To God, there is no zero!

Jack Arnold's The Incredible Shrinking Man, adapted by sci-fi legend Richard Matheson from his novel, is one of those films that so embodies its era, whose cardinal images are so burned into the popular consciousness, that you can go into adulthood without being sure whether or not you've seen it all the way through.  So it was with me: until I watched the DVD from Netflix this past week, I wasn't sure whether I'd watched the complete film on TV some distant Saturday afternoon decades ago, or only caught snatches and clips over the years.  I now realize I never had seen the thing, end to end.

The question one will ask, presumably, is "how does it hold up?"  People who know me know that term -- "holds up" -- is a pet peeve of mine, as it seems to imply an aesthetic bias against the past, an idea that the artworks of yesterday must be judged according to the standards of the present in order to pass muster.  The idea of "progress" in art is deeply problematic and complex -- still, one area where we can all presumably agree is that the special-effects of today's sci-fi films generally leave those of yesteryear behind.  Generally.  I will personally take the stop-motion special effects of Ray Harryhausen's Jason and the Argonauts over many a modern CG sequence, but perhaps I'm being unfair in that preference -- penalizing perfectly competent effects work simply for being more widespread and ubiquitous now than it was 50 years ago, and retroactively perceiving a quaint "ye olde craftsmanship" quality in earlier work that, at the time, desired no such association and merely wanted to wow us as persuasively and as vulgarly as possible.

Attempting to read Ray Harryhausen's mind, however, is a perilous exercise, so I'll desist.  The effects work in Incredible Shrinking Man is noteworthy in part because there's so much of it.  Unlike another iconic 1950s horror film -- The Fly, which I consider a duller, inferior work despite its sublimely nightmarish finale -- Incredible Shrinking Man doesn't pack its punch into a couple of big FX reveals surrounded by mostly routine dialogue scenes.  This movie is wall-to-wall effects shots, wasting no time in starting the shrinking process on its doleful hero (played by the wonderfully glum Grant Williams, who seems unsurprised by every misfortune that befalls him because he seems always to be anticipating the worst), and using an endlessly imaginative variety of over-sized props, gigantic sets, and intricate optical compositing work to render its illusions.

You'd be gloomy, too.

One thing I notice about the best effects work in older movies is that, even if the technology used to get certain shots is primitive by today's standards, the filmmakers still got the shots they needed, by hook or by crook.  You see this in Merian Cooper's 1933 King Kong, where we actually get (for example) a spinning POV shot of a crashing airplane that's been thrown to its doom by the giant ape, or where the filmmakers constructed a full-scale practical ape hand to mesh with the wider shots done using stop-motion models.  In Shrinking Man, too, the filmmakers get all the shots they need.  This is particularly apparent in the wonderful climactic battle between protagonist Scott Carey (by now diminished to the size of a large insect) and a fearsome tarantula.  This is the scene most of us have seen, or at least seen stills from.  Watching it now, you may for a moment reflect on the "cheesiness" of certain individual effects shots, but overall, the sequence holds together -- the spider is particularly creepy because it's a real spider.  No amount of CG is likely to outdo that for sheer repulsiveness.  As the battle reaches its climax, the filmmakers even provide us with a ghastly closeup of the arachnid's slimy mandibles about to devour the beleaguered hero.  Arnold and his team figured out exactly the shots they needed and, damnit, they got them.  50+ years on, the thing still flows.

What I hadn't seen before, and was all new to me on this viewing, was the first act, which dramatizes Carey's early plight -- getting smaller, yes, but still able to interact socially with other people, and still daring to hope for a cure.  The film is most poignant as we see Carey literally shrinking out of his capability to be a good husband to his endlessly loyal wife Louise (Randy Stuart).  This taps into wells of male anxiety that one hardly need bother articulating.  In a deft bit of psychological insight, Matheson has Carey becoming increasingly tyrannical to his wife the smaller he gets -- motivated by his sense of inadequacy and his fear of losing her, he grows needy and ill-tempered.  There's a hilarious, surreal potency to the scene in which Carey screams possessively at Louise from within his dollhouse when she steps outside to run some errands.

Marital difficulties

If the first half shows Carey shrinking out of social connection with his fellow humans, the second half reduces him to the basest elements of survival.  The extended sequence inside the basement of Carey's home -- the previously mundane setting transformed into an alien desert, populated by a fearsome predator -- comprises the film's greatest work of imagination.  Paradoxically, as Carey's position becomes increasingly irrevocable, and as he is eternally cut off from other people, the film's tone becomes more positive -- because his goals are simplified and clarified, because mere survival generates its own adrenaline rush and sense of accomplishment.  When he slays the spider and wins his prize, Carey feels a primal fulfillment not unlike that experienced by Tom Hanks in Robert Zemeckis's Cast Away after he successfully makes fire for the first time.  Ah, the simple joys of living like a caveman.

Incredible Shrinking Man is justly celebrated for its spiritual final moments, as Carey (in voiceover) contemplates his part in the grand scheme of nature, and embraces his destiny.  The famous line, "To God, there is no zero," recapitulates Hamlet's notion that "there's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow."  Dimestore philosophizing?  Maybe -- but by the time those final moments arrive, and Carey looks up at a nighttime sky and a moon whose scale is no more out of joint for him than it is for normal humans -- the film has actually earned something.  It has, by patiently placing us in the shoes of a tiny man, found a new way to prick us with the conception of our own tininess, and done an end-run around the theme's rhetorical cliches.  I was surprised to read from Wikipedia that the final soliloquy was not written by Matheson, but was added by director Arnold.  Would it have seemed gauche and "on-the-nose" to the pro writer Matheson?  Perhaps.  Regardless, it is immortal, and rapturously transcends the distinction between "happy" and "unhappy" endings that has held so many screenwriters in thrall for so long.  Of how many American movies, after all, can that much be said?

Comments

[anastazja]

Just wish to say your article is as astonishing. The clarity for your post is simply cool and that i could suppose you're knowledgeable in this subject. Fine along with your permission allow me to grab your RSS feed to keep updated with coming near near post. Thanks a million and please carry on the enjoyable work.

[marcelina]

I don't ordinarily comment but I gotta admit appreciate it for the post on this great one : D.

[dominika]

Hello.This article was really remarkable, particularly since I was searching for thoughts on this issue last Tuesday.

[Natalia]

Wohh just what I was searching for, regards for putting up.

[Laredoute]

A real associate will be what person overlooks your personal deficiencies and even can handle your personal positive results. [url=http://ruezee.com/]Laredoute[/url] Laredoute

[ckgucci]

An absolute close friend certainly one just who overlooks a person's backsliding along with tolerates a person's positive results. ckgucci http://ckgucci.fr/ ckgucci

[goods]

I precisely wished to say thanks again. I am not sure what I would've made to happen without those strategies contributed by you about such subject. It was before a real difficult circumstance in my view, nevertheless considering your skilled form you dealt with it forced me to jump over contentment. Now i'm happy for this work and then sincerely hope you realize what an amazing job that you're accomplishing educating people all through your website. I am certain you have never got to know all of us.

[nkbWavsa]

[url=http://www.bQlf2s1c7Y9Kt4IE2L1g23.com/]nkbWavsa[/url]
nkbWavsa http://www.bQlf2s1c7Y9Kt4IE2L1g23.com/
nkbWavsa

[mulberry bags]

To God, there is no zero! - Picture's Up mulberry bags http://mulberry360.over-blog.com/ mulberry bags

[celine bags]

To God, there is no zero! - Picture's Up celine bags http://www.celine360.com/ celine bags

[burberry bags]

To God, there is no zero! - Picture's Up burberry bags http://bags.me.cc/ burberry bags

[hermes bags]

To God, there is no zero! - Picture's Up hermes bags http://www.hermesbags360.com/ hermes bags

[michael kors bags]

To God, there is no zero! - Picture's Up michael kors bags http://www.coursacademiques.fr/michaelkorsoutlet.html michael kors bags

[nike hyperdunk]

To God, there is no zero! - Picture's Up nike hyperdunk http://nikehyperdunk.me.cc/ nike hyperdunk

[cheap authentic retro jordans]

-- [url=http://cheapauthenticretrojordans.me.cc]cheap authentic retro jordans[/url] cheap authentic retro jordans

[wow gold]

To God, there is no zero! - Picture's Up wow gold http://www.wgtwowgold.com/ wow gold

[miu miu bags]

To God, there is no zero! - Picture's Up miu miu bags http://www.imiumiu.com/ miu miu bags

[整形美容]

To God, there is no zero! - Picture's Up 整形美容 http://www.feimeizx.com/index.html 整形美容

[coach outlet]

To God, there is no zero! - Picture's Up coach outlet http://coach.me.pn/ coach outlet

[lebron 10]

To God, there is no zero! - Picture's Up lebron 10 http://nikelebron33.com/ lebron 10

[prada bags]

To God, there is no zero! - Picture's Up prada bags http://prada.com.cool4buy.com/ prada bags

[seo tools]

To God, there is no zero! - Picture's Up seo tools http://scrapebox.over-blog.com/ seo tools

[mulberry bags]

To God, there is no zero! - Picture's Up mulberry bags http://mulberry360.over-blog.com/tag/Mulberry%20Bags/ mulberry bags

[celine bags]

To God, there is no zero! - Picture's Up celine bags http://gbester.me.cc/ celine bags

[cheap oakley sunglasses]

To God, there is no zero! - Picture's Up cheap oakley sunglasses http://www.sunglassess365.com/ cheap oakley sunglasses