The Lighthouse

“The Lighthouse” is directed by Robert Eggers and stars Robert Pattinson and Willem Defoe as the two main and only characters. This movie is about “two”? Men who watch over a lighthouse on the shores of New England in the late 1800s. One, Wilem Defoe, is more experienced in the handling of the lighthouse and serves as a boss for the younger inexperienced Pattinson. Let’s first talk cinematography, characters/acting, and then the plot and themes. This movie is beyond beautiful and the best shot film of 2019 so far for me. Every shot either felt real or something out of an older 50s or 60s. The choice to start with dead silence at the beginning was a good one and set up the very eerie nature of the film and the haunting solitude of the island. Good cinematography can tell the story to us through the visuals, and this movie does it wonderfully. Multiple shots and scenes in this movie capture the loss of sanity, humanity, and the feeling of loneliness one would come to expect with being on an island without much interaction or none at all. The black and white filter and it being shot in a 4:3 frame helped to capture that old movie vibe I mentioned earlier. Just a beautiful movie with great shots that helped to capture the themes of the movie, plot, and feel for the audience and it was done wonderfully. Characters and acting? AMAZING! Robert and Wilem play their characters with purpose and excellence. Tommy is first introduced as a silent rule-follower type that also has a problem with authority. He grows suspicious of Tom (Willem Dafoe) and his odd focus on the light and his late-night activities. Robert did a great job of portraying a young and inexperienced man delving into insanity, almost too good at times. Willem Dafoe was a great mentor figure and a suspicious figure (as always). The movie executed their relationship perfectly as from resentment to friendship to a drunken mix of the two feelings. The idea that Tom may be an illusion allows you to think about Tommy’s descent into madness and how long it’s been taken place. I see this movie as having a lot of religious and societal subtext, where Tom plays a higher authority attempting to protect the lowers of the truth. Tom also acted like an odd religious figure and entity while Tommy was the nonbeliever that had it all comeback and bite him in the ass again. A lot you can talk about with them, both overall did a fantastic job. The themes of isolation and loss of sanity were handled here damn near perfectly, and the story was a phenomenal slow burn. This gives us a question: “what would man do if once part of society was stripped away from it?” this question was answered by Eggers in the movie, simply imitate it again. Society is based on a hierarchy of status, wealth, race, prestige, age, and even knowledge. This movie establishes a hierarchy immediately with Tom and Tommy based on a whole slew of things but mostly knowledge over the lighthouse and the light itself. Tom would watch while Tommy worked, instilling a kind of boss worker relationship we would see in society. Humanity tends to lean towards religion for sanctity and answers, and religious-like following of the Light and the island emerge as a means to protect the sanity of the individual and give him meaning to the insanity and a leg to stand on. Upon further research into the movie, my idea of religious subtext is right and that the characterization I gave to each of them is correct but it’s placed in myth. Eggers is known for deep research and religious themes so it doesn’t come as a surprise. The main mythological theme is from the story of Prometheus. Prometheus being the one titan who stole fire from the Gods and gave it to humanity but suffered in the end for it. Tommy is Prometheus and Tom represents the gods (Zeus specifically) and the Light represents fire. Tommy defies God (kills him) and takes the fire for himself, but was punished in the same way he had been cursed with previously. Brilliant. I also love the mix of sailor mythos of the sea with greek mythology to form a new semi religion based on the light, brilliant. The subtext and surface-level idea was brilliant and amazingly executed, one of the best of the year! 98%