingly enjoyed it a lot. Though I know I shouldn't have been I ended up being quite surprised at the sheer bleakness of the film, which is almost a showcase of all of the worst possible ways to die that one could ever imagine! I went into this very much with the expectations of willoneill's first post above (that was really what put me off for the longest time, after having been really annoyed by the politics underpinning Taken!) mixed with Alive (which amusingly gets namechecked early on! I suppose that adds a little extra ironic commentary to the way that you can only relate to your horrible current circumstances by saying that they are just like an old movie you remember!), though the big plane crash sequence is not quite as spectacular as Alive's was!
I think though that I could have actually managed without the wolves at all! (Though it did make me realise what the newest Tomb Raider games have been influenced by in their wilderness survival aspects!) The wolves are the 'motivating metaphorical force' who turn up to push the dwindling numbers of survivors onwards, or otherwise pick them off, but they're not really too important beyond that aspect (Its interesting to compare this to David Mamet's film of The Edge with the bear there performing the same role as the wolves here. Only that is slightly less bleak for its characters and suggests that human ingenuity can overcome the wildlife!). A lot of the first two thirds of the film play into this aspect of man vs animal, and implied "who is the smartest/who is the
real monster here?" type questions with the wolves mourning their dead set against Diaz scoffing at collecting the wallets and beheading the cooked wolf to throw back into the night at its companions. Diaz is probably the character with the best character arc in the whole film, and it is interesting that the ostensible 'villain' of the piece, irreverent, irreligious and profane, meeting threat with his own rather cruel counterthreats, is the one most aware and accepting of the end when it is his time, and he gets the best death for that realisation while the rest get 'hounded' (literally!) to their fates.
The first two thirds of the film were fine but perhaps nothing too unconventional for this kind of story, and I really found the whole 'jumping from top of cliff into tree' part rather ridiculous (mostly for the way that the wolves suddenly seem to have teleported from threatening the group whilst up on the cliff to immediately being underneath the tree to catch a falling body!), but after that scene the whole tone of the film changes into something much bleaker and upsetting than even a wilderness survival piece. Diaz's low-key end is the turning point (I love the way the film hangs on his last shot for what seems like forever, which felt rather daring for a major film), but then the whole scene between the last two survivors which follows is amazing:
Major spoilers:
As Neeson's character Ottway is shown to have been seen the night before the plane crash leaving the local bar to go out with his rifle with a suicidal look on his face by Henrick. When they are alone Henrick calls Ottway on this (with an interesting climax to all of the idealised flashback scenes, in this case showing Ottway putting the barrel of his gun in his mouth, that seem to be literalising a character's thoughts (in this case Henrick's concerns) more than being the 'actual objective truth') and suggests that Ottway might have been suicidal all along. Has Ottway really been motivated during this whole situation by a sense of survival? Has he instead known all along that everyone was going to die and that there was no hope, and that's why he has not had as extreme reaction as everyone else to the events?
Suddenly what has been up to this point a rather straightforward 'endurance against the odds' situation felt as if it gained a really interesting sense of ambivalence layered onto its events. Especially the death of Henrick which follows, where he falls into the river and gets his foot caught between some rocks leaving him struggling for breath just inches beneath the surface. I think this is a brilliantly harrowing scene, especially for the way its not entirely certain whether Ottway is actually distresssed and unsure of how to free Henrick before he drowns, or whether Ottway is just 'going through the motions' (including a kiss of life goodbye) for his friend. The way that the scene makes certain that the viewer sees Henrick's foot trapped between the rocks in frequent cuts to it, while Ottway just keeps trying unsuccessfully to pull Henrick up without even checking his foot, seems to be the film's way of suggesting that if only Ottway had checked Henrick's foot, he might have been able to free him. And that then implies that Ottway isn't trying that hard to figure out how to free Henrick, more is just letting him die (just in an even more distressing way) as he did with the guy in the plane just after the crash.
And that might be because Ottway is on his own journey towards death that is easier to make on his own. His pleas to God which receive no reply become a determination that "I'll do it myself then!" and he finally reaches the wolves den. The film kind of presents this as a big "oops!" twist moment where Ottway finally has to reckon with death as all of his companions did before him, but the ambivalence of whether Ottway is suicidal or not creeps in here too. Perhaps Ottway, a 'noted wolf expert' hasn't just stumbled on this location by accident but has planned to go out in a blaze of glory all along. Perhaps he was never leading his companions to (illusory) safety but deeper into the heart of darkness. Perhaps Diaz and Ottway are not so different after all in at least choosing the manner of their deaths (basically as manly as possible rather than returning back to a civilisation they have no part to play in), compared to the other guys bickering and dying horribly at the mercy of everyone from bad pilots to wildlife and the elements! Its probably telling that both Diaz and Ottway share the same first name, John. The only difference seems to just be that Ottway wants to die in battle rather than just lie down and accept it (even if he chooses that option for a couple of the other guys!), so he tapes broken bottles and a knife to his hands so that even dead he'll be attached to his foe.
So there's a really interesting final third here, even if it is all
incredibly bleak! (Though manly as hell, of course!). I could have done without all of the sentimental wallet stroking/suicide note laying out in the final scene, but I did like the religious element seemingly becoming less about being 'saved' by God and more about praying for the opportunity to meet your maker in your preferred way, which is all that can really be hoped for. I think its still a bit too conventional until the point where there are only three characters left (Because even 'happy ending' survival films usually involve a lot of the supporting cast getting killed off, and its only when we get to the final three that the bleakness starts to become all too apparent!) and that cliff jumping scene was ridiculous, even if it was one of the earliest foreshaowings of doing suicidally dangerous things because there's no real other choice, so why not go out fighting. I guess it also makes Henrick's horribly tragic and senseless death later on all the worse because he survived a literal leap of faith earlier on! However I'm still surprised to have gone into the film expecting Taken but with wolves (where I was waiting for Neeson to shout "Give me back my daughter!" at the confused animals!), only to have ended up wondering how this would work in comparison to Neeson's role in Silence!
I'd also argue that the brief post-credits scene is the perfect way to end things, maintaining the ambiguity of who is breathing and came out victorious of the fight!
Even if we all know it is most likely the wolf survived, just was stuck with the knife and has been left puppeting Ottway's corpse around!