Buried 2010

 

"I'm buried in a box. I'm buried in a box"

 

 



 

You open your eyes and it is blacker than the blackest night. You can't see your own hand in front of your face. Your hand hits the ceiling, but there is something wrong because the ceiling is only a few inches above your head. You try to stick out your arm and hit the wall which is only a few inches to the side of you. It is then that you realize it is difficult to breathe. A sinking feeling hits your stomach when you begin to succumb to the fact that your greatest nightmare is coming true....you've been buried alive.

Written by Chris Sparling and directed by Rodrigo Cortes, Buried is about Paul, played by Ryan Reynolds,  is  an American truck driver in Iraq. He is captured by some angry Iraqi civilians and buried alive in a simple wooden coffin. All Paul finds when he awakes in the coffin is a lighter and a cell phone. That's it, nothing more....no really.... 

This is an extremely dangerous types of movie to make. Especially in this day and age. The entire movie never leaves the coffin. This is difficult for both director and actor. Reynolds is the entire movie. I have never been the biggest fan of Reynolds. I have only ever seen him in comedic roles. I thought that he did a very good job portraying a man who is trying to do everything he can to get out of a seemingly hopeless situation. He went through such a wide range of emotions and really made the viewer feel like they where there with him. As he begins to feel hopeless, the audience begins to feel hopeless. When he feels like he is getting somewhere, the audience wants to jump for joy. You are trapped with him.

Directing this film must have been a nightmare. All that you have to work with is a small box and nothing more. There are not many camera angles, and how do you go about lighting? It is the desire of every director to make a movie that is true to the story they are telling, so how do you stay true to a movie about a man in a coffin without any light?

Cortes did a great job of using the light of the lighter and the cell phone only. There where many times that the viewer was left with a blank screen and only had the sounds to go on. This is where true suspense comes in. You can't see...There is nowhere to go....what do you do? This is where the art of moving making is at it's best. Keeping the audience on edge with as little information as possible. THIS was the movie technique that my movie idol, Alfred Hitchcock perfected. I think that he would have been proud.

I was very concerned at the beginning of the movie when I realized the entire thing was going to take place in just the coffin. I couldn't see how they where going to be able to fill 95 minutes with enough interesting events to keep my occupied. When I am wrong, I'm wrong and I am willing to admit it. Apparently there are a lot of things that can happen in a coffin in 95 minutes when you are trying to get yourself rescued.

There is something that has been missing for me with many of the modern day films that are out there. There is a sense that all that these films are striving to do is to see who can throw in the greatest special effect, who can shock with the goriest scene, or what movie can push the sex boundaries. Sometimes simple is better. That is where 2010's Buried comes in. Watch it. It made me very uncomfortable watching it, and there where times when i felt like I couldn't breathe myself. THAT is good movie making.