Gravity (2013) directed by Alfonso Cuaron, starring George Clooney and Sandra Bullock surrounds a space mission gone

wrong. The film plays part in delivering the back stories of the characters especially Sandra Bullocks role as Dr. Ryan Stone; a novice astronaut who has lost her daughter and (assumingly) partner. Within the film there are many battles for example man vs god/religion. As these astronauts and space crew are scientists, as an audience member we assume they are secular, however, it is only when someone is pushed to their limits they ask for help from the man upstairs as Ian Nathan comments; spacesuit intercoms break into the churchlike hush (Nathan,2013). An example of this is when we see Sandra Bullock alone in an escape pod and she is visited by Matt Kowalski (played by George Clooney), after he has drifted off into space. He gives her a pep talk to keep going and she soon realises that she was in a dream like state or he was a ghost; she then looks up to him asking him to look after her little angel (her daughter) as she believes they are now in the same place.

Figure 1 Dr. Ryan Stone

Within the film there is a lot of symbolism, for example it hints at the cycle of rebirth or returning to that vulnerable moment of being a newborn, as Peter Bradshaw explains like foetuses still attached to their umbilical cords. The movie's final sequence hints at some massive cosmic rebirth (Bradshaw, 2013). There are many scenes in the film which suggest this, for example when Dr Ryan Stone is able to get into the main part of the shuttle where she starts to undress herself and almost curl up into the foetal position, floating, as if she is still in the womb. Another scene is where she lands back on earth and she finds it difficult to stand and walk like a baby learning its first steps.

Figure 2 - In the Womb

One thing that really puts you into the characters shoes is the use of the camera; tracking objects as they crash into and ricochet off one another with terrifying solidity, then holding on Stone and Kowalski as they plummet away from the wreckage and into nothingness (Collin, 2013). When Dr. Ryan Stone is falling in space the continuous shot that twirls upside down with the earth flipping into shot every other second sets you up for discomfort and a nausea feeling. Also the opening being a lengthy 17 minutes long, there is no such thing as time in space or an end it is infinite and ever lasting, this opening reminisces the atmosphere.

Figure 3 - Shrapnel

BIBLIOGRAPHY Bradshaw, P 2013 The Guardian http://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/nov/07/gravityreview (Accessed on 15/4/14) Collin, R 2013 The Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/filmreviews/10271540/Gravity-reviewheartachingly-tender.html (Accessed on 15/4/14) Nathan, I 2013 EmpireOnline http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?DVDID=119753 (Accessed on 15/4/14) ILLUSTRATIONS Fig 1 Dr. Ryan Stone (2013) Gravity, Alfonso Cuaron [Film Still] United States/ United Kingdom, warner Bros http://www.geekosystem.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/gravity.jpg (Accessed on 15/4/14) Fig 2 In the Womb (2013) Gravity, Alfonso Cuaron [Film Still] United States/ United Kingdom, warner Bros http://3.bp.blogspot.com/UU9xaIK6Oro/UuKKeHdl5gI/AAAAAAAAAYQ/6qL5no4nxsU/s1600/gravity-trailer-3-635.jpg (Accessed on 15/4/14) Fig 3 Shrapnel (2013) Gravity, Alfonso Cuaron [Film Still] United States/ United Kingdom, warner Bros http://billdesowitz.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Gravity-Debris.jpg (Accessed on 15/4/14)