Man, it's been at least 7-8 years since I have watched this, if not longer. There was a time for awhile when this was my favorite James Cameron movie, but not in regards to the original theatrical release of the film. I remember thinking it was just ok. Good, but not great because I was kind of confused by what I just saw with the whole aliens thing. It wasn't until I picked up the Special Edition on DVD when it came out did I really end up digging this movie on a whole other level. A friend of mine had it on Laser Disc and had told me about the added content that comes at the end of the film with the 1,000 foot tidal wave and all that and how the movie plays completely different from what I saw in the theaters. I can't remember exactly when the DVD came out, but I have not watched the original cut of the movie since 1989, so I can't even remember what that one was like now. Whenever I have watched the movie since then it's always been the Special Edition or nothing.

I do hear a lot of negativity regarding The Abyss. You either love it or you hate it. The ones that hate it usually bring up the ending as the reason why. I think it's unfair to say that the ending sinks the entire movie. Is it different in tone from the 2 1/2 hours that preceeds it? Yeah, kinda. But I think everything leading up to Bud's sacrifce for his wife, his co-workers and humanity itself was neccessary for the Aliens to see that we can be saved. Sure it's a bit preachy, but I'm okay with it.

This is a definite Buy for me. Duh.

Now I'm off to watch the documentary, which I remember actually being better than the film itself. Stay tuned.......

This is pretty compelling stuff. We have all heard about the horror stories involved with shooting a movie on water from Jaws to Titanic and of course The Abyss. It's amazing to see all the f uck ups this production had to endure to make it's release date. It's really shocking that they even finished the movie at all. Some pretty gripping moments as Ed Harris recalls nearly drowning in one scene and of course when Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio stormed off the set when the camera literally ran out of film during her CPR scene. Documentaries don't get any better than this one. For an hour long documentary, it sure flew by rather quickly.

I do enjoy Abyss... except for the ending. I probably need to see the additional footage version.

The Special Edition does make more sense and it plays better not only in my eyes, but the majority of everyone else that has seen it as well. The Library is bound to have a copy for ya.