Deep Impact Review
by "Ted Prigge" (chandlerb AT geocities DOT com)July 10th, 1998
DEEP IMPACT (1998)
A Film Review by Ted Prigge
Copyright 1998 Ted Prigge
Director: Mimi Leder
Writers: Bruce Joe Rubin and Michael Tolkin
Starring: Téa Leoni, Elijah Wood, Morgan Freeman, Robert Duvall, Maximilian Schell, Vanessa Redgrave, Leelee Sobieski, Ron Eldard, Mary McCormack, Blair Underwood, Jon Favreau, Laura Innes, Rya Kihlstedt, Richard Schiff, Betsy Brantley, Derek de Lint, Kurtwood Smith, James Cromwell, Charles Martin Smith
With "Deep Impact," what you really have is not only a return-to-form for the "Disaster" Films, which at best were suspense films centered around the various people involved (my personal favorite is the Steve McQueen/Paul Newman/William Holden/O.J. Simpson epic, "The Towering Inferno"), but also a little bit of optimism for future disaster films. After all, haven't we been bombarded with the most inane disaster films as of late (such as "Twister" and "Volcano," neither which had one interesting character)? We sure have, and if anything, "Deep Impact" is a nice try at being something great, as well as a big fresh of air from seeing way too many big special effects become the forefront in films.
"Deep Impact" is the first of the two comets-heading-directly-for-earth arriving in theaters this summer (the other being "Armageddon," which is frantically trying to make itself look more human), but the focus isn't even really on the comet itself - it's on the people involved. After all, if a comet was to strike earth, this would really make up for about five to ten minutes of cool special effects when the comet actually hits, and perhaps about ten to fifteen minutes of other special effects when the astronaut team tries to blow it up. There's a whole lot of filling time in there, and "Deep Impact" figures that it shouldn't be about the comet itself but rather its impact on the people it will affect.
The film begins with the discovery of the comet, and quickly establishes the measures taken by political offices around the world to deal with it. They decide to send a Russian-American team of astronauts/miners to land on the comet, plant a couple bombs, and then set it off months before it hits earth. Of course, there's a back-up plan, which involves randomly selecting a certain amount of people to live in a cave for a couple years until the dust settles and they can try and repopulate the world (a plan which was thought up in none other than "Dr. Strangelove"). This is all very scary, and luckily, it's handled that way, almost in the same scary way that "Outbreak" dealt with the blocking off of the town so that the virus did not escape.
But this is not the real focus of the film: it's main point is to show you the various people it affects, and so we can see a wide variety of people, it choses three chief groups. We have Leo Beiderman (Elijah Wood), who was the kid who discovered the comet during a meeting of "The Astronomers Club," and who has to deal with the fact that he may not be able to bring his girlfriend (Leelee Sobieski) along to live in the caves, and if he may, she may not go because her parents may not be able to come along. There's also Jenny Lerner (Téa Leoni, who has a very cute neurotic quality), a rising MSNBC anchor (giving the station the most press it has ever had) who not only tries to uncover the comet story when it's still off-grounds to the public, but who finds she has to deal with her feelings for her father (Oscar-winner Maximilian Schell) when he decides to remarry a younger woman instead of getting back together with her mother (Vanessa Redgrave).
And we also have the story of the astronauts/miners who are landing on the comet, led by the aging Spurgeon "Fish" Tanner (Robert Duvall, hot once again off his performance in "The Apostle") after an accident with the other leader (Ron Eldard). As "Armageddom" is making these people the focus of its film, "Deep Impact" makes them an equal to the other two stories, and tries to flesh out their lives to show the pain of having to perhaps be a martyr (one astronaut, played by Mary McCormack, wryly says "If we do this, they'll name high schools after us").
And at the head of it all is the President, played with dignity and grace by Morgan Freeman, who is so good in the role that I'd probably vote for him if he ran in a couple years. Unfortunately very little is done with his character, and one early scene involving him actually harms his persona from that point on, even if in all reality it was only a hoax (you have to see it to understand what I mean).
I've been hearing lots of people complaining about the hokiness that this film has, how all of its characters are stereotypes or paper thin, and partially these people are right. This film is corny, and no character is fully fleshed out enough to truly and deeply associate with them. Then again, the same thing could be said about "Titanic," which featured two romantic leads who were hardly fully-realized people (she's rich and he's poor, and they love eachother...that's about it). But like I said with that film, stereotyping and not fully developing characters actually helps here. The people in this film are broad generalizations that only help us to feel for them more and find ourselves in them. We can all (hopefully) associate with Leo when he's worried about parting with his beloved girlfriend, because, hey, we wouldn't want to leave her behind either. And we can all associate with Jenny, because we've all had a grudge against someone that we fear we may have to fess up to if something like this comes along. If these people were more complex, we'd not be able to really find ourselves in them, because the more complex a person is and the more we know about them, the less we can say "Yeah, the same thing happens to me too!" and since that's what this film's big strength is, I can't say it's a big flaw.
"Deep Impact" has many many many problems, so many that a big list could be made of them (every twist in the story happens so the conclusion can happen, what's up with Charles Martin Smith being killed for no reason in the beginning, why deal with the cover-up of the comet when it really has nothing to do with the rest of the film, not enough Vanessa Redgrave or Maxmilian Schell to really feel for them completely, how come Elijah can easily climb that mountain, etc, etc, etc.), but if I were to make a list of them and take off points for every thing that went wrong with this film, I'd really be cheating you out of a review. If anything, the real problem with the film is it puts too much into its conclusion and not enough into its exposition. But "Deep Impact" is, after all, more of a sign of optimism for future films than a really great film. With this and "Titanic," we see Hollywood is changing for the better, and that future films won't be as soulless as, say, "Godzilla" or "Twister." We can expect better characters, more interesting plotlines, and much more.
If you're having trouble seeing past the cliches, then think of that scene where you see the big tidal wave towards the end about to come down on two main characters, you don't think "Wow! What a cool effect!," but instead think "Oh shit, that wave is going to kill them!" I could easily point out that this scene is cheap because one character had to kill themself to put them there, and that it looks fake, and a couple other things to demean it. But I'd be lying if I didn't say that I cared.
MY RATING (out of 4): ***
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