Another great recommendation from the Letterboxd Roulette, this time from @andywarmstrong. I had seen this a few years ago without giving it a bunch of thought. I was pretty excited to watch this with some intention, especially after liking it the first time.
The Abyss is a really entertaining ride that made me very uncomfortable for large portions of the movie. I’m sure that’s by design. There aren’t many who want to be trapped in the depths of the ocean anyway, much less with someone who is being played by Michael Biehn (Michael Biehn Act Normal One Time Challenge). But discomfort aside, this movie has some legs.
I’ll start off by saying I really like this movie. It’s a lot of fun and it’s clear the guy who made it is a master at the craft. James Cameron and I have parted ways recently—I just can’t get into Avatar—but boy does he have some stuff from this era that absolutely smokes. The Abyss is great because it is a movie about the thing the guy making it loves probably more than movies. Cameron’s expertise in underwater adventures makes him uniquely qualified to make a movie where we’re constantly scared about being underwater.
The movie carries with it what I can only describe as intensely Divorced Guy energy. The casual and not so casual misogyny kinda runs throughout and I think it detracts. It’s clear that Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio’s Dr. Lindsey Brigman is easily the smartest person on that rig, but is treated by the guys in charge like a bit of an outsider. There’s also this”:
He and producer Gale Anne Hurd decided that The Abyss would be their next film. Cameron wrote a treatment combined with elements of a shooting script, which generated a lot of interest in Hollywood. He then wrote the script, basing the character of Lindsey on Hurd and finished it by the end of 1987. Cameron and Hurd were married before The Abyss, separated during pre-production, and divorced in February 1989, two months after principal photography.
Separated at pre-production tells me some things.
One more issue and then ‘m done. I think there is one too many plotlines. Like, for as much as I love him, the Michael Biehn losing his mind part isn’t really necessary. I think the movie is tighter and still great if it’s simply a “we have to go get that bomb” type of thing. It didn’t need the guy trying to blow the world up.
The special effects in this are awesome. Clearly, this movie walked so T2 could run. The water shapes, which would become the liquid metal of the T-1000 looked really good and hold up very well in 4K. The aliens themselves could have been terrible, but they also continue to look pretty good despite the nearly 40 year old technology.
The movie’s message ultimately is not subtle. It’s also still somewhat prescient, although when this was made, the threat of nuclear war seemed imminent (I was 14 in 1989) and was genuinely terrifying to me as a kid. It seems to have had an effect on James Cameron as well, as this theme shows up a few pretty” notable times. The most interesting piece was the threat of massive tidal waves by the aliens.
Overall, again, I really like this. I can’t really dig on the misogyny though. It was off-putting and makes me not necessarily want to watch this over and over. I think Cameron does really well otherwise, and this story seems like one that matters a lot to him. That makes for a great movie.