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Flight From Death: The Quest For Immortality
R0 - Australia - Accent Review written by and copyright: Noor Razzak and Stevie McCleary (20th November 2006). |
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The Film
 "Flight From Death: The Quest For Immortality" is a very good documentary, there's no doubt about it. It starts off in standard documentary style, waffling on about many metaphorical concepts, but once it gets into the meat of the subject at hand it is quite fulfilling. The title of the film is rather misleading though and coupled with the bordering on pretentious first ten minutes of the piece, this serves to prevent it from being truly great. However, this is definitely a documentary for all types of people and one that that all people could benefit from watching. As long as you're not squeamish, I guess. The film, unlike like what it's title may suggest to you, is about how human beings have conscious (and at times unconscious) reactions to the concept of life and death. We strive to go past what we know of life and have a sense of purpose, to matter. This is the immortality that is referenced throughout, although they do give brief discussion to the nature of actual immortality and its potential affects on us as a species. The first half of the film deals with all the concepts that are out there at the moment, pertaining to this subject, a lot of which comes from the book 'Denial of Death' by the late cultural anthropologist Ernest Becker. One of the main themes seems to be that trying to avoid the concept of death only helps to create more problems, usually of a violent nature. He suggests the very concept of death anxiety is humanity's primary motivator in life. The second half of the film deals with the three main psychologists that we've met performing tests on groups of people to gauge their reactions when confronted with references to their own potential death. While deeply fascinating watching, it is not exactly shocking the things they find out about people. The documentary serves to only enforce their ideas that they've already postulated to the viewer. Still, their discoveries create much food for thought about the human mind. The narrator, Gabriel Byrne, is slightly hit and miss. I've always loved his work as an actor but here, especially the early dialogue, is from the pretentious school of documentary film-making. Confuse the audience with big words and crazy concepts and they'll think they're watching art. Considering this film is very well put together, I found the narration entirely unnecessary at times. Or maybe it's just because in a film about a subject as tender as death, I kept picturing him as Satan in "End of Days" (1999). There are some odd music choices throughout the film and we also get moments where a camera is just recording a tombstone getting rained on. But these concerns are rather minor. The majority of the film is extremely well-made, with plenty to keep you thinking about. The latter half of the film is deeply fascinating and complex material. The section on why we tend to become angry at those who are 'different' is worth it by itself. "Flight From Death" covers the spiritual, psychological and, most importantly, cultural impact that death has on our lives. Our need to matter, to have 'lived life' and not suffer a 'social death' creates the urge to strive. Unfortunately this has both positive and negative results worldwide. Overall this is a film I would quickly recommend to anyone who considers their place in the world, and how the world around them works. Just don't watch it if you're in the mood for light entertainment. But if you're in a thoughtful mood, then you should watch this film. It is relevant to every single person out there. It would probably go a small way to waking a few people up about how to act in relation to others, and what unconscious actions are influencing them.
Video
Presented in the film's original theatrical ratio of 1.33:1 this full screen transfer is a mixed bag, it's occasionally sharp and also occasionally grainy. Since this film was shot on DV the image has a long focus and presents color quite bright but also has some problems such as moire effect against line patterns and minor compression artefacts. The archival footage used exhibits wear from age but this is not the fault of the transfer but rather the original source material for that footage. Overall it's a transfer that shows its problems from the fact that it's a low budget film but on the flip side it's entirely watchable.
Audio
A single English Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track is included for this film and presents the audio clear and distortion free. Considering this is a dialogue based documentary a stereo track is all that is really required and serves the purpose quite well without going overboard. No optional subtitles are included for this release.
Extras
First up is a feature-length audio commentary by writer/producer/director Patrick Shen and co-writer/producer Greg Bennick. This is partly screen-specific and partly informative behind-the-scenes track as they comment on the overall making-of process which includes the editorial, music and creative decisions made that eventually helped provide the narrative with a greater impact. They also talk about the various locations they traveled to, the interview participants and how they found them and got them involved in the project as well as the involvement of Gabriel Byrne as narrator, whose devotion and passion for the film surprised the filmmakers among other things. Next up is the "Making of Flight from Death" a documentary which runs for 28 minutes 54 seconds and covers the full process from the inspiration of Ernest Becker's book as the template for this film to the production, which included travelling to various countries for interviews and perspectives, the interviewees participation and the overall challenges in making a film such as this on an incredibly low budget. The filmmakers also comment on the impact of 9/11 and how it drastially changed the course of the film, meeting with world leaders, going stir crazy from months of travelling as well as looks at the post-production and festival reaction during the film's release among other things. Next is a selection of 5 deleted scenes which include: - "Sam Keen" which runs for 4 minutes 35 seconds, Keen comments on interviewing Ernest Becker before his death in 1974. - "Ron Leifer" which runs for 2 minutes 47 seconds, shares memories of Ernest Becker. - "Sheldon Solomon" which runs for 41 seconds, Solomon comments on the destruction of the environment as a result of economic growth which is a 'distraction'. - "Sam Keen on War" which runs for 46 seconds, Keen comments on whether the human psyche would change if we put more emphasis on peace rather than war. - "Medical Strategies" which runs for 4 minutes 30 seconds, looks at the medical field and their work on trying to eliminate death. Also included on the disc is a reel of production stills which runs for 4 minutes 18 seconds and features photographs taken during the production and festival release of the film. Next up is the film's original theatrical trailer which runs for 3 minutes 1 second. Rounding out the extras are a collection of bonus trailers for: - "Persona Non Grata" which runs for 1 minute 30 seconds. - "Europa" which runs for 2 minutes 35 seconds. - "Persona" which runs for 2 minutes 33 seconds. - "A Heart in Winter" which runs for 1 minute 43 seconds. - "Heavy" which runs for 2 minutes 39 seconds. - "My Flesh and Blood" which runs for 1 minute 48 seconds. - "Fanny and Alexander" which runs for 1 minute 41 seconds. Although the extras are quite brief, the commentary is worth a listen and the making-of is very rarely seen on a documentary so it's inclusion alone bumps up this discs overall grade.
Overall
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