Interstellar: Film Cuts
For those who have seen Interstellar it is a cinematic adventure only matched by the amount of plot holes found throughout its story. The viewer is taken on a whirlwind celestial journey through space, and time, as relativity and our imaginations are warped. There is so much happening in the 2:49:00 movie, small cinematic gestures, such as film cuts, got lost in the grandeur. However, several scenes with three in particular, allowed film cuts to be noticed for the tools they are.
Well into the film, after the explorers had landed on their first planet, an ‘after action’ cut is used in a compelling way. The planet they have landed on appears only to be water, with a circling wave as high as any mountain. The first wave washes Doyle away, giving Brand and Cooper several minutes to have a dramatic, sincere talk while the engines dry out. They flee the planet quickly as another wave comes, threatening to destroy their ship and kill them. After the action is over and they have left the planet, the camera shifts to focus on Doyle’s lifeless body, left behind for the sake of the mission.
Similarly, there was a “before action” cut as Brand and Cooper prepare to use Gargantuan’s gravitational pull to slingshot them toward a planet fit for human life. Cooper has already jettisoned TARS in hopes that the robot may send information back to Earth in order to save the remaining humans. Brand is still under the impression she and Cooper are completing the mission together until he informs her he is leaving, as well. He is going to send himself over the Event Horizon. There is a brief cut of his ship drifting slowly toward Gargantuan and all is peaceful before his ship is violently plunged into darkness and chaos.
Arguably, Cooper survives the Event Horizon, and the fifth dimension. He is rescued in outer space, only to wake up in a hospital bed where he anxiously gets to his feet and walks to the window when he hears baseball. The camera focuses on Cooper, and then cuts to what Cooper sees, in what is known as a “look off” cut. As Cooper looks out the window, the viewer is able to see a green field, children playing baseball, a ball flying straight into the air to smash the window of a house that seemingly defies gravity as it sits where the sky should be.
In sum, the cuts in Interstellar were used to make the movie more dramatic. The “after action” cut reminded the audience the explorers had lost a member of the group. The “before action” cut allowed the audience to realize something brilliant and chaotic was coming, without telling them exactly what it was. The “look off” held a surprise; while the audience knew a baseball game was being played, the row of houses folded in on the field were a shock that would not have been seen as gracefully without this method.
References
Interstellar. Dir. Christopher Nolan. Perf. Matthew McConaughey, et al. 2014. Film.
