Movie Analysis (Part 1): “Gravity”
When we think of the movie Gravity, we most likely think BIG.
Big box office: $716M worldwide.
Big spectacle as witnessed by this trailer for the movie:
Big buzz as evidenced by this very trailer being viewed over 11M times on YouTube.
But you know what’s interesting? In interview after interview, co-writer and director Alfonso Cuarón has been emphatic in making this point about the movie: Its small story was equally as important as its big story.
For example in this Studio 360 interview, Cuarón says the following:
The movie is almost a metaphorical journey. Outer space is a metaphor for the inner space of our character (i.e., Ryan Stone).
In this io9 interview, Cuarón says this:
Did you have to fight for the film to be more of a small, character-focused piece? Instead of focusing on all of the destruction?
When we set up to write the script, it was about that. What we were trying to do was a film about adversity and the possible outcome of a rebirth. All of things that fall apart metaphorically, and in the life of this woman (Ryan Stone).
And in this Indiewire interview with Anne Thompson, Cuaron says this [Minute 11:00]: “At the end of the day, it’s about theme and emotion.”
Big story? Yes. A wild roller coaster ride in outer space with survival at its core. But also a small story: How Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) comes to terms with the death of her young daughter. You don’t think that is important to the story? Go check out that trailer again, starting at 01:35:
Kowalski: Where's home, Dr. Stone?
Stone: Lake Zurick, Illinois.
Kowalski: Is there somebody down there looking up, thinking about you?
Stone: I had a daughter. A little girl with brown hair. Tell her that I'm not quitting.
Why would the Warner Bros. marketing department make sure 15 seconds of this trailer referenced Stone’s ‘small’ story if they didn’t think it was important?
I’m not suggesting the small story in Gravity is wholly responsible for its ginormous box office success. What I am saying is this:
* At least some of the positive BWOM (By Word Of Mouth) about this movie derived from the audience’s emotional connection with a mother who has lost her child and is forced to cope with her grief under remarkable circumstances.
* If the filmmakers themselves looked at the movie as a metaphor for the Protagonist dealing with her personal issues, then it makes sense for us to think about the story that way as well.
* No spectacle movie can be considered to be great unless it has a compelling small story at work in it.
Here is what I propose: Over the next week, I’m going to go through the script for Gravity and strip out every single scene that references the movie’s small story. In that process, I am going to focus on three dynamics:
1. The overall arc of that subplot moving from Beginning to End.
2. How the metaphor of outer space services the psychological nature of this subplot.
3. Stone’s metamorphosis as she is forced to grapple with her grief.
More generally, I am hoping each of us will come away with an appreciation for the importance of the machinations of a story’s Internal World balanced against the entertainment value of all the action in its External World.
In that regard, let’s think how filmmakers like Cuarón, Pixar, Steven Spielberg, and James Cameron have a knack for working with small stories that audiences find emotionally resonate and support the spectacle of the External World.
Come back tomorrow for Part 2 of this series on Gravity.
If anyone has a link to other interviews with Cuarón in which he references the importance of the ‘small story’ at work in Gravity, please post in comments.
What did you think of Gravity?
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