The dig
Poe wrote “A Valentine” …
But, for a more affecting Valentine’s Day poem, see the previous entry.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
For our own Valentine’s Day, Karin & I watched The Dig, a new Netflix movie about the excavation at Sutton Hoo upon the eve of the Second World War.
(Was the theme of searching in Britain’s “lonely earth” suggested by the TV show Detectorists? The actor Johnny Flynn is a link between the two productions.)
The Dig is an imperfect movie with some transcendent moments. Its success is due to its two lead performers. Ralph Fiennes plays a humble “excavator” – he lacks an archaeologist’s formal training – and Carey Mulligan is the widow who hires him to dig on her land.
He is a true craftsman who works for the love of his art, expecting to pass unnoticed, uncredited.
She is a person of steely resolve. Even so, she is unsettled by a presentiment of death – of oblivion.
The recovery of the ancient gravesite has existential resonance for them both. So does connection with the past. They live in a moment when their culture faces a terrible threat.
Artifacts turn up; other interested parties jump in. The dig becomes a bit of a circus. Fiennes and Mulligan retreat into the background. This is a letdown after the beautiful simplicity of the opening, in which the two lonely principals together survey this bleak land under its striking sky.
But the supporting characters – some of whom are cultural gatekeepers and preservers, others whose lives will be upended by war – do reinforce an important point. Oblivion beckons to civilization, also. The threat recurs above the level of mere individuality.
This is an anxious time in our own history. Not only are things very bad, the old foundation seems about to disintegrate. Though The Dig is a period piece, it feels up-to-date; it takes the pulse of our moment more cannily than most new movies do.
But, for a more affecting Valentine’s Day poem, see the previous entry.
♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
For our own Valentine’s Day, Karin & I watched The Dig, a new Netflix movie about the excavation at Sutton Hoo upon the eve of the Second World War.
(Was the theme of searching in Britain’s “lonely earth” suggested by the TV show Detectorists? The actor Johnny Flynn is a link between the two productions.)
The Dig is an imperfect movie with some transcendent moments. Its success is due to its two lead performers. Ralph Fiennes plays a humble “excavator” – he lacks an archaeologist’s formal training – and Carey Mulligan is the widow who hires him to dig on her land.
He is a true craftsman who works for the love of his art, expecting to pass unnoticed, uncredited.
She is a person of steely resolve. Even so, she is unsettled by a presentiment of death – of oblivion.
The recovery of the ancient gravesite has existential resonance for them both. So does connection with the past. They live in a moment when their culture faces a terrible threat.
Artifacts turn up; other interested parties jump in. The dig becomes a bit of a circus. Fiennes and Mulligan retreat into the background. This is a letdown after the beautiful simplicity of the opening, in which the two lonely principals together survey this bleak land under its striking sky.
But the supporting characters – some of whom are cultural gatekeepers and preservers, others whose lives will be upended by war – do reinforce an important point. Oblivion beckons to civilization, also. The threat recurs above the level of mere individuality.
This is an anxious time in our own history. Not only are things very bad, the old foundation seems about to disintegrate. Though The Dig is a period piece, it feels up-to-date; it takes the pulse of our moment more cannily than most new movies do.