Review by Zach Dennis
Where The Witch found humanity trying to fight the untamed nature through civilization and religion — only to fail — director Robert Eggers’ latest, The Lighthouse, pushes forward in history and updates this clash with the addition of industrial innovations.
Siloed in the post for four weeks, Ephraim Winslow (Robert Pattinson) enters the job just looking for a steady line of work. He doesn’t offer much background, but mainly because he seems unsure and equally annoyed with his partner, Thomas Wake (Willem Dafoe). Wake is a veteran of nautical work, and instructs the new hand that he’ll be handling the various outside duties while the veteran takes the post in the light.
Lacking the experience or backbone to argue, Winslow complies but immediately regrets it as he labors through chore after chore, including cleaning and up-keeping the mechanical equipment for the lighthouse. All the while, Wake seems to wistfully move through the assignments — sequestering himself in the light room to the curiosity of Winslow.
Eggers immerses his audience yet again in the period jargon and design, but with the added caveat of the film being shot on black-and-white celluloid film — creating a surreal element that ramps up the film’s third act as the textures begin to tear apart.
While The Witch seemed to draw you closer to the evolving supernatural elements happening around the family’s homestead, The Lighthouse constantly keeps you at bay. Not offering any concrete answers or stable mythology to what is happening on this island, only that being inhabited between two worlds — industry and myth — makes it indistinguishable. Are we supposed to believe what happens is due to the punishing labor and machinery, or is it just an effect of being lodged on a rock – practically alone – for weeks and weeks?
Eggers walks both lines — presenting more nautical mythology to answer the longing of Winslow to find the more humane comforts while using the drudge of their work to explain why he may enter his breaking point sooner rather than later.
It makes sense why the director would shift focus in this way after his first feature. Much like the family in The Witch, who seek religious purity in the wilderness of God, it seems as if Winslow wants to find some sort of solace in what he thought the piece and quiet on the ocean would bring. Instead, he finds madness as he has to fight his own human urges and match them against the seclusion.
There’s probably a lot more to be said about The Lighthouse, but one viewing isn’t enough. Like The Witch, a deeper examination and understanding of his overall goal should uncover more, but his follow-up doesn’t lack the mania of his first film even while it adds a bit more prestige with its on-screen personalities and secludes you even more.
It’s interesting that even with more technology and machinery to make things more efficient and global, Eggers understands that we are still as human, alone and untethered as we would be without any of it.