Was it necessary to have some humor to alleviate the bleak, harrowing mood? The Lighthouse: The True Story That Inspired Eggers' Movie - Screen Rant Now that we've gotten through the more grounded readings of the movie, let's dive headfirst into what the many mythical and literary allusions sprinkled throughout The Lighthouse could mean. The Lighthouse, Explained - CBR It just depends on how you choose to see it. Theres madness in the salty air, the crashing waves and the seagull squawks of The Lighthouse, Robert Eggers nautical nightmare about a pair of 19th-century New England lighthouse keepers veteran Thomas Wake (Willem Dafoe) and wet-behind-the-ears Ephraim Winslow (Robert Pattinson) charged with manning their illuminated tower on a barren, isolated Atlantic Ocean rock. Co-writer/director Robert Eggers is known to really delve into researching his work and The Lighthouse is no exception. From The Witch director Robert Eggers, this surreal black-and-white 35-millimeter horror movie stars . Do their acting methods differ, and did that shape how you collaborated with them? You cant read the maritime characters that Sarah Orne Jewett wrote without hearing that voice. But having worked with a lot of auteur filmmakersand wannabe-auteur filmmakers like myselfRob and Willem both know that part of the success of a film requires that you submit somewhat to how the filmmaker works. He insists he is a hard worker and begs to be let into the lantern room, but Wake refuses and belittles him, so he attacks Wake, whom he sees as the real Winslow, the mermaid, and a Proteus-like figure. "[26] Robbie Collin of The Daily Telegraph gave the film a perfect score, calling Dafoe's performance "astounding" and comparing Pattinson's to that of Daniel Day-Lewis in There Will Be Blood, saying, "that's no comparison to make lightly, but everything about The Lighthouse lands with a crash. Through that I was certain he'd get a nomination, but instead Leo just takes up space for a movie he was great in but has legitimately zero shot at winning Lighthouses were designed to help ships navigate the dangers of the sea. Thomas could fit into id due to his primitive and instinctive personality. "[51] Manohla Dargis of The New York Times praised the character development, production design, acting, and themes,[25] and Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune gave the film three stars out of five, comparing it to The Odd Couple (1968) and The Dumb Waiter (1957), and lauding the cinematography. By signing up to the Mashable newsletter you agree to receive electronic communications The lighthouse is situated about 20 miles west of St David's Peninsula in Pembrokeshire (Image: Trinity House). You and he were great friends. That might explain why he ends up barking like a dog by the end of the film? Thomas even complains Wake smells of 'jism', and in the beginning sees Wake pleasuring himself in the Lighthouse room while his semen drips down in front of him. Just as Willem Dafoes Thomas Wake promised him in their earlier graveside chat, the younger mans fate would be downright Promethean. The final scene features a bloody Pattinson being picked at the flesh by a swarm of seagulls or a seemingly deserted island. With Prometheus and Proteus in mind, we can draw a conclusion that The Lighthouse may be seeking to use these mythical Greek characters to tell a story through a new lens. David Crow is the Film Section Editor at Den of Geek. The Lighthouse draws visually from photography of 1890s New England, maritime-themed French cinema from the 1930s, and symbolist art. We know that accent existed in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia in that period. While drunk, Winslow confesses to Wake that his real name is Thomas Howard, and he assumed the identity of Ephraim Winslow, his cruel foreman in Canada whom he had watched drown without helping, because Winslow had a clean record. Carlson's firing doesn't bode well for Musk. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. I think The Witch takes itself very seriously, its utterly humorless, and I think it needs to be to work. [9] They looked into the writings of Herman Melville, Robert Louis Stevenson, and H. P. Lovecraft, among others, before coming across the work of Sarah Orne Jewett, a novelist best known for her local color works set around the coast of Maine. [12][13] To prepare for their respective roles, each actor employed different techniques at the rehearsals. We were looking for those things, and lighthouse keepers journals, and interviews with lumberjacks for Robs character. [22] The specifications were so unusual that it required the manufacture of custom sets of filters by Schneider Kreuznach, which was a costly, month-long endeavor. So the farts were in the script from the very beginning. There are 336 9-meter-high columns in the Cistern, which can be accessed with a 52-step staircase. While the backstory of the man who introduces himself as Ephraim Winslow is intentionally unspooled in a muddled manner, we can ultimately surmise his identity from his drunken confession: hes Thomas Howard. It was always the idea to have this film be a bit obscure and ambiguous and, for lack of a better word, weird. cistern, he rushed out to the Gate of Benjamin where the king Zedekiah was holding court. Winslow tries to steal the lantern room keys from Wake as he sleeps one day and contemplates murdering him; Winslow soon finds the one-eyed head of Wake's previous wickie in a lobster trap. So theres a ton of ways to look at The Lighthouse being presented here and honestly one doesnt necessarily check out more accurately than the other. He was like, Watch it on YouTube when you get home tonight. And yeah, we totally have a Kiss Me Deadly ending, thats for damn sure! The Twitter owner and the Fox News star adopted their Trump-like personas at the same time. Theory #3: Its A Commentary On Mans Complicated Desires. Thomas comes in after him, but Ephraim axes his head with a shovel, killing him for good. Notably when he arrives at the island, he discovers the previous second wickie working under Wake left a mermaid figurine hidden in his mattress, and the lonely Howard immediately begins fantasizing about her and real mermaids at night. [29], Sexual fantasy and masturbation are recurring themes in the film. Sometimes it can feel like, I dont know what shoes hes wearing, I cant write this scene! So, theyre learning their blocking in the rehearsal period so they can seem natural when we get to the set. What is the first thing he does when he enters his sleeping quarters at the beginning of the movie? And Tommy Howard likely wedged it in him, just as he might have swung at it Thomas Wake. [16] Difficulties arose due to the remote location, the harsh climate, and technical caveats of the camerawork. Raised on cinema classics that ranged from. Howard claims the real Ephraim Winslow died by an accidentdrowned in a river when he became trapped beneath floating logs that Tommy Howard didnt warn him abouthowever, that seems suspect. A body double of Pattinson was used to film the scene, and when asked about it in an interview, Pattinson said he did not know the shot was of a penis at first, initially assuming it was of the lighthouse. Then you see it flip-flop and its kind of cool.". But unlike the delicious ending to Robert Eggers previous horror movie, The Witch, The Lighthouse ending is neither straightforward or altogether clear. According to Dafoe, the homoeroticism of the film does speak to some aspects of identity and what it means to be a man: "Toxic masculinity! [6][10], Anya Taylor-Joy, who starred in Eggers' directorial debut The Witch, was eager to work with him again and asked if she could play the mermaid. Theres a week to learn the blocking and get a sense of pace, but again, Dafoe comes from theater, so even though Im not looking for performance in these rehearsals, he was giving it anyway. So whether or not it existed, we felt like it had to be that. The story is very loosely based on a real-life tragedy from 1801 (called "The Smalls Lighthouse Tragedy"), in which two Welsh lighthouse keepers, both named Thomas, became trapped on their lighthouse station during a storm. He confronts his coworker about annoyances (that include his frequent farting) before finding Thomas log detailing complaints about Ephraims performance as his assistant. [46][47], On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 90% based on 392 reviews, with an average score of 8.0/10; the site's "critics consensus" reads: "A gripping story brilliantly filmed and led by a pair of powerhouse performances, The Lighthouse further establishes Robert Eggers as a filmmaker of exceptional talent. The Lighthouse Family. Its the back of his head here or a floating log there when Howard masturbates to the figurine, or its of Winslows submerged body when Howard first dreams of his aquatic siren: his two greatest fantasies always come together. But you know what? Creating the spectrum of textures with a sufficient antique quality was one of Blaschke's initial responsibilities during the pre-production. "[33] Eggers explained the allusions to classical mythology by saying they are present "Partially because Melville goes there and partially because of I'm sure our unhealthy Jungian leanings".[34]. "[54] Dana Stevens of Slate concluded her review by stating that "The Lighthouse is at its strongest when it resembles the dark comedy of a Beckett play, complete with earthy scatological humor. At least not until he stares into the lighthouses omnipotent eye, and like a Lovecraftian hero who sees the horrible truth of his ugly universe, he cannot handle the revelation. Those moments stand in contrast to all the man-made machinery he's tasked with maintaining, whether it's the steam engine keeping the lighthouse going or his many attempts to keep the elements like water or dirt from destroying the house.