The Grey - Among Wolves - DVD

Movie: After director Joe Carnahan delivered an action film of the rather fun variety with his film version of the cult series The A-Team, he now sends its lead actor Liam Neeson once again into a tough adventure. However, The Grey is much darker and more exciting than the adventures of the A-Team. In the survival thriller, Neeson plays John Ottway, a loner robbed of any will to live after the death of his wife, who works at an oil refinery in the middle of the harsh Alaskan wilderness. As he flies back home with the rest of his crew after a shift change, their plane is caught in a severe storm that causes the plane to crash. Eight survivors must now fight hunger and cold together in hopes of finding a way back to civilization. But then John discovers that they have crashed in the middle of a wolf pack's hunting ground. And the hungry animals have already begun to defend their territory.

It may seem at first that The Grey is a solid action thriller. That is certainly the case in parts of the film. The wolf attacks, although the wolves themselves are only partially convincing, are very effective and at times extremely bloody staged. Also, other moments of the men's fight for survival tug at the nerves of the audience. In between, however, there are numerous much quieter moments in which the men ponder their lives in extended conversations. Through this, Carnahan does manage to give some of the characters a certain depth that you rarely find in this genre. On the other hand, these sequences might seem rather boring to some viewers, which of course the rest of the film then suffers from.

So you have to accept that The Grey is much more than a pure survival thriller. Rather, the film is a character study of a man who has lost all will to live and seems to find it again in the face of impending death. Liam Neeson embodies this man incredibly powerfully. When he is haunted by memories of his wife, which is visually very movingly staged alone, there is so much sorrow and grief reflected in Neeson's gaze that you almost want to think that the actor is not acting here, but processing the death of his wife Natasha Richardson, who died in a skiing accident in 2009. But it's not just in these emotional moments that Neeson makes a strong presence. The actor also gives his all in the superbly staged action sequences, which make these sequences really intense despite the wolves looking arguably artificial.

The Grey was shot in freezing Canada and the cold the actors faced is almost palpable to the viewer as well. Whether they have to trudge through deep snow, climb over gorges or flee from their pursuers in icy rivers, the struggle for survival of the steadily diminishing group is extremely gripping and excitingly staged, even if the limits of logic are crossed many a time.

I personally enjoyed the film very much not despite but because of the quieter character moments. I also found the ending, which is sure to divide minds, to be very intense and well done. The only problem is that the trailer promises the audience non-stop action and therefore many will approach the film with the wrong expectations. If you can detach yourself from these expectations and get involved with the mixture of adventure film, action thriller and drama, you might be as gripped by the film as I was. And then applies, even if the whole thing is not always particularly realistic and there are also in terms of special effects some small weaknesses, then on balance also: absolutely worth seeing!!!

Picture + Sound: The very clean picture captures the cold and desolation of the fascinating landscape very well. The coherent, pared-down colour scheme, pleasing image depth and decent overall sharpness suit the atmosphere of the story just as well as the sound mix, which perfectly showcases not only the dialogue but also the smaller and larger sound effects. Good!

Extras: The bonus material is unfortunately quite advertising-heavy and therefore also turned out arguably superficial. At just over 2 minutes each, the three featurettes (Man vs Nature, Extreme Conditions and One More Time in Battle) are simply too short to do more than scratch the surface. This is a shame in that the footage of the filming suggests just how tough shooting in freezing cold conditions must have been. One would have liked to know more about that.

Also the eight short interviews (altogether about 12 min.) have a too high promo character to give the viewer really interesting details about the production. The 7 minutes of uncommented b-roll footage provide a little insight after all.

Finally, there are six cut scenes (about 21 min.) to see, including an extended version of the men's conversation around the campfire, which alone is almost 10 minutes long. Unfortunately, there are no German subtitles for the cut scenes, so this extra can only be recommended to viewers with a good command of English. The featurettes and interviews, on the other hand, have German subtitles to offer.

The bonus material is rounded off by the trailer for the film.

Conclusion: The Grey - Among Wolves is a thrilling survival thriller that can also convince as a gripping drama. Admittedly, the viewer is not offered the very big action that the trailer promises. But that does not make the film less gripping, intense or worth watching. The DVD presents the film technically well implemented, the bonus material, however, is qualitatively and quantitatively rather meager. Nevertheless, overall: with the right expectations absolutely recommendable!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp