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Review: The Lighthouse (2019)
So this movie was definitely uncomfortable but I’m not sure if my discomfort was the kind that the movie was aiming for. Both characters are so erratic and uncomfortable to be around and I know part of it is their deteriorating mental state but I also feel like they’re just not good guys. Which is not a bad thing, it just made me empathize a lite less with them. Nonetheless, I understand why this movie appeals to people; it reflects a very unsettling state of mind, state of relationship, and that can be interesting.
Spoilers.
I’m going to try to do my write up without looking up any discussions first. I want to see what I can come up with before I see other people’s ideas.
Story
Winslow and Wake were working on a lighthouse. Wake was the lead and Winslow was the new guy. Right from the beginning, Wake was very hard on Winslow. Despite the tough relationship, they did get to know each other. Wake mentioned that his last assistant had died due to madness.
The day before they were supposed to leave the lighthouse, Winslow killed a gull, which Wake had said was bad luck. A storm descended upon the lighthouse so the boat could not come to collect them and they were stuck. They also had to ration their food. Wake told Winslow that they’d been stranded for weeks, that he’d been telling him to ration their food for weeks, which was a little confusing to Winslow. I’m not sue if this was meant to represent Winslow losing track of time, or just that Wake considered their entire time at the lighthouse to be them being stranded. I want to believe the former but I’m not 100% sure.
Winslow and Wake’s relationship continue to grow in very weird ways. They swung violently between intimacy and violence. Winslow admitted to Wake that he had killed man at his last job and taken his identity. His real identity was Tom Howard.
Throughout Howard’s time at the lighthouse, he did discover a number of smaller things. He discovered Wake’s last assistant dead with one eye out. He found a mermaid and had sex with her. And he was just constantly overcome by the loneliness and noise of the lighthouse.
Howard and Wake continued to spiral into madness as they waited for their ride. Howard thought Wake had destroyed their emergency boat but Wake said it was Howard who’d done it. Howard kept pleading with Wake for a chance to handle the light (when he’d been barred from it all this time). Howard found Wake’s logbook that described him in a very negative light. They eventually fought and Howard won, and he tried to bury Wake alive and steal the key to the light. Later, Wake came back but Howard killed him once and for all.
Howard went up to the lighthouse and screamed as touched it. He was later found on the rocks, naked, with one eye injured, and birds picking at his wounds.
So what happened? I think Howard was also driven to madness like Wake’s last assistant, only that this time Howard killed Wake along with him. Where did the madness come from? A combination of the loneliness of the lighthouse, the frustration of being together in close quarters with Wake, and something of the magic of the sea that was out there to lure men to their dooms.
Production
This movie had a very specific style. Black and white, square frame. As a visual style, it wasn’t my favourite. It was very dark. But I understand that visual style was very important to the movie; the director needed to evoke something that was so different that the characters would have to acknowledge that they were in a whole different world.
The acting was ok but it wasn’t my favourite. I think it was again because I found the characters grating. I think the guys did what they were told to do, but sorry I don’t like Wake and Winslow TAT
Characters
Ephraim Winslow/Tom Howard
Winslow was the new assistant. Right at the beginning he was worked hard. He was quiet and didn’t fight back, which made for a poor relationship because Wake would boss him around. Over time, Winslow would stand up to him, asking to be called by his name. They eventually build a better relationship close to the time they were supposed to leave.
Everything went downhill when their boat didn’t come. We might surmise that Winslow was the cause of that, having killed the gull again Wake’s advice which angered the gods. Maybe he was now being punished.
Winslow began his descent into madness. He would sometimes be vulnerable, revealing his secret to Wake, that he was actually Howard. They would dance and cuddle. But they would also fight, reflecting that hostility they had towards one another at the beginning. Winslow seemed to start having visions. I thought him seeing the mermaid was a hallucination, since after he returned, Wake had said that it was Winslow himself who was screaming. His concept of time started to change, his memory was going (unless Wake was gaslighting him).
Winslow was very insistent that he wanted to see the light of the lighthouse but Wake would not let him. It became something for Winslow to work towards, because there was nothing else to do on the lighthouse.
One of Winslow and Wake’s fights culminated in Winslow killing Wake, stealing the key and going to the light. Its power seemed too might for him and he screamed as he touched it. Then he was found injured and naked, with one eye out like the last assistant, and the birds picking at his wounds.
At first, Winslow was a man escaping his past who just wanted to find a nice life. He needed money to do that, which was why he picked up on the job. But he was not used to the isolation of the lighthouse, and he didn’t mesh well with Wake either. As well, I mentioned that there was nothing to do on the island, so Winslow was drawn to the forbidden nature of the light. He needed to find drive, and he found it there. He went to the point of killing to get to the light, only to be half dead afterwards.
Maybe all of this was a punishment to Winslow from the gods, for killing the gull. Maybe he was meant to fly too close to the light and find himself dead. Only this time he took Wake down with him.
Thomas Wake
Wake was a very grating boss. He delighted in bossing Winslow around for no reason. He let up on Winslow towards what he thought was the end of their stay. When it turned out that they were stranded, Wake went back to being his normal bossy and grumpy self. He did get caught up in the mania that Winslow did, though I felt like Winslow was more often the instigator.
It appeared that Wake seemed a little more lucid, but we also can’t be sure. He might have just been more confident about it. That being said, despite Wake being annoying, he did seem to hold some more knowledge and wisdom about the sea. He was a seaman before he was a lighthouse keeper, and he seemed to hold reverence for the gods that Winslow was ignorant about. That was probably what kept him safe all these years. It was Winslow who angered the gods, and dragged Wake down in his madness.
Themes
Isolation
I think we can see that the isolation and monotony of the lighthouse could drive a man to madness. I think the movie was purposely ambiguous in whether there were supernatural aspects at play. Maybe the gods and the spirits were there to prey on Winslow, but maybe it was that Winslow was so restless and mindless that he started to see things: the mermaid, the man’s head in the lobster cage (which was empty before, considering they’d caught lobsters before). But I have heard stories about lighthouse keepers driven to madness because they were trapped.
Escaping Past
Because of the isolation of the lighthouse, it was a good escape, but in an ‘out of the frying pan, into the fire’ type of way. Winslow was escaping his past as a murderer. He took on the job to make money not knowing the risks. As for Wake, he had no life now; the sea was his life. He left his family to embrace the sea fully. But at the cost of his life. Like mermaids and sirens luring men.
Identity
Winslow started to get confused. I think it was on purpose that his real name was Tom Howard, to coincide with Thomas Wake. He started to mistake things that he’d done for things that Wake had done and vice versa. Again, this must have been because their lives were so monotonous and repetitive, they were way too close to each other that they mixed each other up.
Religion
There were religious references scattered about, though leaning towards Greek mythology. As mentioned, I felt that Wake had a reverence for the sea that Winslow hadn’t picked up on. After all, Wake had been doing this for years and he was a sailor before he was a lighthouse keeper. Meanwhile, Winslow worked in timber, he was used to trees, not water. In fact, water held a very morbid memory to him, the way he had left the real Ephraim Winslow drown to death.
Overall
So this movie was interesting, it definitely was way more about style because we really had to feel Winslow going mad. Not really my cup of tea but I could appreciate it.
Spoilers.
I’m going to try to do my write up without looking up any discussions first. I want to see what I can come up with before I see other people’s ideas.
Story
Winslow and Wake were working on a lighthouse. Wake was the lead and Winslow was the new guy. Right from the beginning, Wake was very hard on Winslow. Despite the tough relationship, they did get to know each other. Wake mentioned that his last assistant had died due to madness.
The day before they were supposed to leave the lighthouse, Winslow killed a gull, which Wake had said was bad luck. A storm descended upon the lighthouse so the boat could not come to collect them and they were stuck. They also had to ration their food. Wake told Winslow that they’d been stranded for weeks, that he’d been telling him to ration their food for weeks, which was a little confusing to Winslow. I’m not sue if this was meant to represent Winslow losing track of time, or just that Wake considered their entire time at the lighthouse to be them being stranded. I want to believe the former but I’m not 100% sure.
Winslow and Wake’s relationship continue to grow in very weird ways. They swung violently between intimacy and violence. Winslow admitted to Wake that he had killed man at his last job and taken his identity. His real identity was Tom Howard.
Throughout Howard’s time at the lighthouse, he did discover a number of smaller things. He discovered Wake’s last assistant dead with one eye out. He found a mermaid and had sex with her. And he was just constantly overcome by the loneliness and noise of the lighthouse.
Howard and Wake continued to spiral into madness as they waited for their ride. Howard thought Wake had destroyed their emergency boat but Wake said it was Howard who’d done it. Howard kept pleading with Wake for a chance to handle the light (when he’d been barred from it all this time). Howard found Wake’s logbook that described him in a very negative light. They eventually fought and Howard won, and he tried to bury Wake alive and steal the key to the light. Later, Wake came back but Howard killed him once and for all.
Howard went up to the lighthouse and screamed as touched it. He was later found on the rocks, naked, with one eye injured, and birds picking at his wounds.
So what happened? I think Howard was also driven to madness like Wake’s last assistant, only that this time Howard killed Wake along with him. Where did the madness come from? A combination of the loneliness of the lighthouse, the frustration of being together in close quarters with Wake, and something of the magic of the sea that was out there to lure men to their dooms.
Production
This movie had a very specific style. Black and white, square frame. As a visual style, it wasn’t my favourite. It was very dark. But I understand that visual style was very important to the movie; the director needed to evoke something that was so different that the characters would have to acknowledge that they were in a whole different world.
The acting was ok but it wasn’t my favourite. I think it was again because I found the characters grating. I think the guys did what they were told to do, but sorry I don’t like Wake and Winslow TAT
Characters
Ephraim Winslow/Tom Howard
Winslow was the new assistant. Right at the beginning he was worked hard. He was quiet and didn’t fight back, which made for a poor relationship because Wake would boss him around. Over time, Winslow would stand up to him, asking to be called by his name. They eventually build a better relationship close to the time they were supposed to leave.
Everything went downhill when their boat didn’t come. We might surmise that Winslow was the cause of that, having killed the gull again Wake’s advice which angered the gods. Maybe he was now being punished.
Winslow began his descent into madness. He would sometimes be vulnerable, revealing his secret to Wake, that he was actually Howard. They would dance and cuddle. But they would also fight, reflecting that hostility they had towards one another at the beginning. Winslow seemed to start having visions. I thought him seeing the mermaid was a hallucination, since after he returned, Wake had said that it was Winslow himself who was screaming. His concept of time started to change, his memory was going (unless Wake was gaslighting him).
Winslow was very insistent that he wanted to see the light of the lighthouse but Wake would not let him. It became something for Winslow to work towards, because there was nothing else to do on the lighthouse.
One of Winslow and Wake’s fights culminated in Winslow killing Wake, stealing the key and going to the light. Its power seemed too might for him and he screamed as he touched it. Then he was found injured and naked, with one eye out like the last assistant, and the birds picking at his wounds.
At first, Winslow was a man escaping his past who just wanted to find a nice life. He needed money to do that, which was why he picked up on the job. But he was not used to the isolation of the lighthouse, and he didn’t mesh well with Wake either. As well, I mentioned that there was nothing to do on the island, so Winslow was drawn to the forbidden nature of the light. He needed to find drive, and he found it there. He went to the point of killing to get to the light, only to be half dead afterwards.
Maybe all of this was a punishment to Winslow from the gods, for killing the gull. Maybe he was meant to fly too close to the light and find himself dead. Only this time he took Wake down with him.
Thomas Wake
Wake was a very grating boss. He delighted in bossing Winslow around for no reason. He let up on Winslow towards what he thought was the end of their stay. When it turned out that they were stranded, Wake went back to being his normal bossy and grumpy self. He did get caught up in the mania that Winslow did, though I felt like Winslow was more often the instigator.
It appeared that Wake seemed a little more lucid, but we also can’t be sure. He might have just been more confident about it. That being said, despite Wake being annoying, he did seem to hold some more knowledge and wisdom about the sea. He was a seaman before he was a lighthouse keeper, and he seemed to hold reverence for the gods that Winslow was ignorant about. That was probably what kept him safe all these years. It was Winslow who angered the gods, and dragged Wake down in his madness.
Themes
Isolation
I think we can see that the isolation and monotony of the lighthouse could drive a man to madness. I think the movie was purposely ambiguous in whether there were supernatural aspects at play. Maybe the gods and the spirits were there to prey on Winslow, but maybe it was that Winslow was so restless and mindless that he started to see things: the mermaid, the man’s head in the lobster cage (which was empty before, considering they’d caught lobsters before). But I have heard stories about lighthouse keepers driven to madness because they were trapped.
Escaping Past
Because of the isolation of the lighthouse, it was a good escape, but in an ‘out of the frying pan, into the fire’ type of way. Winslow was escaping his past as a murderer. He took on the job to make money not knowing the risks. As for Wake, he had no life now; the sea was his life. He left his family to embrace the sea fully. But at the cost of his life. Like mermaids and sirens luring men.
Identity
Winslow started to get confused. I think it was on purpose that his real name was Tom Howard, to coincide with Thomas Wake. He started to mistake things that he’d done for things that Wake had done and vice versa. Again, this must have been because their lives were so monotonous and repetitive, they were way too close to each other that they mixed each other up.
Religion
There were religious references scattered about, though leaning towards Greek mythology. As mentioned, I felt that Wake had a reverence for the sea that Winslow hadn’t picked up on. After all, Wake had been doing this for years and he was a sailor before he was a lighthouse keeper. Meanwhile, Winslow worked in timber, he was used to trees, not water. In fact, water held a very morbid memory to him, the way he had left the real Ephraim Winslow drown to death.
Overall
So this movie was interesting, it definitely was way more about style because we really had to feel Winslow going mad. Not really my cup of tea but I could appreciate it.