Netflix Diary: Gerry
Gerry
(Stupid People in the Desert)
(No, really, that's it. That's All There Is)
(Interpret This Blank Canvas)
Gerry is a movie that begs for creative interpretation, because the actual story barely exists. I will tell you that story now, to get it out of the way of the fun stuff (the style and purpose of the movie). And by "story" I mean what you see on the screen if you take it at face value. Of course, taking it at face value is probably a mistake, but that's where you gotta start with a movie like this.
The movie begins (after a momentary blue screen shot that makes you think the DVD is busted) with like 6 minutes of the 2 characters in the film, both named Gerry, riding in a dumpy car on a desert road. It seems like dusk, but later on you realize that 90% of the movie looks like it happens at dusk. The 2 Gerrys (played by Matt Damon and a random Affleck, Casey I think. How many Afflecks are there? If there are 4, we could set up a rumble with the Baldwin Brothers. There would have to be a larger Affleck than Ben or Casey, though, to go against Beefy Baldwin) then get out of the car and start walkin' along a supposed trail through some deserty brush. They go off the path and take another "trail"(and encounter 3 of the 5 people in the movie besides them), and they have their first conversation, where they decide to run down this other trail because "All trails must end at the same place, right?"
They walk. 5 movie (and real-life) minutes later they decide to walk back to the other trail, because they decide "F the trail end. What's at the trail end anyway?"
They walk. They slowly (slooooooooooooowly) realize they are lost, and don't know where they are. Night falls, and they build a fire.
They walk. It's the next day now, and they appear to have walked to a place that could not possibly be where their car was. It's gone from deserty brush to hilly rockland. Um, you're going the wrong way! They walk some more, and end up deciding to go to 2 different hills to see if they can see anything. They're trying to see their car or a road from the hills. It's not working. They decide to go to 2 bigger hills and meet by the "ravine" later, unless they find something, in which case they will just find the one that found something. They find nothing, and they get confused as to which ravine they were supposed to meet at (it appears to be Affleck's fault), and then later find each other in a white rocky area where Affleck has somehow gotten up on a rock that he can't get down from. He suggests Damon make him a "dirt mattress he can jump down into, and Damon obliges, mainly to make Affleck feel better. After like 10 movie minutes of dirt mattress talk, Affleck finally jumps and is fine. It looks painful, though.
They walk. Crunch, crunch, crunch over hills and valleys that look nothing like the nature trail they should be gravitating towards. It turns out they had a plan to "scoutabout" from the hills to see what they could see from a "crow's nest", but Affleck find animal tracks and wants to follow them to water, which leads to the best conversation in the movie and leads you to believe that these 2 friends are dumb as dirt, as they think that the only places animals would go is water or a "mating corner". They decide to follow the tracks.
They walk. The tracks lead nowhere.
They walk back. Every time I write "they walk", it's at least 5 minutes of movie time of just them walking, sad music plunking in the background. This accounts for at least 70 of the 103 minutes in this film. I brings new meaning to the term "Motion Picture". It is a picture of 2 dudes and their motion. They finally stop and Damon tells Affleck to stop crying like a ninny. I think night falls again.
The next day, they walk. Then, they have another interesting bit where you see their faces as they try to figure out what direction they've been going. It's at this point you realize that the 2 use "Gerry" not only for their names, but also as a verb, meaning "To screw up". There hasn't been a word with this many meanings since "smurf". They decide to head straight north, because that's where the highway is. Good idea. So...
They walk, get tired, and stop. There's a long shot of Damon looking at Affleck through the burka he has fashioned around his head. There's an even longer shot that spins slowly (sloooooooowly) 360 degrees around Afflecks head. It looks like there's a road in the distance, but that can't be true. Next, you see a shot of Affleck and Damon talking on the ground, with what looks like Damon walking in the distance. Turns out Affleck is hallucinating, because he tells Damon he knows where the car is. Real Damon show up, and snaps Affleck out of it, at which time Affleck makes the bizarre statement "I wanted you to tell me my hair wasn't falling out."
They walk. Night falls, they walk some more. In the ultimate scene of the movie, one 7-minute take is used -- the 2 Gerrys limp through the desert, Damon on the right, way in front of Affleck on the left, weird music that involves piano, clanging, and space sounds playing in the background, the sun slowly (sloooooooowly) coming up on them as they trudge on what is the most bizarre terrain yet, a relentless white crust. This is really a great shot, it seems like they have walked to a whole different planet. The alien sounds coming from the soundtrack add to that feeling as well. When I think back on this movie, I try to think of this scene, rather than shots of 2 dudes' heads as they crunch through rocks for 10 minutes. In the featurette on the DVD, they showed how they made the shot in one take -- they had to build a mile-long camera track. Fun!
Anyway, after the good scene, Affleck stops, and Damon goes back to meet him, and they lie down. Affleck says "I'm leaving now." or somesuch, and reaches out to Damon, who gets on his knees and goes over to Affleck. The camera goes to the other side of them as Affleck stops moving, and it appears the Damon has his hands around Affleck's neck. Damon lies back down and has a dream that cars are whizzing on the desert road, and they meet him. A premonition? Damon gets up, walks, and within no time sees cars speeding towards him on the white crust ground.
The movie ends with Damon in the back seat of a car, a kid on his left and a dude driving in front. Damon's looking straight ahead. Then, blue screen of death.
But what does it all mean? Most of the movie consists of beautifuly filmed shots of two dudes walking aimlessly in the desert. Gosh, it's boring. Your mind wanders, you start thinking of other things. It's really an audacious experiment here by Gus Van Sant...the pace is too slow to even sustain a narrative. You start thinking there's gotta be something extra-narrative going on. Van Sant fuels these thoughts with several bizarre (but low-key bizarre, not like Eraserhead-bizarre, so you might miss them, especially if you've dozed off) things:
My wife liked it, though. All in all, I give it 2 overpriced popcorns out of 5, because it's excruciatingly dull, but interesting enough to be a valid movie. It affects you.
(Stupid People in the Desert)
(No, really, that's it. That's All There Is)
(Interpret This Blank Canvas)
Gerry is a movie that begs for creative interpretation, because the actual story barely exists. I will tell you that story now, to get it out of the way of the fun stuff (the style and purpose of the movie). And by "story" I mean what you see on the screen if you take it at face value. Of course, taking it at face value is probably a mistake, but that's where you gotta start with a movie like this.
The movie begins (after a momentary blue screen shot that makes you think the DVD is busted) with like 6 minutes of the 2 characters in the film, both named Gerry, riding in a dumpy car on a desert road. It seems like dusk, but later on you realize that 90% of the movie looks like it happens at dusk. The 2 Gerrys (played by Matt Damon and a random Affleck, Casey I think. How many Afflecks are there? If there are 4, we could set up a rumble with the Baldwin Brothers. There would have to be a larger Affleck than Ben or Casey, though, to go against Beefy Baldwin) then get out of the car and start walkin' along a supposed trail through some deserty brush. They go off the path and take another "trail"(and encounter 3 of the 5 people in the movie besides them), and they have their first conversation, where they decide to run down this other trail because "All trails must end at the same place, right?"
They walk. 5 movie (and real-life) minutes later they decide to walk back to the other trail, because they decide "F the trail end. What's at the trail end anyway?"
They walk. They slowly (slooooooooooooowly) realize they are lost, and don't know where they are. Night falls, and they build a fire.
They walk. It's the next day now, and they appear to have walked to a place that could not possibly be where their car was. It's gone from deserty brush to hilly rockland. Um, you're going the wrong way! They walk some more, and end up deciding to go to 2 different hills to see if they can see anything. They're trying to see their car or a road from the hills. It's not working. They decide to go to 2 bigger hills and meet by the "ravine" later, unless they find something, in which case they will just find the one that found something. They find nothing, and they get confused as to which ravine they were supposed to meet at (it appears to be Affleck's fault), and then later find each other in a white rocky area where Affleck has somehow gotten up on a rock that he can't get down from. He suggests Damon make him a "dirt mattress he can jump down into, and Damon obliges, mainly to make Affleck feel better. After like 10 movie minutes of dirt mattress talk, Affleck finally jumps and is fine. It looks painful, though.
They walk. Crunch, crunch, crunch over hills and valleys that look nothing like the nature trail they should be gravitating towards. It turns out they had a plan to "scoutabout" from the hills to see what they could see from a "crow's nest", but Affleck find animal tracks and wants to follow them to water, which leads to the best conversation in the movie and leads you to believe that these 2 friends are dumb as dirt, as they think that the only places animals would go is water or a "mating corner". They decide to follow the tracks.
They walk. The tracks lead nowhere.
They walk back. Every time I write "they walk", it's at least 5 minutes of movie time of just them walking, sad music plunking in the background. This accounts for at least 70 of the 103 minutes in this film. I brings new meaning to the term "Motion Picture". It is a picture of 2 dudes and their motion. They finally stop and Damon tells Affleck to stop crying like a ninny. I think night falls again.
The next day, they walk. Then, they have another interesting bit where you see their faces as they try to figure out what direction they've been going. It's at this point you realize that the 2 use "Gerry" not only for their names, but also as a verb, meaning "To screw up". There hasn't been a word with this many meanings since "smurf". They decide to head straight north, because that's where the highway is. Good idea. So...
They walk, get tired, and stop. There's a long shot of Damon looking at Affleck through the burka he has fashioned around his head. There's an even longer shot that spins slowly (sloooooooowly) 360 degrees around Afflecks head. It looks like there's a road in the distance, but that can't be true. Next, you see a shot of Affleck and Damon talking on the ground, with what looks like Damon walking in the distance. Turns out Affleck is hallucinating, because he tells Damon he knows where the car is. Real Damon show up, and snaps Affleck out of it, at which time Affleck makes the bizarre statement "I wanted you to tell me my hair wasn't falling out."
They walk. Night falls, they walk some more. In the ultimate scene of the movie, one 7-minute take is used -- the 2 Gerrys limp through the desert, Damon on the right, way in front of Affleck on the left, weird music that involves piano, clanging, and space sounds playing in the background, the sun slowly (sloooooooowly) coming up on them as they trudge on what is the most bizarre terrain yet, a relentless white crust. This is really a great shot, it seems like they have walked to a whole different planet. The alien sounds coming from the soundtrack add to that feeling as well. When I think back on this movie, I try to think of this scene, rather than shots of 2 dudes' heads as they crunch through rocks for 10 minutes. In the featurette on the DVD, they showed how they made the shot in one take -- they had to build a mile-long camera track. Fun!
Anyway, after the good scene, Affleck stops, and Damon goes back to meet him, and they lie down. Affleck says "I'm leaving now." or somesuch, and reaches out to Damon, who gets on his knees and goes over to Affleck. The camera goes to the other side of them as Affleck stops moving, and it appears the Damon has his hands around Affleck's neck. Damon lies back down and has a dream that cars are whizzing on the desert road, and they meet him. A premonition? Damon gets up, walks, and within no time sees cars speeding towards him on the white crust ground.
The movie ends with Damon in the back seat of a car, a kid on his left and a dude driving in front. Damon's looking straight ahead. Then, blue screen of death.
But what does it all mean? Most of the movie consists of beautifuly filmed shots of two dudes walking aimlessly in the desert. Gosh, it's boring. Your mind wanders, you start thinking of other things. It's really an audacious experiment here by Gus Van Sant...the pace is too slow to even sustain a narrative. You start thinking there's gotta be something extra-narrative going on. Van Sant fuels these thoughts with several bizarre (but low-key bizarre, not like Eraserhead-bizarre, so you might miss them, especially if you've dozed off) things:
- Gerry is the name of both characters, or at least what they call each other. It is also used as a verb -- "We really gerry'd that one." Interesting note -- The original title of the film was The Actual Gerry, to differentiate the person from other instances of the word. All this could suggest that the 2 characters are just facets of the same person. Some on this very internet have suggested that Damon is the rational/masculine side and Affleck the emotional/feminine side.
- A couple of times in the film, Affleck's voice appears to be coming out of Damon's mouth. It may only appear that way, it's not totally clear. My wife actually had to ask me "who said that?" once because of this phenomenon. Does this mean they are the same person?
- As the movie goes on, you realize that Damon is clearly the smart one, but he's constantly deferring to Affleck. When he stops deferring is when they decide to go straight north (they had been going northeast because of the influence of Affleck). It is this decision that leads to the rescue.
- The mirage scene, where Affleck is having the mirage of being able to tell Damon that he knows where the car is. It's weird, because you expect Damon to be having the mirage of Affleck knowing where the car is.
- The scene preceding the mirage where Damon is watching Affleck, with eyes that could mean, "If we're going to get out of here, I'm going to have to do it." And then the camera spins all the way around Affleck's head, and we don't see Damon anywhere. Is this when the mirage was happening, after Damon had walked away? Or is there only one Gerry?
- The final death scene of Affleck is weird, from Affleck saying "I'm leaving now" to Affleck reaching out to Damon, who pushes his hand away and finally appears to strangle him. Killing his emotional side? The inspiration for the movie is the now-well-known story of the man who got lost in the wilderness with another man, killed the other man because he begged him to, and was rescued less than 24 hours later and tried for the other man's murder. Do we just take it at face value? After the strangulation, Damon falls back down and then a car starts speeding around desert roads. Is this a dream? The car comes up to him, finds him. Once again, a premonition? Isn't that part of an emotional side? Or is it a dream? Or is that the real part? Who knows.
- Earlier, when they're deciding to go north, they do the same POV shot of the speeding car, as if to determine what way is north. Does the car symbolize them? Does is symbolize the rescuers? Is that the route they were driving on before this whole mess started?
- How did Affleck get on that rock anyway?
My wife liked it, though. All in all, I give it 2 overpriced popcorns out of 5, because it's excruciatingly dull, but interesting enough to be a valid movie. It affects you.
posted by Mike Pape @ 8:15 AM
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