The Abyss

Cameron’s previous films already bore his signature and put his talent and craftsmanship on display. But The Abyss is the first full-fledged Cameron movie. He was not limited here by budgetary compromises (as in the case of The Terminator) or by a connection to a foreign franchise (as in the case of Aliens). Mainly, however, we already see here the classic attributes of his entire later, personal body of work with simple, almost banal stories about the clearly defined sides of good and evil, his ambition to push the possibilities of what could be done in the medium, and his personal fascination with the underwater world. In addition to that, The Abyss is impressive due to both its well-thought-out female characters, who were very different than the contemporary norms, and their male counterparts. Cameron is a masterful creator of illusions, as he is able to unfold and present to the audience a world that has been thought out to the smallest detail. Though he tells a thoroughly traditional story involving the central couple’s reunion, he succeeds in holding the viewers’ attention all the way to the kitschy climax, thanks to the non-formulaic dynamic of the two central characters and their gripping peripeteias. In a certain respect, the unfairly neglected The Abyss is the absolute pinnacle of Cameron’s filmography. Since computer graphics were still in their infancy at the time, he couldn’t rely on the “crutch” of animation as he has done in his most recent films, where his imagination no longer has any limits, whereas here he made every effort to create the least compromised equivalent of his space visions within the seemingly restrictive boundaries of shooting on film, with live actors and on locations. Thanks to this and his ambitious shooting, The Abyss has a fascinating realistic dimension that no digital technology can convey. The abyssal darkness encompasses the characters on the screen and merges with the darkness of the screening room, thus drawing the viewers in and letting the fascination and ever-present threat of the world beyond our everyday experience take hold of them. Thanks to its brilliant symbiosis of all of film’s means of expression, The Abyss, like Das Boot before it, succeeds in evoking an incredibly claustrophobic atmosphere even in a large screening room with only a handful of viewers. As such, we can say that the whole film actually exists for the purpose of making its climactic sequence work at the highest possible level. That sequence is one of the most dramatic and physically most intense moments in the history of the medium thanks to the fact that all elements, narrative lines and the vision converge within it and are used effectively. Cameron is no Bergman or Tarkovsky, and his descent into the abyss does not reveal any great truths about the human condition or the disturbing recesses of our minds. All of his narratives are entirely simple and actually even naïve, their core consisting of relationships and bonds between people. However, Cameron uses all of his masterful craftsmanship to bring us to our knees and convince us once again of the validity of the concept of love. (01/08/2023) (less) (more)