The Impossible: A Will to Survive
In the
world today, people are intrigued by the ugly and terrible news provided by the
media. Most news coverage is about a shooting in some city or Congress and the
president disagreeing on yet another aspect of the government. When did the
evening news only present bad news? Where are the inspiring stories? The
inspirational true story of The Impossible was one worth telling not in a news
room but the movie theater. The movie trailer embodies the hopeful and dramatic
story of a family overcoming separate tragedies, and their frenzied search for
a joyful reunion.
In the
trailer, the storyline of the human spirit is emphasized by its unpredictability
and its irrationality. It was chosen as emblem for the movie to “convey a wealth
of cultural and historical implications” (Lunsford 337). The cultural and
history surrounding the human spirit enriches even the gloomiest story. The
story centers on the history of one family on vacation. While on vacation in
Thailand, the devastating tsunami of 2004 crashed into Southeast Asia. The
tsunami as portrayed in the trailer separated the family. The father at first
on his own wakes up to see two of his sons staring at him from above. The sight
of his sons reignites his hope of reuniting his family once again. The mother
and the eldest son are shown struggling to stay together. At first they are
desperately clinging to a mattress and each is trying to reach the other. Then
they are tightly gripping a tree trunk and each other. The son admits to the
mother that he is scared. Her response displays a sense of the human spirit
unusual to a parent. She replies that she is also scared. The father altering
from a hopeless wanderer into a man of action illustrates the potential the
human spirit has to transform in an instant. This transformation relates to the
audience since it is a popular theme seen in pop culture and is a road taken by
great leaders of the past who have been struck by tragedy but persist. The
mother presents another aspect of the human spirit by confessing the truth to
her son. She could have told him that she wasn’t scared but she decided to
relate with her son instead. In sharing the same emotion, both the mother and
the son know they are not alone and through companionship are able to survive.
The human spirit is illogical and works in various ways. The audience connects
with the family since most of them are struggling in various family hardships. The
human spirit is a character by itself in the trailer.
Also in the trailer, “The filmmaker
uses actors as a medium for communicating ideas and emotions” (Giannetti 286).
The trailer captures the actors’ emotions and the director’s ideas through
various clips that tell the narrative. The emotions appear sincere and
believable since two well-known actors play the major roles. Naomi Watts plays
the mother struggling to stay alive and protect her son. Ewan McGregor is the
father search of his family. The director knew that these actors were able to
play expressive roles because of their previous work experience. He also
recognized that the adult and teenage viewers of the trailer would identify
these two actors and want to see the film. It’s hard to find well-known young
actors so actors new to the screen were used for the three sons. Even new to
the screen, they communicated emotions well. A clip in the trailer reveals two
of the brothers running to embrace the other. The family is at last reunited,
and the audience is craving to find out more about the story of the family.
The glimpse at The Impossible gives adults and teens what they want. They want a story that will give them hope and
reveal that the world is not all terrible news. The world tries to bring people
down by tragedy but stories like The Impossible keep the human spirit alive.
No comments:
Post a Comment