The Dig Movie Review
A Decent Film
I saw the film, The Dig a little while ago, and I thought it was an alright film. It's not for everyone, but if you enjoy archeology films, you might find yourself liking this one.
The Dig follows Basil Brown as he excavates burial mounds on the land of a woman named Edith Pretty. Taking place right before British involvement in WWII.
The movie has some beautiful shots in it and the lighting is spot on. I found the performances to be engaging. The movie is a bit slow at times, and its subject matter may bore some people. The music was good but standard for the genre.I really do think that the actors did a fine job. They did well with what they were given with and I can't ask for more. They were three dimensional, and believable. The main cast were the standouts though. There were one or two secondary characters that did really well, but the rest do seem to fade into the background.
The lighting was really well done for this film. No shot was too dark nor too bright. The coloring was vibrant and inviting. I thought the choices were excellent. The music, as stated above, was good but not very memorable. It was played at appropriate moments, and the compositions were well done overall, but it was nothing groundbreaking. However, it fit the needs of the film.
Now archaeology films, period pieces, etc. are not everyones cup of tea. That's fine. If you're generally not interested in these types of films, I wouldn't recommend seeing this one. If you are however, then I think giving The Dig a shot is a good idea.
My one other compliant about this film is the title. What the heck is with the "The" in it? It would be a lot cleaner if the movie was just titled "Dig" instead of "The Dig" and I know this is nitpicky, but it's just something small that irks me.
If there's nothing on, I would recommend giving The Dig a shot. It's worth seeing once, but I'm not sure about its rewatch value. I personally enjoy these types of films, and I had fun with it.
final score: 3.3/5
It's called The' Dig' because that's what we call an archaeological excavation in the UK: a dig/ the dig. Eg 'Will you be helping out at the dig?' And I've seen a great many tweets from people who say that they loved this film even though they had no interest in archaeology. That's because it is much, much more than a story about finding treasure. In fact, the treasure is secondary to other themes about death, transience, remembrance, prejudice etc which you have missed but quite a few others have noticed and been moved by, even to tears. Glad you appreciated the lighting, the acting and the beauty of the piece.
ReplyDelete