This is a fairly hard choice for me to make. There easily could have been a number of other great films to choose from for my number one spot: 'The Shawshank Redemption', 'Citizen Kane', 'Raging Bull', '2001: A Space Odyssey' and 'It's a Wonderful Life' to name a few. These all may be at the top of someone else's list, and are tremendous films. So you may even be wondering, 'Of all the great movies out there, why this one in particular?' Well, with this review, I hope I can tell you why.
Take a good look at society today, a really good look. Then after watching this film, look again and think about yourself. Let's say you work in a skyscraper. The person working in the cubicle next to you does not really know you, and you do not really know them. Then an earthquake happens. A large crack opens up below that person and now he/she is holding on for their life. Meanwhile, you are fine and unharmed. You begin to make a run for safety. Now, you look back and notice that person dangling, about to fall a long way to their death. Do you risk your very life to save this person's, or do you turn around and keep running, reassuring your own safety? You might be thinking how any of this relates to a movie about the ocean. That is just one of the central morals behind this film: What type of a human being are you?
After a fatal accident with a nuclear submarine, a nearby group of oil riggers are put to the task by the U.S. NAVY of diving deep into the depths of the sea, in hopes of finding survivors of the submarine wreckage. Virgil Brigman (Ed Harris) and Lindsey (Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio), the leaders of the oil-rig, are in the middle of divorce and it has now taken an event like this to bring them both together to help each other. Meanwhile, up on the surface, the Cold War is at it's peak, and one of the NAVY SEALS helping the oil-rig with the rescue mission, may be a little more than just paranoid. Later, a hurricane sweeps through causing the rig to be disconnected from rescue and service above. And that is when the mystery of the abyss begins. Strange lights and unusual shapes appear from a nearby trench, miles deep. What is the explanation behind all this? Is it Russians, or something else?
This film works as a kind of underwater 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' and '2001: A Space Odyssey', and with that comparison, you probably would think this has to deal with an alien species and/or monsters. You may be right, and then again you may be only slightly wrong. What if the real monsters are the very things you take for granted: The people right next to you? In this case, on the oil-rig at the bottom of the ocean. Now do not let that scare you and give you the wrong impression, because this is not a horror movie in the slightest.
In the Special Edition (which is the version of the film I am recommending, by the way), the movie begins with a quote by Friedrich Nietzche saying "When you look long into an abyss, the abyss also looks into you." Maybe the abyss is not just a deep trench in the middle of the ocean, but also the deepest parts of our very souls. Corniness aside, I know, it is just something to think about.
The life and death situations, the sacrifices for the ones you love, the friendship that overpowers hatred. These scenarios are all handled very powerfully and emotionally in this film, particularly in the last hour. It is just breathtaking. Without spoiling anything, there is a particular scene where after a character has sacrificed them-self, the team on the rig desperately try to bring that person back. I dare you to tell me, after watching this scene, that you did not feel shivers run up and down your spine. It is rare, for me, to see something that powerful and affective in a movie these days.
This near three hour film does not even feel that long. Once you are involved in the story, the characters and their situation, time is irrelevant. If you choose to watch the theatrical cut instead of the Special Edition, that is just fine. Just know that the full impact of the movie is in the Special Edition. You will only get about half in the other, but it is still 'The Abyss', a terrific movie.
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