What makes a “gamer” movie?Is it a film that has been directlyadapted from a video game? Or one that isset in the world of gaming? Or perhaps it’s just enough to have a quest-like story structure inspired by traditional video game narratives.Gus Van Sant’sGerry– the first film of what Van Sant calls his “Death Trilogy,” three films each inspired loosely by real-life deaths – is none of those things. Though it features a big-name cast inMatt DamonandCasey Affleck, it’s a boldly experimental film, unfolding in long, slow, shots as its two actors, playing lost hikers, wander in the desert.For all that,Gerrymanages to be an extremely gamer movie, perhaps the ultimate art film for gamers.For one, it contains the best monologue on video games in cinema. On top of that, director Van Sant has acknowledged that the film’s style was influenced by theTomb Raidervideo game franchise, which he was playing at the time. It seems like an odd remark, but once you see the influence, you can’t unsee it.
A friendship between two young men is tested when they go for a hike in a desert and forget to bring any water or food with them.
What is Gus Van Sant’s ‘Death Trilogy’ and How Does ‘Gerry’ Fit Into It?
The story of Gerry was loosely inspired bythe 1999 death of David Coughlin.Coughlin and Raffi Kodikianwere two friends who became lost while hiking in New Mexico’s Rattlesnake Canyon. After several days without water, Kodikian stabbed Coughlin to death in what he later described – after having been rescued – as a “mercy killing.” Kodikian pleaded no contest to second-degree murder and was sentenced to two years in prison. As recounted by Van Sant inKatja Tylevich’sGus Van Sant, The Art of Making Movies, he learned about the Rattlesnake Canyon death while at a dinner party, where Matt Damon (star of Van Sant’sGood Will Hunting) and Damon’s then-girlfriendWinona Ryderwere discussing the story, which was currently in the news.Though Van Sant was inspired by the idea, he chose not to look too deeply into the facts of the case, so that his adaptation of the story could take on its own life in his imagination.
The next two films Van Sant directed after Gerry wereElephantandLast Days. Both films were also loosely inspired by deaths that had received a lot of media coverage.Elephantis about a school shooting with parallels to the Columbine massacre, whileLast Daysnarrates the moments leading up to the suicide of a rock star, who’s a clear stand-in forKurtCobain. The three films share a similar style as well, relying on long, meditative shots; Van Sant has also acknowledged the radical influence of the directorBéla Tarrover this period of his filmmaking. Tarr, who is thanked in the credits ofGerry, also constructs films out of long takes in which change or action is slow to develop. AfterLast Dayswas complete,Van Sant casually alluded to the three films as an unintentionally thematically-linked trilogyin an interview in Sight & Sound, and the name stuck.
What is ‘Gerry’ About?
InGerry, the two doomed hikers are played by Damon and Affleck, (reuniting soon inApple TV’sThe Instigators) and both are named Gerry. We encounter them in the car as they drive into the desert to go on a popular hike to see what they refer to with ironic detachment as “the thing.” (McGuffin alert: we never learn what “the thing” is). Mid-hike, they casually decide to veer off the marked path to avoid tourists, out of a belief that they will inevitably end up at their destination. Even after it becomes clear that they are lost, they remain confident in their ability to get themselves back to civilization.Only gradually does it begin to occur to themthat they are in real danger.
As dehydration begins to take its effect, Affleck’s Gerry is harder hit. He begins to hallucinate and to give up hope.Damon’s Gerry, for reasons that remain mysterious, makes the impulsive decision to kill his friend. But soon after,he realizes that a road is actually nearby, and he’s rescued. The movie ends with Damon in a car with the family that has saved his life, with the weight of the unnecessary killing upon him, as he watches the desert reel by out the window.
How the ‘Tomb Raider’ Franchise Influenced ‘Gerry’
Tomb Raidermight seem like an unlikely influence on an art film.The iconic franchise features Lara Croft, an archaeologist who hunts down lost treasure while dual-wielding pistols. The first entry was released in 1996, and at the time ofGerry’sproduction, it was perhaps one of the best known video game franchises in the world, with a blockbuster film adaptation starringAngelina Jolie, and a sequel on the way.
Van Sant has been explicit that theTomb Raidervideo game franchise was on his mind while he was planningGerry,and that he brought it up in conversations with his director of photography,Harris Savides, who had worked with him onFinding Forresterand would be the DP on the entire Death Trilogy. While the Gerrys are not action heroes, they are wandering around the wilderness, which is what aTomb Raiderplayer will spend a lot of time doing, as they try and figure out where Lara Croft is supposed to go next. The video games employ a third-person perspective, and the in-game camera stays behind Lara at all times. Van Sant, similarly, keeps the camera behind his actors during long takes in which they are doing nothing but walking.As he told Filmmaker Magazine, Van Sant spoke with Savidesabout having his camera swivel weightlessly as his actors changed direction, but “he thought we could do it, but only at a very great expense. You’d need some kind of bizarre Hovercraft to make the camera behave like that!” (Of course,now they have invented precisely that technology.)
Where the game really influenced the film is in the sound design. Much of the time we spend with the Gerrys, they are walking wordlessly, with no sound but the crunch of footsteps, the ambient sounds of nature, and the film’s eerie score, by composerArvo Pärt. The lonely feeling thatGerry’ssoundscape evokes is familiar from many similar third-person exploration games, but perhaps none more than the beautiful 2012indie game,Journey,in which the loneliness of the desert is not just an interstitial experience that occurs in between more directly engaging events,but is intended to be the substance of the gaming experience.
‘Gerry’ Was a Creative Collaboration Between Van Sant and His Cast
ThoughGerryis, at points,a patience-testing art film, it also contains immediate pleasures in the dialogue between the two Gerrys. They speak in a shared language grounded in constant linguistic innovation. When we meet them, they already use their own shared name, “Gerry” as shorthand for a careless screw-up, and throughout the movie, they never stop inventing amusing new terms to describe their environment, such as when Affleck asks Damon to build him a “dirt mattress” to cushion his jump down from a boulder.
The charm of their relationship is given deeper shades during the first night they are lost. At a campfire, Affleck delivers a monologue that begins, seemingly out of the blue, with the line “I conquered Thebes.” Damon knows immediately that his friend is talking about a video game, and Affleck knows that he can speak at length without losing Damon’s interest. He goes on to tell a long story about aCivilization-like empire-building game, in which he was doing incredibly (“I had everything”) before a series of cascading misfortunes caused him to lose it all.It’s a hypnotic scene,reminiscent ofTommy Lee Jones’monologued description of his dreamthat closesNo Country for Old Men. It captures a lot of what it feels like to play video games, and to share that interest with friends. And, of course, it serves as a metaphor for the tragic story at large.
Damon, Affleck, and Van Sant are credited as a writing team on Gerry’s screenplay, strongly indicating that there was a lot ofimprovised dialoguein the film.(Though this monologue was clearly scripted – Damon interrupts to gently correct one of Affleck’s mispoken lines.) However, in his discussion with Katja Tylevich, Van Sant indicates that he wasn’t entirely happy with the way the improv developed. “I thought the film would be endless talking… Talking about life, about where they were, what they had done, what they wanted to do. But we ended up on the set ofGerry… and it basically wasn’t working out. They weren’t verbalizing what they were doing or seeing.” At that point during production, feeling creatively rudderless, Van Sant says that he pivoted harder into the Béla Tarr aesthetic.
In other words, the two defining elements ofGerrymay have come from different sources. Van Sant brought the radical anti-narrative approach to cinema, whileDamon and Affleck, long acquainted, defined, through the effortless musicality of their improvised dialogue, the relationship between the two main characters. What’s more, Van Sant may have been uncertain of whether his cast’s seemingly frivolous banter really belonged in this pitiless desert narrative.And yet, as a viewer, the two aesthetics seem to merge effortlessly into a story of laid back hubris. What enables this creative miracle?Well, what’s the one thing that unites the vision of Van Sant with that of his cast? A love of video games.Gerryis the art film that every gamer should check out, even those who don’t consider themselves cinephiles.
