Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

The Grey Blu-ray Movie Review

No, it's not about the weather in the Pacific Northwest.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 3, 2012

Liam Neeson is one of the few actors who has the physical presence to portray reckless brute force, but who can also be counted on to give performances lit with a deep interior life and an active intelligence. Even in frankly substandard genre fare like Taken, Neeson is that rare commodity who seems to effortlessly combine athletic prowess with keen insight into his characters. Those two abilities are on display again in The Grey, an often riveting Man vs. Nature film that manages to defy its genre leanings and provide thrills along with a fair amount of philosophizing, a tendency which will either enthrall viewers or drive them crazy. The Grey is a film that desperately wants to be taken seriously, despite its setup of a bunch of stranded air disaster survivors attempting to outwit, outlast and outplay a pack of marauding wolves, a premise that reeks of low budget B-movies. What plays out, though, is an often fascinating dialectic not just between the survivors and the wolves, but between the survivors as well, as they individually and collectively face their own mortality. The Grey doesn’t waste a lot of time getting to its central section. We’re quickly introduced to Neeson’s character of Ottway, a far north oil field worker whose job it is to patrol the area’s outer perimeter and kill marauding wolves who pose a threat to the other workers there. Ottway seems finely attuned to the “circle of life” (in one of this film’s frankly most hackneyed conceits), the sort of guy who comforts a wolf he’s just shot as it’s in its death throes (something Ottway does later with a human, obviously no mere coincidence). We’re also introduced to a recurring memory-hallucination (depending on the context), where Ottway recalls a langorous moment in bed with his wife, from whom he seems to be estranged. Or is he? The supposed “twist” of that element of The Grey will come as no major surprise to anyone with a handle on Screenwriting 101, but it’s really a relatively minor gaffe in what is otherwise a remarkably facile screenplay by director Joe Carnahan (The A-Team) and Ian MacKenzie Jeffers. A couple of other secondary characters are introduced as Ottway and part of a crew boards a chartered flight which will take them back home to Anchorage. And then the plane goes down in the frozen tundra.

For fans of Lost who may have only recently returned to the skies of mass market commercial aviation after that series’ devastatingly real airplane crash, be prepared to once again assume your collective fetal positions, as The Grey presents one of the most horrifying recreations of an airline in distress in recent memory, one which more than capably sets up a major subtext of the film, a feeling of powerlessness in the face of overwhelming events beyond anyone’s control. It’s a terrifying and unsettling sequence which is only capped by the follow up, as Ottway regains conciousness in a snowfield, initially discombobulated and not quite realizing where he is, until he stumbles forward and a crane shot reveals the disturbing after effects of a major airline disaster, including such gorey sights as a body cut in half at the seat belt level. Ottway quickly goes into command mode, rounding up all the survivors he can quickly find (and as noted above, helping one barely alive man make his “transition”). The group of survivors forage for combustible items to help them survive the intense cold of the approaching night, a night which introduces Ottway to an unexpected new threat, attacking wolves.

That sets the film on the bulk of its second act, where Ottway leads a haggard group of a half dozen or so men on a quest to find help, since it’s obvious to Ottway that no rescue team will ever be able to locate the group in such an immense expanse, especially since time is running out anyway with regard to the elements and the wolves. It can’t be argued that the group is made up of Types instead of full blooded characters, but under Carnahan’s fleet footed direction, it’s really not as much of a detriment as one might initially suppose. The focus here is squarely on Ottway and how he shepherds the men through the nightmare they’re experiencing. Some are combative, others are resigned to their fate. Ottway lives by the mantra “don’t be afraid”, a phrase that crops up in his recurring vision of his wife in bed (yet another clue as to what’s really going on with regard to that character). Ottway, who flirts with suicide in the film’s opening gambit, is now faced with an ironic dilemma as at least a couple of the men in his charge basically want to commit suicide themselves, giving in to the encroaching dual threats of freezing to death or being torn asunder by wolves. How can Ottway help these men when he’s beset by such thoughts himself, even if he doesn’t openly express them?

The central conflict of The Grey turns out to not really be between the men and the wolves or even between the men themselves, but instead the competing ideologies of giving in to the supposed inevitable or fighting as long as one is able. Though it’s a poem about the ravages of old age, one is reminded of Dylan Thomas’ iconic Do not go gentle into that good night, with its repeated phrase “Rage, rage against the dying of the light”, for that is the ultimate decision that Ottway eventually realizes he has come to, after a serious of calamitous events that leaves him isolated and surrounded by the wolves. It’s here that the film ultimately “reveals” the supposed secret about Ottway’s recurring memories of his wife, and leads to what many have complained is an ambiguous and weirdly attenuated ending. This is one film that requires sitting through the credits to arrive at the final “sting”, a brief coda that actually provides the answer some have claimed the film lacks. It may not be an entirely comforting resolution, but it is in its own way an affirmation of the force of will in the face of unrelenting terror, and as such it does provide a potent response to all of the questioning that has gone before.

The Grey Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Grey is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Universal with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. All of you Universal bashers out there (and you know who you are) who insist Universal is seemingly genetically incapable of providing transfers with natural grain intact (at least with regard to their catalog releases), rejoice! The Grey is one of the outright grainiest looking films in recent memory, obviously by design, something that gives the film a certain cinema verité ambience. The grain does tend to occasionally overwhelm the image, especially in snow strewn scenes where there's an expanse of white, littered with nothing other than the specks of grain. Contrast is intentionally kept on the low side quite a bit of the time, leading the murky shadow detail, again no doubt by design. While this transfer doesn't exactly scream high definition, it very accurately reproduces what Carnahan and cinematographer Masanobu Takayanagi were obviously going for. While the film has obviously been tweaked in post to desaturate and filter the image, this is a great looking presentation for the most part which remains incredibly cinematic and faithful to the look of the original theatrical exhibition.

The Grey Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Grey's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix is, in a word, impeccable. Surround activity is completely consistent throughout the film, creating a wide open sound field through which everything from whistling wind to howling wolves floats, sometimes incredibly ominously. Discrete channelization is the norm rather than the exception, with a huge variety of well placed ambient environmental effects immersing the listener in a very real seeming sonic environment. The plane crash presents especially fine work, with the terrifying sound of jet engines in distress and some really riveting LFE when the plane starts to break apart. Dialogue is well handled and well prioritized, but it's the nonstop recreation of the elements that is the most striking thing about this reference quality lossless soundtrack.

The Grey Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Feature Commentary with Co-writer – Director Joe Carnahan and Editors Roger Barton and Jason Hellmann. Though this is a somewhat sporadic commentary, there's a lot of good information here, though the three participants are awfully self-congratulatory a lot of the time. Some of the technical data here, like how they filmed the plane crash, is the most interesting (though Carnahan throws some of his A-Team crew under the bus when comparing them to his crew on this film). The three also defend their lambasted decision on how to end the film, but much like the ending itself, the most bristling part of this commentary is toward the end when a bunch of epithets are lobbed by Carnahan at Executive Producer Bill Johnson as the credits play.


• Deleted Scenes (HD; 22:25) contain a surprisingly varied and lengthy amount of six additional sequences, including some more showdowns with the elements, and of course the recurrent vision of Ottway's wife.

The Grey Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The Grey's is a very compelling film, one anchored by Neeson's fierce depiction of a wounded soul searching for a reason to keep on living. This isn't the typical "survivor" outing, and it's not even really about the wolves, as Carnahan and the editors mention in their commentary (which may in fact be a bit self serving since animal rights groups were up in arms over the film's portrayal of wolves, as well as some alleged use of wolf meat to feed the cast and crew at one point). The film may strike some as too pretentiously philosophical for its own good, but The Grey obviously has ambitions to rise above its genre leanings and deliver something more thoughtful. The much debated ending is probably the best evidence of what exactly Carnahan wanted the audience to experience, for better or worse. Though the supplemental features on this Blu-ray are disappointingly slim, both video and especially audio are incredible, and this release comes Recommended.