I love watching movies, none more so than those that not only provide entertainment but also engages the mind in philosophical reflection.
The Grey is one of those movies that opens our minds into the realm of
the oft-unthought of realm. Indeed, it shows the brutal reality that
life really is. But that our beliefs and decisions are what truly
defines how we live our lives. That friendships are born in the most
unusual circumstances, that challenges will always follow us like a
shadow in a dim-lit alley, that our beliefs in a higher being shapes our
views of ourselves - our fears, hopes, insecurities and convictions,
that personal relationships makes the journey that is life worth the
while, and that finding meaning in life is what makes life truly wort
living, and finding love gives meaning to our lives.
The movie is one big metaphor for life itself. When a group of oilmen
journey through a stormy Alaskan night by plane, I am reminded by the
"journeys" we have to take in different periods in our lives - deciding
to go to college, leaving home, choosing a career, finding work,
choosing a life partner, raising a family among others. In the journeys
we take, sometimes our planes crash - typhoons come that are incarnated
in the form of failures in school, career, relationships. There we will
meet people of all classes and persuasions, some will succumb to the
challenge, others will rise to lead us, like the lead character John
Ottway. Sometimes we are the John Ottway, we are challenged to lead
others despite our own insecurities, emotional baggages and dashed hopes
and dreams. But at some point in our lives we are placed in a situation
were we have to calm others in their most tragic, hopeless and terminal
states - like when Ottway in the movie tells the dying Lewenden he will
die, and die indeed he was, but peacefully thanks to the calming
influence of Ottway.
Sometimes, we are like John Diaz, the antagonist of the group. We
question those who try to lead the group, those who among us rise to the
challenges that life presents. We become cynical like Diaz, cynical of
life itself, of others, of ourselves in fact. We lose faith in religious
traditions, in a belief in God - but sometimes it makes sense to lose
faith in God, it gives us a reason to really think about what life
really is all about. But it can make us emotionally vulnerable too, to
not lean on something so abstract, so powerful, so encompassing for then
we will have to stand alone, alone to face that life is indeed harsh,
that man alone defines his purpose. And not everyone is cut out for this.
We are called to leave the comfort of our homes to find our place in the
universe, like Ottway's group who have to leave the relative safety of
the plane wreck to journey into the vast, icy cold wilderness to seek
refuge in the forests of pine trees. Some of us do not make it, like
Flannery, who falls behind and is killed by the wolves. This is a
metaphor for those who cannot keep up with the pace of life - they just
wither in the fields of time. It is painful, it leaves an emotional scar
on those who are left to witness the event, but life moves on. The
journey continues.
When the the survivors finally reach the forests, they try to light a
fire, it was to keep them warm, to protect them form the wolves and to
provide food. They killed one of the wolves and cooked it using the
fire. In life as in the movie, we creates fires too, friendships are
that fire that keeps the coldness of reality from biting us. They
provide guidance, strength and hope. It is difficult to keep the fire of
friendships burning against the storms and typhoons of life, but we
have to find ways of keeping the light, and those light that survive,
and very few do, are what we will forever be greatfull for, and rightly
so, for such fire that burns amidst the wintry cold air is a fire that
we can bring until the twilight of our existence.
The chasm that the group has to cross to reach the other side is another
feature of what it is to be human, we have to cross difficult ravines
at one point in our lives - and in order to do such, we have to face our
fears, own our fears, tame our fears.
John Ottway led his group away from the territory of the wolves, or so
he thought, but at the end of the movie, we realize that after everyone
succumbed to death, he was right in front of the wolves den, facing the
Alpha Wolf. Cold from hypothermia, ignored by a God he doesn't believe,
he faces his greatest fear - and there, finds meaning in life he so
wanted to end.
This movie is so philosophical, so reflective, so much a reflection of what is to be human as what life is all about.
I end this post with the poignant words of Ottway's fathers' poem:
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...
