The Old Guard, overcoming an Old-School Industry. (Review)
Netflix released their most recent exclusive film The Old Guard a few weeks ago, whilst getting mixed reviews, including only 2 stars from 'The Guardians' Peter Bradshaw who called it a "dull film" its been somewhat popular with us average movie consumers. It's actual audience seemed to enjoy it, with an 8/10 on IMDB. In many ways this film has looked at how the film industry has been ran for decades and turned it on its head, from having mostly female led departments and the post production team being 85% female to shooting almost completely handheld, this film, this team have said f!ck the system and worked their own way to create this action fantasy.
“What drew Gina and I to this story was the opportunity to tell an action story driven by powerful women,” Reiker says. “They are not over sexualised. They are not in crazy seductive outfits. They are bad ass fighting women.”
Rucka writes about 5 somewhat immortals who have fought for hundreds and some thousands of years against evil, and for some, like Andy and Sebastian, it's become a dull and boring lifestyle that they wish to end. I say somewhat immortals because it is told to the audience that at any point, their immortality can leave, they can die, and unlike before, never wake up again. This is something that is implied by Andy and Sebastian who want it to happen to them as they are fed up of life. This twist to the fantasy of immortality is really intriguing to me, not only does Rucka make you see the truth that immortality will lead to you being fed up, but he also shows how one immortal was locked up, sunken to the bottom of the ocean forced to drown over and over again, Rucka shows how immortality could be a curse, not a gift.
I want to leave the plot now and focus on how the film was shot, and how its overcome the old-school TV/Film industry that I have read about and experienced on film sets. Tami Reiker decided to shoot this film with a multi-camera system, using ARRI Alexa 65s, this is quite common for action films. This is used to get multiple angles of the action so you don't have to re-take multiple times for each angle. What is rare is that she decided to shoot almost completely hand-held, with Simon Tindall and Tom Wilkinson as the main operators; they opted to go hand-held with these larger camera systems. Reiker said a big reason why she wanted to go hand-held was to show how crazy the situations were, for example, one scene included Andy and Nile fighting in a 'flying' plane, they opted to actually use a plane on a moving mount 15 metres in the air, whilst two camera operators where hand-held tied to the sides of the plane. Reikar explained how“There was a lot of discussion about whether we really did want to shoot this handheld even as the plane takes these crazy dives but our mindset was very much that we needed the audience to feel part of the action,” she wanted the space to "feel real, not imaginary".
You can see the frantic somewhat 'bad' camera operating in this GIF, some might say 'he cut off the actors head, it's badly done' however I would say it adds to the realism of the scene, they succeed in making you feel as though you are on the plane with them, not on a set, distant from the action. As Reiker said in an interview "'hand-held' meant we could film the story using the latitude of natural movement.”
For lighting Reiker and Ackroyd mostly used natural lighting to stick with the realism, however they also used the ARRI Varicon LED when needed to fill in spaces more even colour cast shadows when needed. Reiker descibed in an interview how "For The Old Guard, I worked with ARRI Rental to custom make a 4x5 filter just for our film so I could not only vary the contrast but adjust the hue. The effect lends the picture a more filmic quality, You are opening up the shadows, particularly in the faces and contours and beauty of the skin. We can put warmth into the shadows or add a blue to scenes set in Paris at night. It’s a really incredible tool.” This again, like the female led set, like the hand-held Alexa operating is somewhat unheard off, you tend to have the cinematographers who are old school and shoot film as it is and want to stay as true to the original format as possible. Then the cinematographers who shoot digital tend to wait for their colour grading session in post production to work on the shadows, the hues etc. Reiker chose to get the desired look in camera with this Varicon LED, adapting it with ARRI to take full advantage of the Alexa 65s before getting it to post production.
Overall I would not say this film is a classic, however I would argue that it does not deserve 'The Guardians' 2 star review, it seems that almost all Netflix originals are instantly crucified by old-school reviewers, who like to add a couple of stars to films if they get to sit in the comforts of a cinema chair compared to on their sofa. I feel like The Old Guard took a really interesting look at the pros and cons of immortality. With the use of talented female HOD's (Head of Departments) telling the story. This was not about the action, nor was it an emotionless film that you watch to see cool fight scenes or crashing cars, even though this film has those aspects, you watch this for the emotional story of thousand year old Andy who has given up, being motivated by 20 something year old Nile who still has hope. There were some standout issues for me like the difference in acting skill between Theron and Layne, however I can overlook that for the escapism the film entices and the way Netflix allowed the crew to be mostly female-led in this post Me Too industry.
I want to leave the plot now and focus on how the film was shot, and how its overcome the old-school TV/Film industry that I have read about and experienced on film sets. Tami Reiker decided to shoot this film with a multi-camera system, using ARRI Alexa 65s, this is quite common for action films. This is used to get multiple angles of the action so you don't have to re-take multiple times for each angle. What is rare is that she decided to shoot almost completely hand-held, with Simon Tindall and Tom Wilkinson as the main operators; they opted to go hand-held with these larger camera systems. Reiker said a big reason why she wanted to go hand-held was to show how crazy the situations were, for example, one scene included Andy and Nile fighting in a 'flying' plane, they opted to actually use a plane on a moving mount 15 metres in the air, whilst two camera operators where hand-held tied to the sides of the plane. Reikar explained how“There was a lot of discussion about whether we really did want to shoot this handheld even as the plane takes these crazy dives but our mindset was very much that we needed the audience to feel part of the action,” she wanted the space to "feel real, not imaginary".
You can see the frantic somewhat 'bad' camera operating in this GIF, some might say 'he cut off the actors head, it's badly done' however I would say it adds to the realism of the scene, they succeed in making you feel as though you are on the plane with them, not on a set, distant from the action. As Reiker said in an interview "'hand-held' meant we could film the story using the latitude of natural movement.”
For lighting Reiker and Ackroyd mostly used natural lighting to stick with the realism, however they also used the ARRI Varicon LED when needed to fill in spaces more even colour cast shadows when needed. Reiker descibed in an interview how "For The Old Guard, I worked with ARRI Rental to custom make a 4x5 filter just for our film so I could not only vary the contrast but adjust the hue. The effect lends the picture a more filmic quality, You are opening up the shadows, particularly in the faces and contours and beauty of the skin. We can put warmth into the shadows or add a blue to scenes set in Paris at night. It’s a really incredible tool.” This again, like the female led set, like the hand-held Alexa operating is somewhat unheard off, you tend to have the cinematographers who are old school and shoot film as it is and want to stay as true to the original format as possible. Then the cinematographers who shoot digital tend to wait for their colour grading session in post production to work on the shadows, the hues etc. Reiker chose to get the desired look in camera with this Varicon LED, adapting it with ARRI to take full advantage of the Alexa 65s before getting it to post production.
Overall I would not say this film is a classic, however I would argue that it does not deserve 'The Guardians' 2 star review, it seems that almost all Netflix originals are instantly crucified by old-school reviewers, who like to add a couple of stars to films if they get to sit in the comforts of a cinema chair compared to on their sofa. I feel like The Old Guard took a really interesting look at the pros and cons of immortality. With the use of talented female HOD's (Head of Departments) telling the story. This was not about the action, nor was it an emotionless film that you watch to see cool fight scenes or crashing cars, even though this film has those aspects, you watch this for the emotional story of thousand year old Andy who has given up, being motivated by 20 something year old Nile who still has hope. There were some standout issues for me like the difference in acting skill between Theron and Layne, however I can overlook that for the escapism the film entices and the way Netflix allowed the crew to be mostly female-led in this post Me Too industry.
7/10
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