Going Deep

The Abyss Special Edition on 2 DVDs is a wonderful abyss of its own, for your time. Aside from the obligatory "making of" documentary, the supplemental materials disc includes director James Cameron's screenplay, treatment (synopsis to sell concept of the film to studio heads), storyboards, and enough other "slide show" material to warrant an RSI wristbrace!

Released in 1989, The Abyss was to have been Cameron's "hat trick" - his third blockbuster in a row following the breakthrough success of Terminator and brilliant recasting Aliens from horror to action/suspense. With a massive publicity push, it was to wash the competition off the map.

Instead, it imploded upon itself under the weight of the hype.

Then, word leaked out about how the movie was actually great, but too long, so it was chopped up and we saw the flawed result. Having seen Aliens, one can easily imagine a Cameron-helmed feature being too rich in theming, detail and subplots. However, how many other duds has the Hollywood spinmeisters excused with the same claim? Ever the cynic, I let it lie.

My First Glance Into The Abyss

Skip ahead six years. My fianceé and I encounter this film in the used laserdisc bin in a rental shop. Recently, the restored version of the film was released, to what seemed to be equally disinterested yawns. No matter. That meant lower prices for this version. So low, we shrugged and paid out the money, stinker or not.

We are both science fiction fans, but coincidentally, we skipped over this film when it was first released. We both liked Cameron's work to date (this was immediately before his misogynistic True Lies). Additionally, I had opportunity to read over the comic adaptation based on the screenplay from Dark Horse and found the story had the potential to work. Or reek. It all depended on intangibles such as acting and direction.

We loaded the large shiny disc in our soon to be obsolete laserdisc player and pressed the "Play" button.

The Overview of The Abyss

The concept is simple. Presume the existence of a experimental manned, submerged oil rig. In its vicinity, postulate a downed US Navy nuclear missile submarine. Due to time pressure to rescue possible survivors, the Navy requistitions the oil rig for transportation and sends "our best people" down to attempt the rescue.

The conflict is simple. The Navy SEAL team leader succumbs to pressure psychosis. Slowy. Imperceptibly. In his paranoia, he fears that the Russians have some new technology that caused the sub to meet its doom with all hands. He reports his findings and is authorized to escalate to "Stage 2". The SEALs return to the sub and retrieve a warhead. Suddenly, the rig loses contact with the surface world. Isolated, the SEAL team leader makes his lunatic decision...

The appeal is on all levels. Ed Harris is perfectly cast as the calm, reassuring boss of the oil riggers. Michael Biehn balances him as the already-edgy SEAL team lead disintegrating into madness. Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio provides emotional fire as Ed Harris' estranged wife, but also the inventor and designer of this undersea oil rig. A collection of character actors round out the cast of SEALs and riggers alike, each with a single distinguishing feature but otherwise forgettable.

Before Titanic, James Cameron was not thought of as a romantic director. His forté was "industrial action". Tough guys with hardware. Action and metal. This film lacked the staccato of gunfire that punctuated his previous works, and filled the void with the incessant creaking of oppressing, claustrophobic suspense breathtakingly illuminated by moments of utter wonder. However, in the midst of this spectrum, what appealed to me most were the sudden strong chords of despair and loss.

Falling Into The Abyss [Spoiler Warning]

As I watch beside my bride to be, I see the smoldering ashes that remain of Bud's (Harris) and Lindsey's (Mastrantonio) marriage. At the very beginning of the film, the meet and they fight, knowingly tearing into the soft scars they left in one another's psyche. As they prep for their excursion to do the Navy's bidding, they exude icy silence toward one another. When Lindsey makes an amazing, unbelievable discovery, Bud is first among the disbelievers.

When crisis strikes, be it caused by man or weather, Bud reflexively steps in front of Lindsey. The ashes had heat sufficient to sputter to flame again, given enough fuel. When one shows aptitude, the other is not so bitter as to deny expressing admiration. When one is at risk, the other is not afraid to show worry and care. When faced with an impossible situation, each is not afraid to wager his or her respective life on an impossible solution against impossible odds.

The moment of epiphany: They are trapped in a wrecked minisub. They have one diving mask between them and 300 yards of icy water between them and the oil rig. The sub is leaking, the water rising. Honorably, Bud offers the suit and mask to Lindsey. "No, I have a better idea. You swim back and I drown." Watching this, my mind explodes as I mouth the same words she says: mammalian diving reflex.

After dragging her body back to the rig, Bud and the rest of the crew attempt to resuscitate her. I remember clutching my fianceé, tears streaming down my face. No sooner is this resolved than it becomes Bud's turn to make the noble sacrifice...

For four hours after watching this film I could not sleep. From 10PM until 2AM, my frenzied mind throbbed in time with my heartbeat in my ears. I sat, I read, I tossed, I drank warm milk. Nothing. Seared into my eyes were tableaus of one spouse dealing with the imminent loss of another. And there I watched it with my bride to be.

Is it any wonder why I felt so moved by this film?

[End Spoiler Warning]

Climbing Out

Still, after a night's rest, however shortened, flaws started to creep into my rosy recollection of the movie. Having a secondhand account of the screenplay (abridged by way of comic book), I realized that the ending was seriously truncated. Firstly, the forces that be made no threat, exerted no force in the theatrical version, while the comic showed them exhibiting great power. Secondly, the forces that be lacked a rationale for what they did - it seemed almost a caprice. Again, the comic made mention of their reasoning, but were I to lack the foreknowledge afforded me by that source, the film would be as a symphony missing every other note in the cresendo.

Seven years later, I mention my admiration for The Abyss to a coworker. He shares it, reciprocates it, amplifies it. I walk away from that conversation saying, "I must find time to see this film again." No, wait. I must find time to see what was missing.

Enter The Abyss Special Edition. Within its double-wide DVD case lay the promise of revisiting one of the most powerful, personal movie experiences in which I've had pleasure to partake. On an urge, I buy it. I bring it home.

It sat on my shelf, shrinkwrap pristine. Wait a second! Will watching it again meet my expectations? Will it justify my memories? Will I feel like a fool for having cried over that moment?

Falling Back In

Answers; Yes. Yes. And yes, but in a good way. I was too distracted to be so romantically moved this time. Let me explain:

I didn't want to re-watch the theatrical release. Through the magic of DVD, the disc contained the director's cut by intelligently instructing the DVD player when to splice in this deleted scene here and that one, there. Too bad you cannot just view the deleted scenes by themselves, but perhaps that takes away from the integrity of the work.

So I watched the director's cut. But wait! In navigating through the cleverly-themed setup menus, I found the subtitle options included a commentary track. That's neat! Rather than try to hear the dialog of the movie under the anecdotal comments (if at all), I can now hear the movie as intended, yet read how this shot was composited and that one was simulated. I wish that to be an option for other special edition DVDs! A tad distracting, but quite usable.

The "missing" scenes were back in, as were some that were not possible to do back in 1988. I feel they added much more depth to all the characters, SEALs and riggers alike. This version has more exposition on the relationship between Bud and Lindsey. Ever the strong-but-silent one, Bud has only a few more lines, but Lindsey bares her soul to him in another painfully believable and moving scene I never knew existed. I felt the extra half hour made the movie much stronger, so much so that I still had watery eyes when those special scenes passed. Must be something in the air.

Yes, the restored version is definitely in keeping with my expectations, exceeding them in some areas. Yes, feeling those pangs at those scenes reassures me that I was not merely undergoing a case of "the weepies". However, while they were not overtly manipulative as in Armageddon, I do feel "played like a harp," as the saying goes.

And Sinking Fast

The real magic of the DVD set is the whole of the second disc. It has the obligatory "making of" documentary, but weighing in at 60 minutes' time. It has the entire screen play. It has storyboards. It has an intricately detailed slideshow (though mostly of text slides) - prepare to have your eyes water yet again, this time from fatigue. The slideshow is amazing - you see concept art for just about every piece of hardware in the film. you read about the difficulties of shooting underwater. You learn about all the innovations stemming from this film.

(Pop quiz: How about Photoshop? What's its relationship to this film?)

You can easily spend hours cycling through the slideshow, and that's avoiding the invitation to "press enter to see 600 pages of this". Break out the wrist brace, because you're going to suffer from RSI after this is done. Unfortunately, this is the only nit I have:

The slideshow needs navigation! Given that the slideshow is already a collection of rudimentary hyperlinks, the viewer should have the option to actually navigate the colleciton. Instead, you're forced to either jump to a "film" (chapter) and then press right-arrow or left-arrow to go to the next page or previous. On pages with a link to other material (showing the crane collapse, for example) you are presented a third option to press [ENTER] to digress that-a-way. One of the pages early on is a table of contents, but it lacks any way to jump to a chapter.

Still, in spite of this, I've spent another two or three hours (that's almost as long as the film!) in slack-jawed delight reading page after another of notes along this film's long and painful gestation; viewing images of props, people, and prototypes; watching the water tendril sequence as it was presented in the film, as it was shot, as it was storyboarded. My wrist aches, my thumb is calloused, and my bum is numb.

Writing this makes me want to go back see the theatrical version anew...



Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good Date Movie
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 - 12