THE SURVIVOR
Australia, 1883, 87 minutes, Colour.
Robert Powell, Jenny Agutter, Joseph Cotten, Angela Punch- Mc Gregor, Lorna Lesley, Peter Sumner.
Directed by David Hemmings.
The Survivor is frequently arresting. Its special effects (especially a plane crash) are excellent; its story is puzzling (not helped by post-production editing) but engrossing enough for suspense and curiosity; there are shocks, atmospherics and some veering towards melodramatics, especially in the final confrontation (too melodramatic). The basic disaster material is left for a preternatural vengeance story with Brian May's thumping score and synthesiser sounds of suffering. Robert Powell is the surviving pilot who searches for the crash's meaning with his usual intensity. Jenny Agutter has the enigmatic, but more challenging, role of the medium. There are many good aspects which make one wish it all cohered better. This is a Tony Ginnane production - after many anonymously international thrillers e.g. Patrick, Harlequin, Ginnane allows the Australian situation more to emerge than in previous films. His two films after this were made in New Zealand: Race for the Yankee Zephyr, Dead Kids.
1. An enjoyable thriller? Satisfying suspense thriller? Action? Supernatural ghost story?
2. The quality and impact of the Panavision colour photography, the use of South Australian locations? The importance of the special effects especially the plane crash (and its being shown twice)? The sets and decor - especially the crashed plane? The contrast with the wreckage and the beauty but eeriness of the landscapes and the wind blowing through the trees? The score - and the use of synthesiser sounds?
3. How satisfying the structure: the basic plot of the crash and Hobbs' involvement in helping the pilot to understand what happened? The gradual revelation of the truth? The detail of characters in the plot? The post-editing pruning and the highlighting of the basic themes - and the illumination of character complexity?
4. The importance of editing for mood, pace, shocks and scares, an atmosphere of suspense? For the impact of the explosion and plane crash? For the atmosphere of the preternatural?
5. The initial focus on Hobbs and the children's game? The significance of the game of the girl looking behind and trying to catch the others moving? A symbol of the search during the film? The final sequences with the game again? Hobbs supervising the children, her watching the sky and planes, her sense of what was to happen, her watching the plane crash, her pointing out the surviving pilot? Her contact with the pilot and her presence at the religious service? Her house and the sounds threatening her? Her potential as a medium and her being used by the dead passengers? Her contact with David and persuading him to search out the truth? The visit to the priest? Going into the cockpit to re-create the atmosphere and her agonised participation in this? Travelling to the investigation headquarters? Her grief and feeling David's death? How well-defined a character? Her place at the end of the film?
6. Audience response to plane journeys. the people getting on the plane in an ordinary manner, the variety of characters - echoes of disaster film? The bomb, the explosion, the spectacle of the crash? The photographer and his prurient curiosity about the dead? The police? The examination of the wreckage? The gruesome detail shown? The thoroughness of the methods for investigation, identifying people? The importance of seeing the crash again after an hour and having more information? Sharing David's memory?
7. David and his work the miraculous nature of his survival, his loss of memory, release from hospital, the visit to Beth - and its enigmatic meaning - and connection with Rogan and Slater? His visit to the wreckage, his not being welcome in the investigation, his flying over the site of the crash and its not being there? The curiosity about Hobbs? His friendship with and working with Tewson? His curiosity and attempts to find out what happened?
8. Slater and his personality, tone of voice, slightly insane approach to the investigation? His work with Tewson? Rejection of David and his dislike of him? The build-up to information about his role in building the planes, need for power? Final confrontation with the sounds of suffering? His killing David and being engulfed in hellish flames? The melodramatic style of Slater and his death?
9. The sub-plot with the photographers - their callous taking of so many photographs? The man being lured to the cemetery by the little girl, his being scared? The long sequence culminating in his being killed by the train? The girl and her being scared by the photo, her death in the dark room?
10. Tewson and his role in investigation, friendship with David, his attention to detail, his being murdered by Slater?
11. The presence of the priest - after the crash, at the service, being approached by David and Hobbs and his reluctance to be involved in any kind of necromancy? His being seen watching the cockpit where David and Hobbs were?
12. The film's attention to detail and authentic atmosphere in terms of the plane crash and its aftermath and investigation?
13. The ghostly suggestions - with the children playing the game, Hobbs and her psychic sense? The puzzling elements of David's survival and investigation? The child and the doll luring the photographer to his death? The noises, the winds in the trees, Hobbs' being possessed by the dead passengers?
14. Themes of power, lack of scruple in murder? Greed in corporate business? Themes of guilt, vengeance, punishment? The preternatural and psychic powers? An image of purgatory - for David to expiate his guilt?
