I’m not sure whether to describe Matt Hartley’s Under the Crystal Sky as hypnotically simple or simply hypnotic. Captured in glorious black and white by cinematographer Zach Fritz, this picture is spartan to the point it becomes poetic. This is pure cinema in a period piece that functions effortlessly without dialogue. It depicts the trials, travails, and tenderness shared by a family of Native Americans during the 1800s, centered on a captivating turn by newcomer Sewwandi as Alona.
The young girl’s world primarily consists of the day-to-day rituals and chores she performs alongside her mother, Ayita (Jacquelin Arroyo), and father, Alo (Joseph Williams). The family leads a relatively peaceful existence amongst a landscape that is at once Herzogian and Lynchian combined with fascinating compositions sweeping past the eyes, whilst being punctuated by a score that is both classical and industrially organic.
Screenshot
“…depicting the trials, travails, and tenderness shared by a family of Native Americans…”
The just when you think this is merely an homage to one of Terrence Malick’s cinematic tone poems, the celestial beings arrive. This element provides the only colour in the picture, along with an ever-intensifying air of mystery, as the influence and participation of the visitors seem, in the early goings, to be innocuous.
With a narrative structure akin to Sasquatch Sunset, Under the Crystal Sky owes a lot to the abstract staging of its sequences, accented by the notion of impending dread from the encroaching civilized world that eventually rips away the goodness from our protagonist. Alona experiences her parents trading with the whites, but her father disappears after the crash-landing of one of the celestials, accompanied by her recovery of a crystal orb; soon, Mother and daughter uncover Alo, wounded and on the verge of death.
Alona defies her mother by seeking revenge, tracking down the white trader whom she believes is responsible, and killing him swiftly and silently. After, she returns home to find her father has died of his wounds and learns that her reprisal shall soon be met with genocidal retribution…the tragic fate of all conquered Indigenous tribes of the era follows. Our heroine is eventually robbed of the existence she knew and is left awaiting the trial, judgment, and execution that befell her loved ones.
I don’t want to spoil the ending because you will not see it coming. The combination of influences from Jordan Peele’s Nope to The Wizard of Oz infuses the movie’s climax with simple yet grand conjunctions that answer the question as to the celestial’s purpose for intervention, whilst, like any good piece of art, it poses further questions that will lead to many post-viewing debates as engrossing as the experience of watching the movie. I will only say this: if you’re a Kurt Vonnegut fan, then Billy Pilgrim in Under the Crystal Sky waits to astonish and amaze you.
"…waits to astonish and amaze you..."
