Who hasn’t heard of Uncut Gems? Certainly no one I’ve spoken to in the last 4 months. Josh and Benny Safdie have understandably gained recognition since the release of their intense crime thriller Uncut Gems. I ignored the hype for some time (I’d seen enough Adam Sandler movies, I wasn’t about to do that to myself). Fortunately, I caved and discovered two of my new favorite directors. I appreciate when I get a sense of purpose from cinematography. Creative liberties have their place but it’s hard to enjoy a movie that is a directionless montage of creative liberties (I’m looking at you Brian Taylor). I am convinced that most every angle, color, sound, and movement in Uncut Gems had a purpose.

SPOILER ALERT FOR UNCUT GEMS

Now, there isn’t much to be said about Uncut Gems that someone (who is far more knowledgeable in this subject than myself) has already said. A topic I haven’t seen discussed (that doesn’t mean it’s not out there) was the use of color in Uncut Gems. I understand that sometimes the curtain is just blue, but if these choices were purely aesthetic then there are some intriguing coincidences to explore, at the least. Uncut Gems was saturated in blue and green. These also “happen” to be the colors of the opal which dominates the plot. I theorized that this was hinting at Howard’s life being highly entangled with this opal. I began my research with the opal itself. I’ll spoil the punchline now: it is expensive and rare. Shocking, I know.

(Physics warning… but it’s nice that my undergrad is coming in handy so I’m going to milk this. This isn’t critical to my analysis so feel free to skip if you’re not interested)

Opal can be practically any color. The colors you see when looking at an opal in white light is dependent on the internal structure. All crystals are made up of lattice structures composed of atoms. The size of the atoms and the lattice type will determine the packing ratio of a crystal. The higher the packing ratio, the more atoms per unit lattice. These packing ratios determine the quality of the opal. We are arriving at the point, I promise. Due to Bragg’s law, opals with higher packing ratios shine blue-green, while opals with smaller packing ratios shine red-yellow. The background color of the opal depends on how it was formed, with black being the rarest type. Since Howard’s precious gem was blue-green with a black background we know that this opal is two things: extremely expensive and incredibly rare.

Back to our regularly scheduled program

What do blue and green often signify in movies? What do they likely mean for this film?

Blue Sadness. Loneliness. Calm. Sadness and loneliness certainly had a place in this movie but I think we can all agree there isn’t a minute of “calm” in the 2 hour and 15 minute run time. Green Money. Corruption. Immaturity. Any of these traits could of been taken into consideration. I believe cash-money is the most influential, since Howard’s greediness is the crux of the film.

“Cinema is a matter of what’s in the frame and what’s out.” Martin Scorsese

Martin Scorsese was a producer for Uncut Gems, so it’s appropriate to be inspired by a quote of his. According to Scorsese, there could lie as much importance in what isn’t in the frame as what is. Because most scenes are soaked in blue or green, this encouraged me to watch the film again and look for scenes where the colors deviate from the typical blue-green palette.

RED







There was one color that crept into the frame every now and again. Red. And it didn’t reveal itself when Howard was getting beat up, losing money, or being threatened. Red made an appearance when Howard’s relationships came to breaking points.

I have a nugget of confirmation that this pattern is accurate. There is a memorable scene when Howard finds himself locked in the trunk of his own car. His soon-to-be ex-wife comes to his rescue. She opens the trunk to reveal Howard pathetically attempting to crawl out of the car. The red tail lights shine over Howard as Dinah disgustedly stares at him. Much later in the film, Dinah is speaking with a friend about Howard. She tells a tale of a naked and drunk Howard which the audience can deduce is from the night Howard was locked in the trunk. We can assume since she is telling her friend about this scene, it was a turning point for Dinah and their marriage.

There are several other scenes with red which follow a similar pattern:

Howard neglects his son youngest son to watch basketball on his nostalgic 2012 iPhone

Howard is spotted by his daughter, running away from the henchmen in the backstage of her school play minutes before the curtain rises

Howard discovers Julia and The Weekend in the bathroom together doing drugs and other activities

Arno confronts Howard at an otherwise peaceful family gathering

Howard’s son learns from a nosey neighbor that a “hot girl” lives in Howard’s apartment

“Howard’s Last Stand” ultimately ends with his head surrounded in his own blood, symbolizing the end of his relationship with himself (cheesy I know, but I couldn’t help it)

I believe these red lights were meant to be warnings for Howard to slow down and think. But as Howard does, he plowed through these warnings and prioritized money over everyone else, including himself. For this reason, I adored the ending of Uncut Gems. Howard doesn’t learn from his mistakes or acknowledge a single warning sign. He isn’t the type of character that would have a character arc (other than dying, of course).

Uncut Gems is one of my favorite movies from 2019 and it was an amazing year for cinema. I hope this analysis did justice to the Safdie Brother’s incredible cinematography and directing skills. They have truly blessed our screens with this masterpiece and I suspect we will hear more from them in the future. Until then, if you haven’t seen their other movie Good Time, I can’t recommend it enough. It’s on Netflix at the time I wrote this.

In conclusion, Adam Sandler fighting The Weekend was one of my favorite movie moments from 2019.