Minimalist Aesthetics in Gerry

Abstract

The opening sequence of Gerry by Gus Van Sant depicts one of the most iconic landscapes in American film, and from two genres: Westerns and road movies. The road that appears on the screen cuts through a desert landscape, passing shrubs, hillocks and reddish-brown soil. An off-yellow car, covered with dust, inside which we see two silhouettes from behind, is rolling slowly over the asphalt. There is nothing but asphalt and empty space: the horizontality of the wide panoramic shots extends off screen, spreading out off camera, surrounding the spectator with light and blue sky around the slow-moving dust cloud. This shot lasts several minutes, without any credits rolling, until after a cut the faces of the two characters appear through the car’s windshield: they are not speaking, and their expressions are almost impossible to interpret as they continue driving along. Are they sad? Pensive? Tired? Not a word, no explanation is given. The third shot also fails to initiate the plot’, with the description continuing through images: the ‘subjective’ first-person camera angle puts the viewer’s gaze in parallel with that of the characters, cutting across the desert, the landscape and the huge, thin clouds. The characters stop their car and, without a word, begin to walk into the desert. This will continue until the film is nearly over, for a good hour and a half.