Director Mamoru Oshii (Jin Roh, Ghost in the Shell, Angel's Egg, Patlabor) has created a strange, haunting gem of a movie. A cult movie.
This movie review contains minor plot spoilers.
Atmosphere
It is difficult to describe Sky Crawlers. The plot may or may not make sense, but that's not important. Sky Crawlers is about atmosphere and character.
It's as if Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation) directed Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor. It's a mix of Mamoru Oshii's previous movies Avalon, Jin Roh, Angel's Egg and Ghost in the Shell. It is 12 Monkeys meets Top Gun.
Plot
Even though nothing much happens for much of the two hours (aside from the surface plot of the daily activities of a wartime air base), there are enough hints of strange, dark undercurrents to hold the viewer's interest.
Curiosity is aroused ("what the heck is really going on here?"), causing attention to be paid to the smallest details to search for clues.
There are two or three short chunks of exposition thrown in mid way, helping to explain some of the movie's background ("back story") but these are not necessary and actually detract from the strange, low-key waking nightmare atmosphere of the movie.
Much of the time it is a textbook example of the standard advice to writers - show, don't tell.
Animation
Helping to hold the viewer's interest is the beautiful, detailed, graceful animation that is reminiscent of Jin Roh. Animation that is of higher quality than that of Ghost in the Shell.
- Newspapers flap when opened, with a Wallace and Gromit level of detail.
- Light glints off airplane fuselages as the camera pans around.
- Propellers spin down and jerk realistically to a stop.
- Clothes bunch up and move, as the people in them move.
Human expressions, wind-blown hair, smoke effects, complex fast-moving aerial dogfights - all are beautifully visualized and rendered.
Setting and Technology
Adding to the sense of disorientation is the strange mix of technologies.
The main visible technologies are World War II or 1950's piston engined warplanes, analog telephones, curvy early twentieth century automobiles. There are ground-based radar stations but no airborne radar, no guided missiles, no jet engines.
Yet there are also flat-screen monitors on desks, live television broadcasts, portable electronic movie cameras, sleek modern sports cars.
These are not bloopers, they are a natural by product of the movie's surreal premise.
Insider References
Mamoru Oshii fans will find all kinds of familiar trivia
- a Basset hound
- a mechanical music box
- a character called Kusanagi
- a character called Jin Roh
Mechanical Design
One delightful quirk of anime is that they often have a position of "mechanical designer" in the making of the movie. This is especially true of the giant robot (mecha) genre (for example, Gundam) but also of other anime, including Sky Crawlers.
Airplane buffs will be thrilled by the mechanical design (listed as being done by Atsushi Takeuchi, in the Internet Movie Database website). The airplanes are realistically designed and drawn.
There are single-engined fighters with two contra-rotating propellers in a pusher configuration, and canards (front winglets) - Burt Rutan inspired designs. These imaginary airplanes look real enough to fly.
A Movie for All Seasons
Sky Crawlers is a good "date movie" and a movie for fans of
- animation
- war movies
- airplanes and aerial dogfights
- French / European art movies
- Science Fiction
It's a movie buff's dream. A haunting work of art that will linger in the viewer's imagination.
Bonus Tip
There is one short scene after the credits. Viewers are advised to stay back for it.
Resources
- Review of Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea
- Katsuhiro Otomo's Freedom Project.
- Production I.G's Sky Crawlers page, the animation company responsible for Sky Crawlers.
