TOS Blog: Daily Commentary from an Objectivist Perspective

Monday, January 30, 2012

The Grey: A Great Reminder of Crucial Truths

Posted by Paul Hsieh at 2:26 pm

The GreyCould you survive deep in the Alaskan wilderness and make your way out with only the resources from a crashed airplane?

That’s the stark challenge faced by the seven protagonists of the movie The Grey, starring Liam Neeson. An airplane carrying Alaskan oil field workers crashes during a storm, and they must battle harsh winter conditions and a pack of aggressive wolves while attempting to find their way back to civilization. In addition to spectacular cinematography and spellbinding action scenes, the movie demonstrates surprising philosophical depth in delivering its theme: “What does it really mean to fight for one’s life?”

The movie also dramatizes three related principles that are easy to forget during everyday life but that are made vividly clear in the context of the movie:

1) Man’s basic means of survival is his reasoning mind.

The wolves in The Grey survive using their claws, fangs, and instincts in accordance with their basic nature. Humans, however, cannot survive in this fashion. We lack the fur to keep us warm in subzero temperatures, claws and fangs to kill prey (or to protect ourselves against predators), and instincts to dictate our actions. To survive, we must use our minds, rearrange nature, and create the goods we need. Reason is our basic means of doing so.

2) Nature, to be commanded, must be obeyed.

Do you need to start a fire? Then you must identify the nature of the material at hand and proceed accordingly. Do you need to cross a violently rushing river? Then you must devise a method that holds the weight of a full-grown man; you must respect and apply the laws of physics. Wishful thinking, bluster, or drunkenness won’t make reality bend to your desires or make your problems go away. The only way to solve your problems or accomplish your goals is to face reality head-on, heed the facts, and act accordingly.

3) Modern man is extremely dependent on the benefits of technology.

Technology is an incredible enhancement to our lives. I would rather be typing a movie review on my MacBook Air in the comfort of my living room than shivering in a dark cave wondering whether I’ll be eaten by wolves tonight.

But it’s easy to take for granted the benefits of industrial civilization until we are reminded (in fiction or in real life) what life is like without those benefits. In Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged, Hank Rearden hosts a fancy party during a storm. During the party, Francisco D’Anconia tells him:

“[Y]ou are able to have summer flowers and half-naked women in your house on a night like this, in demonstration of your victory over that storm. And if it weren’t for you, most of those who are here would be left helpless at the mercy of that wind in the middle of some such plain.”

The Grey reminded me how grateful I am for the many entrepreneurs, engineers, and businessmen who have created our modern industrial civilization. Without them, we wouldn’t enjoy the iPads, cell phones, automobiles, central heating, and electricity we so easily take for granted. Instead, we’d be like the protagonists of The Grey, struggling mightily against raw, untamed nature, hoping to survive another day.

For this reason, although The Grey is not a political movie, it also helped me better appreciate Ari Armstrong’s recent blog post, “Great Producers Deserve Our Gratitude, Not Obama’s Tax Hikes.”

In the hubbub of everyday life, it’s easy to forget some basic truths about man, nature, and the fundamental role of reason in our lives. A gripping tale of novel and dire circumstances, The Grey reminds us of what we must never forget if we want to live.

Posted in: Business and Economics, Individual Rights and Law, Philosophy, Science and Technology, The Arts

Comments are welcome so long as they are civil.
  • Anonymous

    Thanks for the write up.  It sounds like a great movie.  I’m going to see this shortly.

  • Todd Walton

    I’d love to see a review of The Artist as well written as this.

  • John Jennings

    [Spoiler alert]
    Paul, I think you make some great points about the lesson that can be culled from this movie.  However, I believe there is a much better exemplar than The Grey: The Edge.  Both movies are very similar in the level of production (both are technically very good), setting, and plot (plane crashes in remote Alaska, survivors try to get out while battling killer animals).  I found The Grey to be just a ‘gritty reboot’ of The Edge, and furthermore lacks the inspirational aspects that make The Edge so good.  

    I found that The Grey suffered from the “No Country for Old Men” flaw, where the endings of the movies were designed to communicate a crushing sense of despair and futility where mere happenstance trumps the rational efforts of men.  In fact, it communicated that message strongly enough to me to make me unsatisfied with the movie.
    Furthermore, The Edge better conveys the three points that Paul makes by contrasting Anthony Hopkins’ attitude (“What one man can do, another can do!”) with the namby-pamby anti-mind attitude of Alec Baldwin (“That doesn’t *feel* south.”)  Essentially, I would say that The Grey shows Paul’s three points by showing how a group of men die horribly in the absence of the three points, whereas The Edge shows how man can utilize the three points to triumph over death and nature.

  • John Jennings

    [Sorry, double post. This comment mechanism is being difficult.]

  • https://me.yahoo.com/a/ffXz3Fcmq.XFH_Yl__T2G9rL1aU3#8a634 Mike Kevitt

    I think the 3 principles dramatized here can be summed up this way: Man is TOTALLY dependent on his conceptual knowledge, gained only by his mind to obey and command nature thru technology, starting with the udder-most primitive technology.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1755918498 Dan Sullivan

    It’s such a pleasure to read a review that is – like everything in The Objective Standard – completely rational. Clean, concise thinking. I love it!

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Don-Duncan/100000087760836 Don Duncan

    I quickly saw that the movie was not meant to be taken literally.  Wolves do not behave that way. The action scenes were shot in the cheapest way: Shake the camera showing only blurry movement so close up that the viewer must wait until the action is over and then guess what must have happened. 

    The theme was alienation. All the men are alone. Some have someone to return to, most do not. The necessity of being connected is implied by the profound depression of the hero. Also, his condition is shown to be from lack of communication by his letter and his memories of his father. 

    Four points are made: 1. Little decisions may have fatal consequences. 2. Alpha wolves and alpha men rule. 3. Superstition may comfort but gives false hope. 4. Life is a lonely struggle. We find nobility in never giving up, no matter what. 

  • Anonymous

    Great points – and well made. But there is nothing to beat personal experience to really appreciate them. I am fortunate in that I have been self-driven to push my limits in sailing yachts and mountaineering. These pursuits teach those participating in them a great deal about themselves. Also about those with whom we share the experiences.
    Either or both – they are great character-builders for your children – give them the opportunity to gain from them.