Welcome back for another installment of Disc Dive! This week we’re heading to outer space for Gravity.
Title: Gravity
Director: Alfonso Cuarón
Released: August 28, 2013 (Premiere – Venice Film Festival – Italy)
Runtime: 1 hour 31 minutes
Disc Format: DVD
Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) is on her first space mission along with veteran astronaut Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) and Shariff (Phaldut Sharma) aboard Space Shuttle Explorer. The crew sets out on a routine spacewalk to perform upgrades to the Hubble Space Telescope.
As they’re close to wrapping up, Mission Control warns of debris from a destroyed Russian satellite. They’re assured there’s no immediate danger to them. Just moments later, they’re told to abort the mission. The debris triggered a chain reaction, hitting other satellites and creating even more debris. Debris that now has Explorer and the crew in its crosshairs.
Communication with Mission Control is lost. Debris tears through the spacecraft and telescope. Dr. Stone is knocked loose from her tether and sent spinning into open space. As she stabilizes, she quickly realizes that she is all alone.
Kowalski locates her. Using his thruster pack, he propels them back toward Explorer. There’s just one problem. The damage is catastrophic. With Dr. Stone’s oxygen levels rapidly depleting, Explorer is no longer an option. Their only hope is the International Space Station, still orbiting nearby, and they’re running out of time to reach it.
I’ve always been captivated by outer space. There’s something as fascinating as there is terrifying about the vast nothingness of it all. That being said, it should be no surprise that I’m a sucker for any movie that takes place in space.
Alfonso Cuarón and crew captured both the beauty and terror of space brilliantly. Gravity was nominated for 10 Oscars and won 7: Cinematography, Editing, Directing, Original Score, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, and Visual Effects. It lost Picture to 12 Years a Slave, Actress to Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine, and Production Design to The Great Gatsby, but those losses don’t take anything away from what Cuarón and crew pulled off here.
The standout wins to me are sound editing and sound mixing. Especially considering this film takes place where there is no sound. Every sound you do hear is intentional and serves a purpose. Whether it’s a heartbeat, shallow breathing, or the pushing of a button, it all is deliberate, highlighting the emptiness and isolation of space.
As for the cast, well first things first, if you want an all-time space movie, you put Ed Harris in Mission Control (voice only here but he was also in Mission Control in Apollo 13). Clooney is Clooney, he’s reliably good in everything he’s in and that’s no different here. The real standout is Sandra Bullock as mission specialist Ryan Stone. We all know she can knock any comedic role out of the park, but the emotion and urgency she brings to this dramatic role makes it my favorite Sandy B performance and it’s not even close. In fact, I still feel she was absolutely robbed of the Oscar for Best Actress.
Gravity is a film that encapsulates the will to survive and why life is worth fighting for. Thirteen years later and the emotional wallop that this packs still hits me like a ton of bricks.
If you’ve never seen it, seek it out. If you have seen it, give it a rewatch.
Either way, just make sure you plant both your feet on the ground and start living life.