GABRIEL
Australia, 2007, 110 minutes, Colour.
Andy Whitfield, Dwaine Stevenson, Samantha Noble.
Directed by Sean Abbes.
Some dark comic-strip, graphic novel films have been made in Australia, films like Dark City and The Matrix series, so why not a home grown version with nods to films like Constantine (in which the angel Gabriel, in the form of Tilda Swinton, had a leading role)? And, small-budget and shooting time extended over a long period to get the film made, here it is.
While Gabriel, Michael and Raphael are central characters (and are referred to as Arc Angels), there is not much further biblical reference and God is not a central player at all. Rather, this is a mixum gatherum of biblical names, myths and legends and some invention on the part of the writer and director. Oh, there is a purgatory which seems a variation on the dark city where souls go when not able to get to heaven and where angels go to help out and redeem people, assuming human appearances and sometimes becoming human.
The film relies on dark and often sinister visual style, a bit like the Matrix underworld. And the style is quite stylish with special attention to the limited locations and costume design. Much has been achieved with comparatively little.
The plot, like most of these graphic stories, is complicated and convoluted. Michael has already gone to the dark city but has failed in his mission. Now Gabriel is the last hope. He has to deal with a sinister character, S, who has had a Lucifer experience and has descended if not into hell at least into this purgatorial nether world.
There are various former angels (which provides some romantic interludes for Gabriel) as well as some humans. Eventually, there are some action sequences of the martial arts and brawl variety – and a twist that shows that evil is more powerful than good and Gabriel is challenged to self-sacrifice with the hope of some light in the darkness.
Andy Whitfield makes a decent Gabriel and Dwaine Stevenson is a sinister S.
A spirited (to coin a phrase) attempt to do something visually creative with popular pop storytelling from an Australian and quite ambitious group of young film-makers.
1.Effective as a thriller? About angels? The conflict between good and evil?
2.The importance of the visual style, mood? The influence of such films as The Matrix, Dark City, Constantine? The influence of the graphic novel film styles? The use of colour, the dark colours? The final light? The importance of close-ups, intensity, faces and interactions? Framing? The city location, dark, the outline? The rooms, the streets, the club, the darkness, grim? The score in the same vein?
3.The introduction and explanations, good and evil, light and grace, the fallen, the two domains, heavenly and hellish, the role of souls, the fallen, the angels and their mission? Purgatory?
4.The issue of freedom, the discussions about no bounds and absolute freedom compared with the discussions at the end, Gabriel and his explanation of free will and choice?
5.Gabriel, an angel, the others sent to the dark city, coming to Earth and being human? Finding Michael’s note, the confrontations? The angel who had become a man, the reactions, the anger? Death? Finding the jade, her work as a prostitute, her angers, Gabriel and his healing her? Going to the club, the angel at the bar, the explanations, his doing his best? The quest, the evil people at the club? The finding of Raphael, healing him? Michael and his being the villain? The sexual encounter with Jade? The build-up to the final confrontation, choices, the fight, Gabriel and his being pierced, his killing Michael with the same lance? Michael giving him the gift of healing? Free will, the finale, standing at the edge of the building, the free gift, the angel falling, the light coming? Gabriel as a symbol, as a character, personality?
6.The other angels and their mission, their closeness, becoming human, trying to destroy the dark, being overcome by the dark, their squalid lives, loss of control? Becoming human and angry, working as a prostitute, capitulating against the evil?
7.The evil angel, his eyes, his assistants, killing rivals? The confrontation with Gabriel? The revelation that he was really Michael, the explanation of what he had done, wanting power, offering Gabriel the opportunity to rule? The final fight, his death, giving Gabriel life?
8.The choreography of the fights, the use of guns, knives? Deaths?
9.The background of angels having to enter into the human world, struggle, fail? The tradition of films on the confrontation between light and dark?
10.The biblical background, the mythological backgrounds? Audience response to angels, the heavenly aspects, hellish, purgatorial? A biblical scenario – without God, yet the language of grace? A secular religious fable?
