Just the Ticket #38: Once More Into The Grey

Once more into the fray.

Into the last good fight I'll ever know.

Live and die on this day.

Live and die on this day.

This poem is the last sentiment the man known as Ottway (Liam Neeson) has of his deceased father, and they are words he has lived by, even while coping with the death of his wife and spending his days as a contracted wolf-killer for an Alaska-based oil company. But on the way back to the contiguous 48, the crew's plane crashes and Ottway must lead the other seven survivors (including a well-disguised Dermont Mulroney and an annoying blabbermouth played by Dallas Roberts) on an exodus from the crash site that leads them straight through the hunting ground of a pack of pursuing wolves.

The poem, although it seems like something Dylan Thomas would have written, was actually composed by writer/director Joe Carnahan, better known for his nothing-but-action films Smokin' Aces 1 & 2 and The A-Team (on which he also worked with Neeson). Its "do not go gentle" connotations also work quite brilliantly with Ottway's initial attempt at suicide (interrupted by the call of a wolf--a call to action), his later decisions to save or abandon ailing survivors (ultimately including himself), and the survivors' campfire discussion of faith and religion; a conversation which, contrary to popular dinner discourse theory, plays out more peacefully than do Ottway's suggestions as an expert on how to defend themselves against the wolves. Is this a possible commentary on rebellion against authority? It could be, considering that not long after Ottway puts a dissenter in his place, the Alpha wolf does the same on his end. Throw in the Diaz character's (Frank Grillo, The Edge Of Darkness, another fight-to-your-last drama) exclamation of "You're not the animals! We're the animals!" and that completes the evidence in that case.

With the poem and its rhetorical ramifications covered, let's talk about the special effects. Environmentally speaking, there are next to none. Shot at various locations in Alberta and British Columbia, Canada, nearly every scene of The Grey (except perhaps for the ziplining sequence, which looks like the forest below the cliff was green-screened for the more dramatic rescue shots) is genuine. The visible puffs of breath are from real sub-zero temperatures, as are the ice crystals on every beard.

But in terms of the wolves, the animatronic heads that ravage unfortunate survivors are frequently less than convincing. The full-body wolves look as if their oversized, computer generated frames were pulled from a schlocky SyFy Channel Original Movie (Cerberus VS GigaWolf, a fake title coming to your television this fall, starring Lance Henriksen and Debbie Gibson. Run for your lives!), and the growls compiled by The Grey's sound editing team are more reminiscent of lions and boars than wolves. Thankfully, all this sub-par effects work still manages to make the wolves into badder-than-badass killing machines, so I'm okay with it. And with Gladiator brothers Ridley and Tony backing The Grey and lending their defiant-hero-in-action-drama voice to the picture, it gets off as another Scott-Free Production.

A-

Next issue is a trip back in time to 1978, as I reluctantly dig into my parents' Clint Eastwood collection for a look at Coogan's Bluff. For those of you who remember the days of analog TV and non-internet radio, stay tuned for another installment of Just the Ticket. Everyone else can just log in.