Celluloid Heroes Evolve

Continued from page 2

By Henry Jenkins

April 4, 2003

One might draw an analogy between Serkis's digital transformation and Nicole Kidman's fake nose in The Hours, or Salma Hayek's unibrow in Frida-effects that allowed the actresses to shed their glamour and focus attention on the inner life of their characters. What is striking, however, is the disparity of awards: Kidman's Virginia Wolf won best actress; Hayek's Frida Kahlo won best makeup; and Serkis's Gollum won best visual effects. While each emerged from collaborations between actors and technical artists, something more than impersonation was required. Altering their physical appearance allowed the audience to move past the first hurdle towards willing suspension of disbelief, but it was the emotive and expressive dimensions of the performance that made these characters compelling.

I am reminded of a truly moronic review of Saving Private Ryan, which proclaimed that "for once, here was a summer film which didn't depend at all on special effects." Clearly, the film was dependent on special effects in almost every frame to enhance our immersive experience of battling across the beaches at Normandy. Somehow, once the special effects fit seamlessly into the film's aesthetic, the critic stopped seeing them as special effects.  One wonders more generally why critics speak about an over-reliance on special effects in a way that they would not speak of an over-reliance on camerawork or acting.

Accomplishments in special effects are as worthy of respect as accomplishment in any other branch of motion picture arts. Special effects can be the dominant aspect of a film's aesthetic or recede from view, but what matters is that they be organic to the look and feel the movie is trying to achieve.

The newness of special effects technology makes us hypersensitive to its use. Some filmmakers fall back on CGI as a substitute for the hard work of constructing compelling plots or presenting emotionally engaging characters. Lucas thought, for example, that extraordinary digital effects would make us forget that Hayden Christensen can't act well enough to convey the complex emotional path that transforms Anakin Skywalker into Darth Vader. It didn't work.

To some degree, the fixation on creating a synthetic character that can pass as human falls into this same trap-technology for technology's sake rather than technology in the service of artistic expression. The development of more characters like Gollum and more collaboration with actors like Andy Serkis will do more to promote the art of digital animation than a thousand Final Fantasy movies.