This is a film for real men . The opening ten minutes is wall to wall testerone as oil workers in Alska let off a bit of steam by getting blind drunk and breaking chairs over each others heads . If you're a woman skip these scenes because there's so much male hormone on screen that you might just end up pregnant . Halleluha a miracle has happened . If that's not enough we're going to be trated to a plane crash more vivid than the one seen in ALIVE
Actually we don't because the film cheats on this score . Instead of bodies flying through the air and massive on screen carnage the movie cuts to Liam Neeson's character Ottway having a dream about his wife then it cuts to Ottway lying on the ground . Why he's several hundred yards away from the plane wreckage or how he survived this crash is never explained , though one can speculate that perhaps the production budget had everything to do with it
The crash has obviously left Ottway severely brain damaged because he's lost all common sense . First thing he does is tell a man bleeding to death is that he's going to die and not to let it worry him . Second thing he does is tell everyone to build a fire otherwise they'll freeze to death . The fact that there's massive amounts of unburnt plane fuel splashed around the vicinity doesn't bother anyone . Thirdly on finding out they're surrounded by wolves that will kill them he orders everyone in to a far away forest . Why will this be safer for the survivors ? I think because we wouldn't have a film if they didn't
No doubt a lot of people problem with THE GREY is the portrayal of wolves and I totally agree . These aren't the wolves you see on National Geographic - these are the type of wolves you see in films with Lon Chaney Jnr . In fact they go beyond even that as Ottway informs both the survivors and the audience that they have a hunting radius of 300 miles and a kill radius of 30 . Hmmmm . So if you trek in to a forest in the distance that will put you out of both their hunting and kill radius ?
There's an entire lack of logic to any of this film . Ottway says that they'll never be found because " they'd [ The rescue authorities ] would need to send 50 planes to find us " ! Wouldn't the authorities know where the plane had crashed simply by where it disappeared on the radar ? It's even pointed out that someone has a watch with a GPS beacon giving out a signal. We've all read these survival books and they all say stay with the wreckage and trying to trek in the middle of nowhere is the worst thing you can do . Of course Ottway could have stated that if the wolves have access to the dead bodies they wouldn't be interested in potential live prey but hence they've got a motive to leave the crash site this seems beyond the screenwriters thinking
One aspect of the film is the humanist element . People who rely on God are going to be disappointed when their prayers go UNanswered and it's up to every individual to make their own way in life without hoping for the intervention of a miracle but the people seen in THE GREY are so idiotic that you can't help thinking any humanism being used is painfully ironic . Of course the other train of thought is that by being so idiotic then it's a classic example of Darwin in action and the wolves deserved their feast. Bon appetit wolfie
Actually we don't because the film cheats on this score . Instead of bodies flying through the air and massive on screen carnage the movie cuts to Liam Neeson's character Ottway having a dream about his wife then it cuts to Ottway lying on the ground . Why he's several hundred yards away from the plane wreckage or how he survived this crash is never explained , though one can speculate that perhaps the production budget had everything to do with it
The crash has obviously left Ottway severely brain damaged because he's lost all common sense . First thing he does is tell a man bleeding to death is that he's going to die and not to let it worry him . Second thing he does is tell everyone to build a fire otherwise they'll freeze to death . The fact that there's massive amounts of unburnt plane fuel splashed around the vicinity doesn't bother anyone . Thirdly on finding out they're surrounded by wolves that will kill them he orders everyone in to a far away forest . Why will this be safer for the survivors ? I think because we wouldn't have a film if they didn't
No doubt a lot of people problem with THE GREY is the portrayal of wolves and I totally agree . These aren't the wolves you see on National Geographic - these are the type of wolves you see in films with Lon Chaney Jnr . In fact they go beyond even that as Ottway informs both the survivors and the audience that they have a hunting radius of 300 miles and a kill radius of 30 . Hmmmm . So if you trek in to a forest in the distance that will put you out of both their hunting and kill radius ?
There's an entire lack of logic to any of this film . Ottway says that they'll never be found because " they'd [ The rescue authorities ] would need to send 50 planes to find us " ! Wouldn't the authorities know where the plane had crashed simply by where it disappeared on the radar ? It's even pointed out that someone has a watch with a GPS beacon giving out a signal. We've all read these survival books and they all say stay with the wreckage and trying to trek in the middle of nowhere is the worst thing you can do . Of course Ottway could have stated that if the wolves have access to the dead bodies they wouldn't be interested in potential live prey but hence they've got a motive to leave the crash site this seems beyond the screenwriters thinking
One aspect of the film is the humanist element . People who rely on God are going to be disappointed when their prayers go UNanswered and it's up to every individual to make their own way in life without hoping for the intervention of a miracle but the people seen in THE GREY are so idiotic that you can't help thinking any humanism being used is painfully ironic . Of course the other train of thought is that by being so idiotic then it's a classic example of Darwin in action and the wolves deserved their feast. Bon appetit wolfie