pacific rim commentary

flaminghobgoblins:

i took a few notes from guillermo del toro’s commentary on pacific rim:

• gypsy danger was designed to look like a machine from ww2 and to have the gait of a “gunslinger” 
• he talks a lot about how in movies “form is content” and that he designs not for “eye candy, but for eye protein”; narrative is submerged in the audiovisual details and the details are everywhere in pacific rim
• he is constantly juxtaposing massive elements w small details for scale; like a giant battle and a little red shoe, to contribute to the sense of “awe and majesty” 
• the movie deals w types “the pilot…the scientist” so the characters had to be textured w minimal gestures; mako and raleigh (two of the main characters) have some of the fewest lines in the film 
• ww2 aesthetics; bomb refuge, overalls, working for rations were all incorporated
• not a movie about one hero but a composite of humanity; the world saving the world; a movie about togetherness, connecting, and trust
• Mako is coded blue bc of her origins in the kaiju; blue stains her heart and her hair
• every character has to learn to trust all the others 
• all the characters get a Hero Moment
• re: the fighting stick scene; “if this was a 19th century movie they would be dancing the waltz” 
• the little red shoe is the absolute heart of the movie 
• quiet power is still power; mako as a strong character w quiet determination 
• the Russian jaeger team are so hard-core they have no escape pod
• some of the Battle of Hong Kong was done in miniatures and models not just cgi 
• “This film is the most controlled joyful exercise in image creation of my life” 
• one of guillermo’s fave moments is when newt and hermann drift 
• “No one carries the suit like idris elba” 
• “No matter how many times you drift with someone you still have to say I love you”
• structured the three fights for raleigh as; losing a partner; gaining a partner; saving a partner (”it won’t happen to [him] again”) 
• it was important to guillermo that the humans saved the world, not machines or ballistic power; humanity.