At the weekend just gone by I visited the Odeon in Camden, London to view a very special film hosted by the Sci-Fi Film Festival London. The film was particularly special to me as the executive producer, Tom DeLonge, is favourite musician of mine and the soundtrack was done by one of his bands 'Angels & Airwaves'. It was directed by William Eubank, who has worked on many film sets but this is debut as a director. On a side not Eubank often does camera work himself and I admire his conviction as he does some of the work and does not just delegate.
The film itself was entitled LOVE and this gave no indication to me as what the film could be about. But through the opening sequences it all becomes abundantly clear. The film is set around the undeniable importance of the human race having relationships and the important of love. It also shows the effect of story telling and theses stories which can form relationships.
The film follows the life of Captain Lee James Miller aboard the ISS space station doing a solo mission. This is what we get from the information provided to us and the hints in the environment and set. We are never directly told that he is alone, to start with, but the empty halls and soft music shows there is no other life about from the Captain aboard the ISS. The loneliness aboard the ISS is furthered by (among messages from Houston) a message from his brother announcing that he has a new born baby nephew. Miller's expression can only be described as a 'forced smile' as he is happy that he has a nephew and wants to show his brother this. But sad because he can't see him and that he is so far away from his family.
LOVE often cuts back to scenes from an American civil war soldier named Lee Briggs. He is a solider entrusted with an important mission which means he must travel away, from fighting the confederates, and perform this task to help further the cause to abolish slavery. This cut back and forth between the two times helps plant seeds in your mind of the interesting parallels between Lee Briggs's and Lee Miller's lives.
When we return to aboard the ISS we are shown a horrific incident has occurred. Silence is maintained on all radio channels to Houston and after hours of trying to send messages, both vocal and pre-recorded, he realises he has been abandoned. This truth is then further clarified when he receives an audio message from Houston telling him he cannot be brought back to Earth. As this truth slowly sinks in to our Captain's mind he goes through almost the five stages of grieving, which terminal patients often go through.
Denial - The captain cannot believe this is happening and constantly tries to contact Houston
Anger - The denial stage flows over into this after we see him breaking equipment and screaming in frustration.
Bargaining - The look of longing in his eyes as he stares out of port holes at Earth tells us all we need to know.
Depression - He starts to cry a lot and the look of longing and the melancholy expressions on his face show us this stage clearly.
Acceptance - This stage is slightly different as he accepts his fate, but also starts to hallucinate a lot and talk to him self. The loneliness gets to him and sends him mad. Often his hallucinations become almost comical to us viewers.
Obviously the film is not identical to these stages but there are similarities and the acceptance stage spills over into a psychotic breakdown from the crushing loneliness, however.
We are later told (by the captain) that he has been trapped on the ISS for 6 years. This is also the first time we are told the date, 2039, which is shocking as you assume its the present day. Miller is on the ISS for 6 years as the film shows us, further telling us the excess of his ordeal.
This was not supposed to be an actual review of the film as i have missed out major details. This is because I want people to watch the film and be as in awe of it as I am. I did this as i wanted to explain the similarities between the grief stages and the films progression.
The Trailer..
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