BURIED

US, 2010, 95 minutes, Colour.
Ryan Reynolds, Robert Paterson, Stephen Tobolowsky, Samantha Mathis.
Directed by Rodrigo Cortes.

The opening credits take us, visually, into deeper and deeper ground and the film keeps us there. Buried is an exact title.

Probably, a warning should be offered that the setting is solely the interior of the coffin where a US truck driver working in Iraq in 2006 finds himself after the insurgent attack on the convoy in which he was driving. Anyone who has strong claustrophobia or finds the prospect of being buried alive too much to imagine will find the film too harrowing.

Writer, Christ Sparling, must have taken up a dare that he could or could not write a full-length feature film set solely in a coffin. Certainly a risk – and perhaps not too much of a box-office bonanza. But, he has pulled it off and director, editor, Rodrigo Cortez has succeeded in creating effective visuals for the writing. This is a Spanish production, in English.

After the descending credits, the film stays in the dark for some moments, the audience gradually hearing some movement until the driver, Paul Conroy (Ryan Reynolds) comes to and discovers his predicament. This gives the audience some time to accept what the film is showing and whether it wants to watch this story or not.

First of all, Paul has a cigarette lighter which enables him, and us, to discover the confines of the wooden box in which he has been interred. His mobile phone vibrates, so we know he has some lifeline. Perhaps this is a touch unrealistic (not too many survivors to verify whether it is realistic or not) but the lighter and the phone enable the drama to unfold. He also has a pencil and, when the abductors ring and demand that he make a confession video on his phone, he finds a beam light, a torch and the written text for his video.

The film works well on the human level, the predicament of an ordinary man, non-military, who finds himself trapped and the source for ransom money. Audiences who identify with Paul will be asking themselves how they would react in these conditions, the fear, the frustration, the anger, the dread. The device of the phone also enables him to try to contact his wife and son in Michigan, the offices of his trucking company, the State Department, his mother.

Time passes, the deadline gets closer, the oxygen could run out, the lighter fluid could be used up, the batteries on his torch and mobile phone could run down. A snake slithers through a crack in the wooden planks of the coffin.

So, the film works well on the human level.

However, the film works well on a second level, that of the war in Iraq and its consequences. Paul is not military. He works for a company (which shows scant respect for its employees in a sequence which exposes greed and heartlessness at the centre of company bureaucracy for business interests in occupied Iraq). While he is in contact with the authorities in Washington (some sympathy momentarily here), and they are making attempts to locate and rescue him, a lot of the dialogue, we realise, is official double talk, attempts at morale-boosting, words of encouragement to keep hopes alive.

The calls of the abductor, his sending of a video of an execution, the background of his and the Iraqui people's suffering add to the harrowing experience of the film.

The film seems about to end several times. Because it is a Spanish film rather than an American film, we are wondering whether Paul will be rescued and the ending happy. We think it won't, will be, possibly... And we leave the cinema soberly reflecting on such a life and death situation, why this happens, and how we might react in such circumstances.

1. The intensity of the film experience, claustrophobia, impending death?

2. A Spanish production, the director and the crew? The perspective? An American story? Americans in Iraq? An Iraqi story?

3. The 2006 setting, the American invasion, the role of the insurgents? The Bush years and the administration? Rebuilding, the convoys, the trucks, the drivers, the military protection, the contracts – and the hard companies in terms of contracts and ending them? Families? Contact with families? The remuneration for the drivers?

4. The attack, the drivers not armed, the deaths of the drivers, the kidnapping of Paul Conroy, the burying of him, the demands for ransom, the desire for money? Americans, the motivation of the Iraqis? The American authorities wanting to contain the situation, for hm not to make the video, for it not to be publicised on the media?

5. The set, the coffin, the space, the wood, the planks, the spaces, the detail? The roof and the sides, the holes? The snake? The lighter, the torch, the beam, the phone, the pencil?

6. Ryan Reynolds’ performance, on screen all the time, in the confines of the coffin? The psychological truth of his performance? The role of the voices, their range, tones, the effect on Paul Conroy, his reaction to them?

7. The situation, the silence, the initial dark, the explanation of why he was there, fear, puzzlement, claustrophobia, oxygen, the lighter, the realisation of impending death?

8. The device of having the mobile phone, the batteries running? The range of contacts and numbers? Youngstown and the handling of the situation? His wife and son on the answering machine? The abductor, his tone, demanding the money, the time limits? The call to Donna, his anger, her reaction, his ringing back, ringing the State Department? His contact with the company, putting him on to the personnel director, the recording of the contract and its cancelling? The phone call to his mother, her Alzheimer’s? The team in Iraq, keeping contact, trying to find him, the repetitions of the phone calls, the build-up? The video of the hostage being shot? His making the video, cutting his finger?

9. The psychological effect, Paul and his action and inaction, preserving the oxygen, moving around in the space, cramped, reaching for objects? The desperation, the swearing? The snake and his lighting the fire, its going out through the hole? The importance of light?

10. The mystery, his location, trying to track through his mobile phone? Hearing the voice, the bombing, the news of the bombing of the insurgents, the irony of the abductor ringing back? The story of the rescue of the volunteer student? The irony of the ending and finding his body?

11. The company, the business tone of voice, impersonal, demanding answers, recording the interview? Audience response with disgust at the company? The fabrication of the situation to cancel his contract?

12. Dan, British, his authority, talking Paul through, expressing concern, Paul thinking he was not interested, containing the situation, truth and lies, the admission of no hope, the dream of the rescue in Paul’s mind, the almost rescue and the wrong contact?

13. Paul, the burial, his death? His life flashing before him? An ordinary man, the value of his life, government authorities, collateral damage?

14. The impact on the audience in view of the history of the American occupation of Iraq?