secondames Cameron & # 39; s The Abyss was released in the theater on 9 August 1989. Exactly three months later, the Berlin Wall was demolished, ending the Soviet block and decades of tension with him symbolically. Cameron's films always seemed to be in the future, and it's easy to forget how closely these two events coincide because they've deployed technologies that haven't been adopted in the industry for years. But The Abyss is the product of a generation that is old and fearful of nuclear extinction for us, as Alfred Hitchcock's North By Northwest or Billy Wilder's Some Like It Hot came to the audience in 1989. prediction Even that.
But The Abyss' message was hardly bandaged at that time. Partly because the aspects of the film were messed up by theatrical cuts (described in more detail later), and partly because the folly of production was taken. Much oxygen. This is a repeating pattern later in Cameron's career with Tiger Nick and Avatar. Followed by reports of cost overruns and director Herbie and a movie that struck a culture such as a tsunami that was never seen again in 1989 The Abyss & # 39; & # 39; Of course, they were as successful as the other two, but two years later, starting with Cameron's own Terminator 2: Judgment Day, hoping for a leap into digital effects that will occupy Hollywood for the next decade, blockbuster art Has developed.
The production story is not worth hashing back completely, but the discordant sound behind The Abyss is likely to be mentioned if the production from breathing like Apocalypse Now or Fitzcarraldo is closely or starred in the document. Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio did not refuse to discuss this. Even promotional drug addicts couldn't stop toxic floods from spills like the New York Times. South Carolina. In addition to the notorious challenge of shooting water, which is famous for taming Steven Spielberg in Jaws, a movie that spends much more time on dry land, tension between Cameron and his three actors was often explosive. (Camera expressed their “limited sympathy” to them on a promotional tour.
In the wider abyss, The Abyss is a third kind of intimate encounter of science fiction epic about the exchange between Cameron and aliens of uncertain motives of humanity. There are also several naval seals, led by Michael Biehn's Lt Coffey, which brings Cameron back to the alien militarist tale. Ridley Scott's original alien. As the American submarine sinks enigmatically near Cayman Trough, it is necessary to take part in an investigation involving nuclear warheads led by "Bud" Brigman (Harris), a rough pioneer who is stuck in an underwater drilling platform. (Or to put in Cameron-ese: “Jesus Christ, it is World War III can!”) Coffey was introduced as the “queen bitch of the universe” in front of Bud with the designer of the league, Dr. Lindsey Brigman (Mastrantonio). Her marginalized husband complains about how hurricanes should name women.
The visual wonders of The Abyss didn't have time, but CGI looks much better than the surface in the deep, dark sea during the development phase. Under 12,000 feet, this alien platform looks like an arcade Atlantis across the Stargate in 2001. Space Odyssey and Neon Heaven; In the sunshine, it is similar to a wavy slab of smooth plastic. Shiny and undulating creatures like purple amoeba now look like prototypes of the avatar's color scheme, but the simplest effect of forming and decomposing water is most arrested. The scene where a seawater shaft like a worm illuminates Bud and Lindsey's face is truly Spielberg's moment in the film, and the liquid metal Cameron will be so big on the T2.
Between the 140-minute cut released in the theater in 1989 and the 172-minute special edition released at LaserDisc in 1993, The Abyss gained attention and fame because the longer cut substantially changed the finished product. Cameron, not the studio, chose a shorter version, which is undoubtedly a better pace and more focused, and does not convey anti-nuclear feelings through cable news clips without the high cheeses of aliens. But the theme of the film is weakened in theatrical version. feeling Even though Cameron was ultimately responsible, like a studio hack job. It was silly to go up in protest nuclear weapons and write stories about aquatic creatures that saved humanity from Mega Tsunami because of the text that a man sent to his wife, but it was a mistake not to commit it.
With its technical wonders and political statements, The Abyss' unsettled victory over Mammoth's ambition is a love story. Perhaps 70 hours have passed under Cameron's dictatorship. esprit de corps Although between Harris and Mass Transtoni, they suggest a bond that can be messy and controversial, but can be deepened under intimidation. Watching Bud and Lindsay drown each other in the last third of the film, it will feel emotionally overwhelming if the two actors are not willing to give up the opponent's resurrection or Cameron does not. I believe so fervently in this messy marriage.
In the editing room, Cameron was more concerned about saving this relationship than saving the planet. When Bud receives his message deep and texts mankind, the line “They left us but bothers us hurting each other” is about the horrors of war. A statement about a romantic partner who has destroyed his union.
“They want us to grow up and throw away the childish.” The message goes on. "Of course, it's just a suggestion."
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