MovieChat Forums > The Grey (2012) Discussion > A thoughtful meditation on death

A thoughtful meditation on death

posted 8 years ago by markdancedcrazy
13 replies | jump to latest

This is not a film about surviving, this is a film about dying. How should we face the cruel inevitability of the end coming for us all? Perhaps you are afraid to live, as Ottoway is in the beginning with a gun in his mouth. Most people are afraid to die, like the bleeding man Ottoway comforts in his final moments. The poem his father wrote is a bit on the nose, but it perfectly encapsulates what happens in The Grey.

The wolves are literally and figuratively death, coming to drag away the living and devour them. When the void is staring at you, do you fight? Run in fear? Deny it and act tough? Or find a modicum of peace and acceptance? Ottoway knows the answer, but he wants a power higher than himself to acknowledge it. For him, that higher power doesn't exist or if it does, it's unwilling to intervene. I believe it's the latter that he finds at the end, when he curses towards the sky.

God is just as cruel and incomprehensible as death; in fact, death is really the only God. Faced with the pain and unfairness of existence, what is the one thing humanity can do? We love each other, not just care for or take care of, but truly love each other. Wolves, ice, plane engines, cancer -- these things cannot love us or hate us, either. Love is a spiritual act, which is what Ottoway understands at the end of the film. And in loving, he is redeemed and accepts his death.

It's not about the will to live -- it's about the will to die, which is much more terrifying, honest, and powerful.

p.s., I think this is a deeply Gnostic Christian story, but that is beyond the scope of this.

[–] heisenberg12 8 years ago

Well said, I agree with most of this, but there's more to it too. Surprised you only gave it a 7 with such a relatively passionate explanation of it. Most people who rate it 9 or above see it in the spiritual/philosophical/metaphysical way, at least it seems that way, on here.

[–] markdancedcrazy 8 years ago

The rating I gave it is because I don't think the film is entirely successful at what it wants to do. The tone is a little unfocused, veering from action setpieces to introspection in a way that is jarring at times. A few plot elements are simply too easy -- Ottoway's father's poem is too relevant and perfect, I feel. You might take issue with Ottoway's extraordinary survival skills, too, but most of that can be explained away as the fantasy of a dying man. Still, it's somewhat lazy writing that is a little contrived when an onscreen problem needs a solution.

I think there was a great movie in there, and this comes close but each time it gets to the spirituality at the core, it backs away to let the audience know that this is still an action movie. I'd love to see more films approach this subject with any kind of nuance like this, but we rarely see that.

And you are correct about spirituality vs god. It's a spiritual film, not a religious one.

[–] Seventy_Two_Raisins 8 years ago

There is no God in The Grey.

Monkey with small testicles roar loudest -- Confucius

[–] heisenberg12 8 years ago

Carnahan actually implies there is, specifying not in a religious way but spiritual one.

[–] Seventy_Two_Raisins 8 years ago

Where?

Monkey with small testicles roar loudest -- Confucius

[–] heisenberg12 8 years ago

I read it in one of his interviews. Tmt to sort through all them but this one came up: " There?s little contradiction along the way. Like, you mentioned the scene of Liam yelling away at the heavens, but in the next scene he?s making a very Christian memorial with the wallets. When he wraps a wallet in his hand, it?s like a prayer. I think, like I said, there?s that duality in all of ourselves." actually, maybe he was full atheist but after reading this and also Carnahan's talk of his own spirituality, it sounded like Ottway was somewhere "in between"..I could be wrong, if I am no big deal, but the interview surprisingly talked about spirituality, religion and God and specifically quotes like this one so it seemed like he was getting more into that than I originally had heard about. I apologize in advance if I misread it.

[–] Seventy_Two_Raisins 8 years ago

I really don't care about what Carnahan has said on this subject. I'm asking about the movie. Where in the movie is God? Where in the movie is there even the slightest representation of the possibility of God existing? This movie seems to go to great lengths to suggest that there is no God.

Monkey with small testicles roar loudest -- Confucius

[–] markdancedcrazy 8 years ago

Whether or not there is a God is not the point; the idea in the film is that Ottoway struggles with and against the concept. Why would a god put his creations through so much pain? Why should people live, if they can only die? For Ottoway, his life had ended long before the plane crash.

There is the shadow of a "God" that looms over the characters, and Ottoway specifically. It's irrelevant if any of them believe in this god.

[–] Seventy_Two_Raisins 8 years ago

Where in the movie does Ottway struggle with the concept?

Monkey with small testicles roar loudest -- Confucius

[–] markdancedcrazy 8 years ago

Near the end when he specifically curses god and shouts at the sky, but more generally he is a man who is angry at a world that seems to cause only pain and death. He questions the value of life -- nearly committing suicide in the beginning of the film.

Again, I don't mean religious "God", but spirituality in general, the big questions of why and how. The existential themes at the center of the movie -- mainly, the seeming pointlessness of life and death -- are what Ottoway is grappling with. This is god to Ottoway, the overwhelming and incomprehensible nature of the world.

[–] Seventy_Two_Raisins 8 years ago

The only thing Ottway was struggling with was his monumental stupidity.

Monkey with small testicles roar loudest -- Confucius

[–] markdancedcrazy 8 years ago

What a thoughtful response.

[–] Signal_Intrusion 8 years ago

Great post. Do agree.