The Abyss

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: No
Watched With: Alex

This is one of the best movie ever made period. For the sheer audacity of the filmmaking and for the epic final product. For some reason even many James Cameron fans don't seem to know about it. And it's not out on bluray. These things both need to change.

James Cameron makes big movies. And not just long movies, but big ones, where you get your monies worth in the cinema. They are just so darn satisfying and manage to cram everything you could want from a story into their running time. Now I'm of course looking at the "special edition" cut, I haven watched the theatrical cut for probably 15 years and don't think I ever could again know how the soul of the film was just chopped out. The heart is still there but the whole point of the story seems to have gone.

And for many that's cool, they don't need social messages with their adventure films as was made quite clear when Avatar came out. I want it though. Somehow every time I watch this movie there's a huge stretch of action and finally some gut wrenching character relationship scenes that always get me so worked up I completely forget the start of the film which always make the final moments an unexpected surprise EVERY TIME. I love that. I love that this film is juggling all these narrative threads so expertly and the most esoteric of them is leaves lingering for so long only to pull out the big guns for the finale.

Now we all know Young Sherlock Holmes started the CG craze in feature films, but really this was the film that made it logistically practical for use on productions. Amazing. Not half as amazing as knowing that everything else besides that one effect had to be done either with old techniques or practically.

And boy do they do a lot of this practically. I don't think there'll ever be a production like this again, because they'd just do whole environments with effects now. But nothing beats seeing the real actors doing some bloody dangerous stunt work.

I know the actors went through hell on this film but they are all so good. I love it when Cameron writes for a team or group of characters and he somehow manages to give each one an individual voice and a reason for the audience to love them. Or give you villains that are so big and easy to despise. A bit of a change up for Michael Biehn but he's so good as the villain this time around.

Now the film doesn't have massive Avatar style action but it has its fair share of big sequences. Some thrilling and really cool stuff. But most importantly throughout these sequences and the drama around them is this rising tension that just never lets up. Probably in no small part due to the inhospitable location that's just a s scary as deep space. Anyone with a fear of drowning will have many a heart stopping moment.

Which leads to that one scene that I know is coming and I still have a hard time making it through it's so overwhelmingly intense. That dreaded inevitability just creeps up in that scene and makes for probably the biggest hold and joyous release of tension I've ever seen in any film ever.

Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio are the heart of this film and it's a beautifully realised relationship. God, they are so good. More than Ripley and Hicks, more than Sarah and Kyle and even more than Jack and Rose, I want these two to survive this and get together. Which is why the rest of the film works so well.

And Alan Silvestri's score! So Good!

Incase you can't tell, I just love this film. So good to watch again.