‘Gravity’: Two Meanings
Even though “Gravity” has been in theaters for a few weeks, I am bowing to pressure from readers who have already seen the movie and urging the rest of you to view this transcendental film on the big screen.
“Gravity,” as everyone knows, is what keeps us firmly rooted to the planet Earth. As postulated by Isaac Newton, gravity is the invisible force that attracts smaller objects to anything with a greater mass. The word also has other meanings—signifying that something is extremely serious or important or that it is solemn in manner. All three definitions apply to Alfonso Cuaron’s spaceflight thriller.
The set-up is simple—the shuttle maintaining the Hubble space telescope collides with debris from an abandoned satellite and the two surviving astronauts, Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and Matt Kowalski (George Clooney), have only 90 minutes before the orbiting cluster of deadly debris returns. Essentially, this is a shipwreck and survival movie with the addition of a ticking time bomb, but unlike “The Blue Lagoon” or “Castaway,” deep space is much less life-affirming than a deserted island.
Cuaron is the undisputed auteur of this film. He is the film’s producer, director and co-editor and he wrote the screenplay with his son, Jonas (with some help from George Clooney). Working closely with cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, Cuaron expanded the subjective nature of the film experience. They use long shots and silence to bring the audience into the hopelessness of the situation; close-ups and ambient noises to heighten the sense of claustrophobia; and masterful constructions of sight, sound and music to contrast the dark void of space and the transcendent nature of literally being in heaven.
Sure to be in contention for numerous technical Oscars, Gravity resonates with the audience because the actors in the spacesuits are perfect for these roles. There are stories that Bullock and Clooney were “replacements” for the studio’s first choices of Angelina Jolie and Robert Downey, Jr., but you can just imagine what the film would have been like with Lara Croft and Tony Stark (Ironman) cast adrift in space.
Instead, we have Sandra Bullock and George Clooney—award-winning, yet still immensely likeable movie stars who audiences already know are intelligent and vulnerable human beings (important traits in this horrific life-or-death situation where they are acting as our vicarious avatars).
Dr. Ryan is the tenderfoot who was working in a large research hospital until she got the call, only six months ago, that she and her experiment were picked to go into space. She is delighted with the choice since it gives her a “keep busy” mission in life—instead of the mind-numbing drives to nowhere she takes after work each day as a very personal way to grieve the accidental schoolyard death of her 4-year-old daughter.
Kowalski is the seasoned space-veteran—the cool-as-a-cucumber voice of calm in the midst of catastrophe. “You are burning too much oxygen,” he calmly advises Ryan over the radio as she summersaults untethered through nothingness. “Breathe slowly. You are sipping wine, not guzzling beer.”
Instead of the crashing sounds and booming explosions used in Gravity’s previews, the final version wisely relies on silence. By the time we witness the inexorably slow, ballet-like movements of a space station breaking apart, we have learned that the only things you “hear” in deep space are those generated from inside your own spacesuit (including that all-important contact with other human beings, your radio). With no outside atmosphere to transmit sound waves, the only other thing you “hear” are the vibrations carried through the ship’s hull and the skeleton of your suit.
And this respectful silence serves another important function. Dr. Ryan is not religious. Her personal history has not included anyone teaching her how to pray. But spirituality transcends religion—and as gravity defines Dr. Ryan’s physical experiences both in space and on Earth, gravity also defines her inner experiences as being extremely serious, important and solemn in manner—and manifestly spiritual.
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