Movie: "Open Water"

[Skybird]

Yesterday, German TV showed the movie "Open Water", a film about a couple doing a dive in deep blue water that is forgotten and left behind by their boat and then find themselves in "open water".

I first thought it is no movie that would be rated as better than "mediocre", and only watched it with half an eye at best, but then concentrating on it more and more. Now I find myself going back to it all night and all day long. It has no happy end, and that bfact alone came as a kick in the stomach, at least for me, and very much out of the blue, since you are used to see happy endings in movies these days, and strong heroes, especially in desaster movies, and the movie seemed to deliver that happy end, too, although late. The way the final end is realized and put into scene, the sudden, silent acceptance of the inevatible, like a candle light being blown out, calm and unspectacular, the changing of the roles who is the stronger of those two people, and the strange two-split path of the story - the couple in the water, talking and doing, and the world around them just moving on with it's actions, without comment, without dialogue, without any action that would create a bridge between this very action and the audience, is disturbing, somehow.

Certainly no yelling and loud shouting horror, but a silent, unspectacular nightmare unfolding, put into pictures in a very different way than the usual mainstream movies. Give it a try if you have the chance, but watch until the end. In the beginning I did not like the protagonists - but in the end I was all with them, and the more i think of them, the more I realise how believable their relation and their psychological reactions have been illustrated. Disturbing movie, really.

Somehow, almost a meditation about life, and dying.

Bad reviews I think tell more about the action-expectations of the reviewers, than they tell something about the features of this movie. Some people simply are not satisfied if it is not constantly boom-boom-bang-bang, and cannot appreciate less noisy qualities. Such simpletons should avoid this film. Rated as "independant movie", it was done with a mini budget, and handheld digicams (which you only realise in the sometimes shaky camera moves, but not in picture quality, which is brilliant). Don't judge this film by the scale for Hollywood films. Many people complained about faults in the script, and contradictions, but I disagree and think the helplessness the film leaves the audience in behind is intentional. And although it comes in a non-sensational way, the ending scenes you will remember, believe me. Touching, without becoming sentimental. For me, "Open Water" is a secret classic. as one british amazon-customer wrote: adjust your expecations, and you will love this film.

It was based on a true story and was shot like a documentary. It is a bit of a disturbing movie but then again it happens. Sharks gotta eat too ya know!?!

[Skybird]

I wouldn't call the stylized visual approach a "documentary". And the sharks really were not the major actors in the film. anybody expecting a bloody festival now - I can assure you you will stay unsatisfied.

[diver]

Proof that a movie made on the smallest of budgets can be much better than one made with millions of dollars.

And tragically, it was based on the true story of 2 tourists being left out in the Great Barrier Reef.

[TteFAboB]

It has alot of educational value. If I ever go ocean diving, I'll make sure to bring a small mirror, a whistle, a good knife, shark repellents, a full chainmail suit, a harpoon, two spiked brass knuckles, that emergency radio beacon, a portable water-proof radio, astronaut food for 7 days, water for 7 days and an inflatable boat.

The best of this is that I can reach the bottom of the ocean pretty quick, so more time to look at the nice stuff. Of course, this also means I'll have to bring compressed air and a ballast tank to surface.

Ahh what the heck, screw diving, I'll bring my own submarine!

Originally Posted by TteFAboB

It has alot of educational value. If I ever go ocean diving, I'll make sure to bring a small mirror, a whistle, a good knife, shark repellents, a full chainmail suit, a harpoon, two spiked brass knuckles, that emergency radio beacon, a portable water-proof radio, astronaut food for 7 days, water for 7 days and an inflatable boat.

The best of this is that I can reach the bottom of the ocean pretty quick, so more time to look at the nice stuff. Of course, this also means I'll have to bring compressed air and a ballast tank to surface.

Ahh what the heck, screw diving, I'll bring my own submarine!

Also, make sure you tie off to your diving partner if you go adrift. When the fell asleep they almost lost each other for good.

[Terrax]

That movie pisses me off. My son refuses to dive in salt water after watching that flick. I have went diving with sharks in the Key's and had a great time watching them in their element. That movie is pure speculation. Nobody knows what happened after the divers were left in the ocean. They were left in the open ocean for days. They most likely died of dehydration. The mental stress of the situation, with no hope must have been unbearable. Sharks probably didn't come into the picture until after they expired. The orgy of sharks in the movie is unrealistic, those sharks filmed in the movie were so passive that he actors could film around them without being bitten. But they were blood thirsy on-screen.

As far as the unfortunate couple, after returning to port, the skipper of the boat saw the unclaimed belongings of the divers, but went home anyway. There was a taxi cab waitting on the couple as instructed. When the cab driver asked where his fares were, he was told to leave, they must have gotten a different cab. At the trial, the dive shop tried to make the argument that the couple faked thier deaths to collect on insurance money, and that they weren't liable. They lost. The wet suit of the female washed up on a beach later. It was shredded, which led to the shark theory. It's possible that sharks could have killed the couple, but losts of scavengers could have fed on the body before the wetsuit washed up on the beach.

[Type941]

Terrax, I'm sory it seems you are grasping at straws.

It wasn't a great movie, but Il ike the ending, it was no bullsh!t, no spin. There were sharks around, there was more then one, they eventually took a bite, and once you bleed, it's all over. Fact that a woman was tougher is also very true, women do tend to survive this type of crap better and are stronger I suppose then men.


Just because you dove with sharks in a controlled environment.... comon man, you are comparing a weener with a finger. "They most likely died of dehydratio" - MOST likely? ... i doubt you can judge that at all. Pure speculation. "That movie pisses me off. My son refuses to dive in salt water after watching that flick" - that's what it's all about. Flick or not, it's a true story.


And if you really need to blame someone for sharks scaring people - blame Jaws.


Skybird - I cannot even begin to tell you how much I despise the modern hollywood fekin sh!t that comes outta there, with all their happy endings, their SAME plot and so on. They portray people as how we WANT people to be, not how they REALLY are, and that's rediculous.

[Skybird]

Well, the ending in this one impressed me, and very much so. The way she let her dead loved one gently go, without hysteria or faked emotions. Knowing what lied ahead of her (and under her, invisible). after the body floated away, she turned, and had a last glance at him. She saw the calm, unexcited way in which the husband dissapeared from the surface, and she knew why, and what was happening under the surface. Then acccepting what was about to happen to her, and no longer resisting. Accepting. Mentally preparing, letting go anything, getting rid of oxygene tank and equipment, accepting that life will have it'S way. Waiting. And then only the empty water surface. The rest is left to the imagination of the audience.

Life goes on, and yes, the world around does not care. We are not that important as we think of ourselves all day long. Even our dying does not change the universe around us. And when looking at the beauty of that calm ocean surface, and the sky and the clouds - despite that single unimportant event that just took place, all is in order, all is well, all is beautiful and right the way it should be. It is one thing to imagine how proud and reserved we face our end, so that people will be impressed and remember the way we left. That way, we again create our own monument inside the mind of people. something of us needs to live on, right? Needs to tell the story of how fantastic we were, and how stoic we faced our end!? but if we still have that calm when we realise that noone will ever see and hear and learn about our end - that is something different, for usually we think that even our dying needs to be something special, something that makes people taking note of us and our "grandesse". Is there any heroism without an audience appreciating it as such? Heroism is not about the hero. It is about the other's interpretation inside their own minds. But in this movie: no one will ever know what happened to them, and what they went through. Not a single cloud stopped moving because what was happening. It all simply does not count thta much. It's just one single, very small and relatively unimportant piece in a giant puzzle that we call life, and cosmos. Puts things back into perspective.

More impressive than a million dollar budget spend on mindless special effects for overkill destructions, endless pathetic dialogues, and those monumental soundtracks trying to push emotions.

When the time has come for me one day, I hope I will be able to face it in the same accepting and unexcited attitude like that woman at the end of that movie.

I spend some time during a "Praktikum" on the diying station of a hospital, and later some time in a Hospice. I sat together with people that were dying. Most people I saw dying refused to accept that this time it was not somebody else, but they themselves. they still made plans. Looked to a future. And quite a good ammount of them made a stirr of their dying, if they still had the power, and still were by healthy sanity. Only a very few were able to let loose everything, in peace, and acceptance. Interestingly, most of these rejected any kind of support by Christians priests that were available. Maybe a coincidence, but I never asked. They had found their own answers, and did not depend on hear-say and books anymore. That one opened my eyes quite a bit. The staff considered me to be an alien, and demanded me to "do" more, and to "speak" more. Fools.

[scandium]

Originally Posted by Type941

t even begin to tell you how much I despise the modern hollywood fekin sh!t that comes outta there, with all their happy endings, their SAME plot and so on. They portray people as how we WANT people to be, not how they REALLY are, and that's rediculous.

Agreed, I've all but given up watching movies in the theatre and rarely ever even rent these days. It is not only how formulaic they've become, but also the misuse and overuse of Matrix style cinematography and CGI. At the worst end of this spectrum are the ones so bad they remind me of the early "full motion video" games that hit the shelves after the cd-rom and "multi-media" became mainstream on the PC in the mid 90s (ie: no sets, no props, no nothing but actors and blue screen).

And then there is the trend toward putting out endless sequels that get worse and worse and which often even lose the interest of the original cast (or when they do, like in Basic Instinct 2, you wish they hadn't retained the original cast... or that half of it who had aged way too much to pull of the same role again)

Still, there are maybe 2 or 3 outstanding movies a year that come out which break the mold and whose producers, directors, and cast seem genuinely interested in the project rather than in making box office bucks and a paycheck. Often times some of these gems slip under the radar and never gain the recognition they deserve.

[kiwi_2005]

Dont forget about those $#%^ seagulls! they have a tendencie to eat the eyes first on a human. During ww2 when they would come across dead still clinging to life rafts, they couldn't figure out why alot were found in the water clinging to the life rafts, none were on the raft? Everyone had his eyes eaten, dead but hands gripped onto the side ropes of the raft and still bobbing out of the water like corks,.. Maybe the sailors hoped in the water to avoid the seagulls?

Im gonna hire out "Open Water"

[Skybird]

http://www.openwatermovie.com/

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/open_water/

[Type941]

you see I am a scuba diver, so I would have watched this movie regardless of reviews.

I watch and look at things like what gear they use, how the trip is organized, how they beahve in danger, their gestures, etc, etc.

I can understand how for a casual viewer this may spoil the party.


Hollywood is a disgrace.

[Skybird]

I do not know if it is realistic or not, and I do not care that much. It is no realistic docu-drama and no horror movie, but it is a psychodrama, somewhat, and the suspense is subtle. A "Kammerspiel". I am still confused myself about the ammount of impression it created for me.

BTW, the film was successful enough that they abused the title for a new movie being released these days, "Open Water 2". However, the film is by no means an official second part. It has nothing to do with the first movie, and it is made by different people.

On the Hollywood thing, I admit, occassionally they make a good, "silent" movie, too. Unfortunately, the loud and noisy crap dominates by far, and the stereotyped plots. Nothing against entertainement, I like to see a well-made action movie occasionally, but my taste is not limited to that Hollywood-Blockbuster-kind of movies exclusively.

[SUBMAN1]

It was an OK movie. Predictable though. At least they took the time to add a dts track to it too. I can't stand AC3 audio - its missing way too much detail.

-S