Gerry

This film is not currently available on DVD. Film Description Van Sant's homage to Bela Tarr's directorial style sees two friends lost in the desert without provisions, trying to find their way back to the path and their car. Filled with space and silence and suitably accompanied by a score from Arvo Part.

Film Details Director Gus Van Sant Starring Matt Damon, Casey Affleck   Country USA Language ENGLISH   Year 2002

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Review by Graeme Hobbs on 2nd March 2004

Of course, this might all be a satire on the difficulty of transposing particular cinematic style across continents along with the attendant problem of not having the requisite material to sustain its use, but probably not.

The long takes and tracking shots are trademark Bela Tarr devices (the credits acknowledge him with special thanks) and for second-hand style, Gerry can’t be faulted. What is lacking is the sense of portent, the looming feeling that dark times are with us that is such a constituent of Werckmeister Harmonies. The main problem is the leads. In Gerry we are given a pair of inept, slacker-types who look as if they are really trying, you know, to like, (raised inflexion) act. They are so conscious of the effect they want to communicate to the camera that they communicate nothing else. Even when their backs are turned you can hear them thinking things like, ‘I’m like, really lost in this desert and I’m giving off like, dislocation’.

And yet, I can’t completely condemn a film that tries to build a story on those rarest of commodities in film these days, silence and space. It’s unquestionably lovely to look at too, with the landscape given primacy. Interestingly though, and aside from some very effective time-lapse photography of clouds, it isn’t given the chance to assume a character apart from when the sound of the wind is allowed in the film mix. The landscape comes across as neither benign nor malevolent; it just is.

The final walking scene is good, bringing to mind something like Scott’s doomed trudge back to base in the Antarctic. The two of them are invisibly but certainly held together. The ending’s good too; it’s just a shame van Sant doesn’t recognise it when it comes and goes on until, four possible endings later, the film has just you know, kind of, like, (raised inflexion) died.

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Winner of the Golden Palm at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival, Gus Van Sant's Elephant is a brilliant and deeply affecting film that makes a courageous attempt to grasp the malaise of today's youth culture. Van Sant does not attempt to explain Columbine or uncover its u...  View article in full

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