The Gray is an American adventure drama film based on a short story by Ian Mackenzie Jeffers titled Ghost Walker. The film, directed by Joe Carnahan, tells the story of an unruly group of oil workers after a plane crash in Alaska. A pack of gray wolves pursues the crash survivors mercilessly killing all except the lead actor Ralph Ottway (Liam Neason). The oilmen are mortally wounded, and the cold weather only serves to exacerbate their condition. They also have difficulties reaching agreements while others question the leadership of leader Ottway. The film presents several themes and is hugely impressive to watch though it still bears scenes with glaring fiction.
I liked the movie because of its pragmatic portrayal of challenges in the cold and mountainous Alaskan landscape. For one who loves challenges of the wilderness, this movie perfectly presents the drawbacks of hiking in a mountainous, animal infested area. A blizzard blows in one occasion and the survivors have to preserve a campfire in order to prevent hypothermia. It serves as an eye opener to the challenges one would encounter in such places especially on the weather and terrain.
The movie presents the theme of spirituality. In one instance, Diaz (Frank Grillo) tells his fellow survivors that he does not believe that his fellow oilmen who had died were in heaven. He opines that there is no God. Ottaway also confesses to being an atheist. This contrasts the opinions of two other survivors Hendrick (Dallas Roberts) and Talget (Dermot Mulroney). Earlier, Hendrick is shown saying a prayer and thanking God for saving their lives from the crash (Carnahan).
Though the survivors have divergent stands on spirituality, they also share personal stories by the fireside. Ottaway for example tells the group about his father’s favorite poem. An excerpt from the poem reads, “Once more into the frayinto the good last fight I’ll ever know” (Carnahan). The poem goes on to serve as a key theme in the film. The movie also has some light moments when a man is shown to punch a wolf in the face. The positivism exuded by the survivors serves to motivate them in their collaborative effort to get out of the wilderness.
The movie is fictional, in that in the real world, wolves do not attack one on one. They are rather timid and do not confront their larger opponents. In most cases, gray wolves are not the attackers. There is an element of negative pretentious negative philosophizing depicted by the heartlessness of God and nature. Several men are attacked fatally by the wolves and in spite of gallant efforts by other survivors to save them the men end up dying. There is also fiction in the part where the survivors kill and eat a wolf. Ordinarily, human beings do not eat wolves.
There are some emotional instances in this movie. When Hendrick and Ottaway were chased by a pack of wolves, they manage to get away from the wolves only for Hendrick to fall into a river and get his foot stuck between underwater rocks. Hendrick drowns in the river after Ottaway fails to rescue him. All the men perish save for Ottaway perish in the movie. The movie ends abruptly as Ottaway charges at an alpha wolf with a makeshift weapon. Overall, The Gray grosses more accolades than criticisms and is worth watching.
Works Cited
The Grey. Dir. Joe Carnahan. Perf. Liam Neeson, Frank Grillo, Dermot Mulroney. Open Road
Films, 2012. DVD.
