The Abyss
Fresh from the set of Aliens, and perhaps dismayed by his lack of success presenting the new ideals of feminism on film, Cameron returns to the topic of feminism but this time refrains from presenting wholly new or revolutionary ideas instead relying on imbuing old ideas with new spectacle and drama.
The Abyss is a film entirely about sex. That's right, sex. Specifically, the altered mental states of two people experiencing the act of carnal love for their first time. The stars of this film are Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio as Virgil (Virgin?) and Lindsay, the couple in question. Although the film says they were married in the past, the emotional roller coaster ride is certainly one of discovery, not rediscovery. Upon meeting each other, while showing they both have a certain disdain and trepidation about their relationship, they also seem to us to be flirting, playing the game of seduction as they scorn one another only to return to flirting minutes later. Despite their games, the film tells us the 'submarine' has traveled to the 'Deepcore,' and it will be here that the rest of their interaction takes place. Quite a bit more crude and explicit than Cameron's usual work, but we are dealing with explicit subject matter.
Soon enough, Cameron returns to one of his favorite themes- representations of the masculine and feminine and to the concepts of excess on both sides. The tension begins as Lindsay discovers the "water tentacle" and sees that it's "attempting to communicate." She is obviously pleased with her new toy, until Virgil's embodiment of hyper-masculine aggression (Michael Beihn as a paranoid navy SEAL) appears and commits an act of symbolic self-castration, thereby severing Lindsay's experience with the soft and gentle 'water-tentacle.' In this way Virgil's own shock at unintentionally displaying sensitivity, often seen as weakness in patriarchal society, has begun the emotional rift between the two lovers. The phallic symbolism also shifts from organic to mechanical (another recurring Cameron trope), as the SEAL attaches a nuclear warhead to a robotic submarine and threatens to send destruction into the already metaphor-packed abyss. Clearly, Virgil and Lindsay are both frightened by Virgil's aggression, and both of them struggle together to subdue the SEAL and his crude destructive device. In a dramatic moment, though the nuclear phallus has entered the abyss and still threatens detonation, Virgil regains emotional control, crushing his aggressive tendencies. In what can be interpreted as unusually chauvinistic (especially for a man who makes movies involving feminist themes) it is with this juxtaposition of the emotionally kind and caring Virgil and his physically aggressive robotic submarine that Lindsay (through no small amount of fear) experiences what the romantic poets called the "Little Death." But not to worry, she is soon revived and though exhausted, shares a tender moment with Virgil, confirming their new emotional attachment before he must also descend into the abyss in an attempt to gain control over his nuclear phallic aggression. (Perhaps this is also a Catholic movie?)
In the final scenes, Virgil explores the 'uncharted depths' to prevent widespread destruction threatened by his aggressive male tendencies, all the while immersed in a hallucinogenic pink fluid. At the bottom he repeats the film's earlier act of self-castration, rendering the symbol of male sexual power harmless. But now Lindsay is clearly not ready to let Virgil go, and neither is any of Cameron's feminist work complete without a complementary representation of the feminine. Virgil's sexual power was embodied by a machine with a bomb, and now Virgil finds himself in a psychedelic world of pink lights populated by images from Georgia O'Keeffe paintings. His entire experience of reality is altered, and his survival and return to reality is dependent completely upon Lindsay's sexual power over him. Ultimately, she chooses to free Virgil from her control. While he might have believed this experience would lead to greater understanding, he is instead left with a only a more complex mystery that he says he might never understand.
So finally, Cameron brings us to the main thrust of his second feminist film. While the characters can describe, and ultimately control male sexual power, (nuclear weapons can be disarmed, angry military personnel can be defeated) female sexual power is vastly greater, beyond human control, and especially incomprehensible to men. At the end of their experience together, Lindsay and Virgil 'return to the surface,' and for some reason, they are greeted with great joy and celebration by a large number of military personnel. While Cameron is improving as a director, I suppose he must still occasionally include either overly cryptic elements or scenes which simply defy interpretation in light of the theme (like the recurring Tarot symbolism in Xenogenesis, Paul Reiser's role in Aliens, all of True Lies...) Why is the military overjoyed at Lindsay and Virgil's intercourse? Perhaps they are a clumsy and misplaced representation of Virgil's father, pleased that his son is 'now a man?' Or maybe they're just a bunch of voyeurs. I have no idea. I guess it's one of those great and complex mysteries that we might never understand.
Oh, and there's like, aliens in the ocean or something. 5 stars.