Chapter 69: Test Screening Reactions
Half the film had slipped by before Roger Ebert realized it, but he had already formed a visceral impression of it. Aside from maintaining a fast-paced, explosive thrill, The Rock possessed a stark characteristic that Speed lacked—visual language and color application so gorgeous they verged on the elaborate!
Few films pushed their cinematography to such a gorgeous extreme, elevating both the mise-en-scène and the narrative to such aesthetic heights.
Typically, camerawork dared not be too prominent, overdone, or scene-stealing, lest a picture become a purely visual experience or a music video. For the vast majority of directors, cinematography ultimately had to yield to acting and storytelling.
But in Roger Ebert's eyes, every shot and every scene in The Rock was a textbook-perfect, gorgeous frame akin to a high-end commercial or a music video.
The slow motion at the very opening, the extreme scenic close-ups, those intensely backlit shots in the rain—they resembled a richly graded luxury commercial, yet brimmed with tension. Ed Harris's fury and military aura shone through on the strength of the camerawork alone.
No one dared stretch gorgeous commercial aesthetics across an entire film!
Even if someone had, in Roger Ebert's memory, it had been a complete failure.
Even if he disliked this genre, Roger Ebert had to admit that The Rock absolutely did not belong in the failure category.
If Duke Rosenberg's Speed had merely been a test of his skills, then The Rock was a spectacular display of brilliance!