December 15, 2009
''I need you to believe me right now.''
A civilian diving team are enlisted to search for a lost nuclear submarine and face danger while encountering an alien aquatic species.
Ed Harris: Virgil 'Bud' Brigman
The Abyss is the most thought-provoking, imagin...( read more)ative, and beautiful science fiction film out there among the visionary stars of cinema. Master filmmaker and craftsman James Cameron brings us another thoughtful sci-fi epic behind The Terminator (1984) and Aliens(1986); two films that played brilliantly with Cold War-era paranoia, he brings us something that could possibly be the director's most introspective piece.
1989 was quite a year in terms of undersea sci-fi flicks; Leviathan and DeepStar Six taking full advantage of the Alien craze, and while The Abyss had aliens on its mind, these particular extraterrestrials come to us with a message and a purpose; echoing Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
The film begins with the sinking of an American nuclear submarine that was brought down under mysterious circumstances. The navy commandeers a civilian drilling rig to enter the sub and search for survivors. But this ragtag group of blue-collar workers, led by Bud Brigman (Ed Harris) and his ex-wife Lindsey (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), are plagued by a Navy SEAL team's insane leader, Lt. Coffey (Michael Biehn), and a series of bizarre underwater occurrences that could prove that they're not alone on the ocean floor.
The Abyss boasts one of the most compelling science fiction stories of any sci-fi film in the past 20 years. It was James Cameron's third and most powerful film; perhaps not his best according to his hardcore audience and certain critics, despite its groundbreaking computer animation effects and story.
The Abyss released in 1989 with a trimmed down 146 run time. Later when the movie came to video Cameron released his directors adding a significant amount of footage and bringing the time to 171 minutes. Most of this extra footage comes in at the end of the film and stands to clear up some major confusion wrought in the theatrical version. It seems that there are some creates living at the bottom of the ocean and are rather perturbed at humanities prevalence for violence. It seems these creatures (aliens?) can manipulate water and have forced giant tidal waves to start approaching every major port. Humanity is saved when the creatures see the true love between the two main characters.
What Cameron does extremely well in this picture is create tension.
The claustrophobic setting of an underwater oil rig to the potential nuclear meltdown; each scene slowly tightens the screws of suspense.
One among a few favourite scenes involves the sentient being crafted entirely of liquid or water. Cameron's dabbling with effects showing how later in Terminator 2 and even Titanic show his appreciation and love not just for visual bliss but water based imagination in the essence of his many creations. Let us remember also that Cameron's underwater marvel won an Oscar for Best Effects, Visual Effects; they are simply majestic.
The dialogue in Abyss is clunky at times; cliched variety that Cameron brings to pretty much all of his movies. Some of the extemporaneous characters bring little to the overall movie and help distract the viewer from the main plot. I think Cameron has done a very good job with the two main characters though. Ed Harris does a remarkable job playing his role as boss on the rig while still hackling with his wife. Mastrantonio also does a fine job of portraying the tough as nails Lindsay while still remaining feminine and sympathetic.
The directors cut ending is debated in the online world. While it serves to clarify what was a rather abrupt and confusing ending in the original it also becomes quite preachy and is at a loss for any type of subtlety. Cameron attacks his anti-war message like Ripley against Alien.
Even with some confusing dialogue and a preachy ending, The Abyss has still maintained in being not just one of my favourite sci-fi stories but one of the deepest enriched babies out there; The Abyss in essence is as deep as it's title suggests. James Cameron creates tension and imagination like two lovers; a master of his craft. This is Cameron at his most under-rated, most triumphant, most Zen best.
''We have no way of warning the surface. And you know what that means? It means, whatever happens, is up to us.''
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