WHITEOUT
April 2nd 2010 19:00
Category: Videos
Based on the graphic novel by Greg Rucka & Steve Lieber
Director: Dominic Sena
Screenplay by: Jon Hoeber, Erich Hoeber, Chad Hayes & Carey W Hayes
Producers: Joel Silver, Susan Downey & David Gambino
Starring: Kate Beckinsale (Carrie Stetko), Gabriel Macht (Robert Pryce), Tom Skerrit (Dr John Fury), Columbus Short (Delfy), Alex O’Loughlin (Russell Haden), Shawn Doyle (Sam Murphy), Steve Luescu (Mooney) & Marc James Beauchamp (Weiss)
Produced by: Warner Bros Pictures in assoc with Dark Castle Entertainment
Released by: Warner Brothers
Running Time: 101 minutes Rating: MA 15
On Good Friday I had been intending to go see the Clash of the Titans, but finding out that it was one of those 3D flicks and thinking that somehow wearing 3D glasses that aren’t prescription lenses wasn’t going to be too good for my right eye – still recovering from three operations I changed tack and decided to hire some DVDs instead. Which makes me wonder how the heck are you going to be able to watch Clash of the Titans or Avatar on DVD? A mystery for another day, so there I am in the local video store seeking for something to watch when this particular flick caught my attention. And it literally caught my attention because of a book I had just been reading and returned to my local library the day before. No doubt you’re sitting there wondering when the heck I am going to get to the point, well suffice to say this book was called 500 Essential Graphic Novels.
Scratching your head, wondering where the heck I’m going with this? Well one of the 500 Essential Graphic Novels covered in this publication was a work called…Whiteout. And this is the film version of this particular work featuring the acting talents of Kate Beckinsale she of Underworld and Pearl Harbour fame. Until I actually saw this particular flick on the shelf I was almost about to walk out of the video shop with nothing in hand and possibly facing a rather fruitless trip into town. Then I saw this, found a couple of other things and made my back home to wack this in the player and let the eternal emerald gaze of the Lantern peruse its contents.
Fast forward to the current day and the location is Amundsen-Scott base, a US research facility located in the heart of the vast icy deeps of Antarctica, at the very South Pole itself. This particular locale is the focal point for much of the drama that unfolds being where our key protagonist, US Marshall Carrie Stetko, operates out of. This is a posting that could be seen as a real career ender, not much chance of making a name for yourself in a place like Amundsen-Scott. In fact as she says at one point in the unfolding story all she had to do was deal with minor misdemeanours that she could do without much thinking until something drastic occurs. At this present point in time the winter is about to start and the staff of the base are in the process of packing up and heading back to the balmier climes of stateside. Everyone, Carrie included, is looking forward to leaving, but then something occurs to put a potential spanner in the works.
A pilot has discovered something unusual out on the ice and Carrie is asked to go out and investigate, taking the base doctor Dr John Fury, ably portrayed by Tom Skerrit, with her. And it’s from this simple incident that the greater drama unfolds; slowly building up in tempo as time passes. Added on top of this is the fact that a major storm front is headed towards Amundsen-Scott, which is seeing the base trying to advance its evacuation procedures before the front hits their location. In fact one could say that the increasing bad weather and potential dangers is a metaphor for the plot and drama that gradually intensifies, occasionally reaching moments of calm before then again increasing in pitch.
Several people die in the course of this story, the first three murders that have occurred as far as anyone knows within the history of human occupation of the icy continent. What exactly is that they have died for? Has the endless vistas of ice and snow driven someone troppo? Has someone made it down to Amundsen-Scott that shouldn’t have been sent there; a person whose socio-psychopathic tendencies have at this critical stage erupted into a violent frenzy? Strangely its all to do with that crashed aircraft and the goods that were located in its cargo hold and for some reason required an armed escort. But it’s only once the movie reaches its crescendo that you realise precisely what exactly several individuals have lost their lives over and why. In fact when the denouement arrives it is punctuated with a poignant moment that has shades of the events that occurred in the original exploration of the vast perilous wilds of Antarctica, namely someone elects to walk off into the frozen, snowy wilderness ala one of the members of Scott’s party. All in all Whiteout was an easy viewing experience, I did enjoy it which was a very pleasant surprise – definitely worth checking out and the landscape shots are truly phenomenal.
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