#Once more unto the fray movie#
#Once more unto the fray full#

I think there’s something to be said for feeling comfortable on your own.)Īnyway, the movie started…and less than ten minutes in, I began to wonder what, exactly, I was watching. (I’ve never had a problem going to movies - or just about anywhere else - by myself now and then. I drove the 17 miles to the theater just as darkness was starting to fall, fortified myself with popcorn, took a seat in the back of the theater, and settled in. Since it was a spur-of-the-moment decision, I went alone.

#Once more unto the fray full#

The trailer was full of fast cuts, emphasizing action, adventure, and violence. And in its trailers, The Grey was presented as a variation of that film: Liam Neeson attacking man-eating wolves, vowing to take them out “one by one” as he and a small band of men attempt to escape the Alaskan wilderness following a plane crash.

The whole thing is escapism at its finest: fluffy, gratuitous, and easy to follow. And, of course, everyone likes Taken…There’s nothing quite like spending two hours watching Liam Neeson beat, stab, and shoot the living shit out of people who are asking for it. A few years earlier, in 2008, the first Taken movie was released. It would give me a couple hours of escapism, hopefully lift me out of my funk, and I’d be home by midnight (I’m a night owl, so no harm there). So out of the blue, following a mind-numbing hour spent grading Scarlet Letter quizzes, I decided, on impulse, to jump in my car and go see The Grey. I also suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder, so that had kicked in big-time and wasn’t doing me any favors either. We were all kind of crabby and irritable, sick of scraping car windshields, the powdery snow that gets sucked into your car when you open the door (leaving your ass wet for an hour after you sit on it), colds, flus, and the general feeling of cabin fever that eventually descends on the entire state. By February 2 nd I was thoroughly sick of the cold and dark, and everyone I worked with – both students and teachers – felt the same. Unfortunately Pittsburgh’s winter weather lasts about five months – well into April sometimes – so there’s no getting rid of it that fast.

On January 2 nd – exactly – I’m ready for it to end. I can tolerate winter in Pittsburgh until the day after New Year’s. The Grey came out in the winter of 2011, and according to my ticket stub I saw it on Wednesday, February 2 nd. “Oh yeah, he directed some episodes of Blacklist. It’s an Indonesian film (and one of the best action films I’ve ever seen), and my buddy mentioned there’s a US remake in the works, to be directed by Joe Carnahan. When we spoke two days ago, the topic somehow meandered over to Gareth Evans’ 2011 film, The Raid. Every few weeks, an old friend and I chat for an hour or two on the phone, and without exception, at some point the conversation shifts to movies.