1. 14/12/2015
Gerry (Gus Van Sant, 2002)
The A Walk in the Desert scene in Gerry consists of a single shot of two men walking
away from the camera without any tracking camera movement or cuts.
The choice to not cut the sequence works well both stylistically and in correlation with
the plot of the film. An extreme long shot is used in the shot depicting the expanse of
nothingness surrounding the men. By not cutting away to different shot types, it is
exposed to the audience that the men have a long way to walk with nothing around
them. Additionally, the single cut makes the scene almost tedious to watch because of
the length of screen time that it takes up. This reflects the tedious walk through the
desert that the characters are taking.
The stylistic advantage of not cutting from one image is the changing light as the sun
rises. By not cutting away from the extreme long shot of the two men the spectator can
witness the slowly changing light in the same way that the characters would creating a
voyeuristic effect and verisimilitude within the scene. This, again, reinforces the plot of
the film because it reveals how long the two men are walking for.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bB3jFOgFTE
