Digger - The Most Important Film You’ve Never Seen
You probably didn’t know this, but on October 2nd, a film released to a theater near you starring Tom Cruise called Digger, there's an almost 100% guarantee that you haven’t seen it, and I’m going to tell you exactly why that is.
Digger is a film directed by the visionary Alejandro G. Iñárritu. It’s a completely original film about how much power is held in the hands of people who aren’t in the right mind that is required to use it. But the film doesn’t stop at that, it challenges the viewer and asks them what they are supposed to do about these big picture issues. It's not as if we can stop buying oil and food from these massive corporations. The film questions the people's ability to make a change, or if the audience is just going to demand more from the corporations that supply them. The film also questions the corporation's ability to stop producing. What would happen if one day clothes stopped being manufactured or food was no longer delivered because those goods and services were provided in unethical ways? The film asks us where this rapid acceleration of both supply and demand will take us in the ever nearing future. Of course underneath all of this is an amazing movie with expertise camerawork, sound design, and a rockstar performance from Tom Cruise. He plays the eccentric and maniacal oil tycoon “Digger Rockwell”, a caricature of a person and a symbol of how crazy our superiors have gotten. But he’s not just entertaining to watch, he’s relatable. You’ll feel empathy for the same man who withheld information of a national disaster for over 20 years inside his family, someone who would eat children for profit, and someone who refused to let his poor cat die even though doctors and officials and anyone else with eyes and a brain who could see that his damn cat was dying. But he wouldn’t listen to anyone who told him what he didn’t want to hear, and when that cat died he found that it hated him all along.
So it’s clear that this film was monumental for the people who worked on it and it was most likely to be Tom Cruise’s, Iñárritu’s, John Goodman’s, Sandra Hüller’s, and Jesse Plemons’ magnum opus. But it’s not, and you didn’t even know it came out, so why is that?
About 30 minutes into the film it takes an extreme and sudden turn that completely changes the way it is perceived from the audience, warping what you may see as right and wrong. The trailers for the film completely failed to give away this crucial plot point (which is a good thing), and premiere audiences didn’t see it coming at all. They rated the movie extremely poorly saying it was “A nonsensical mess and a complete misfire”, whilst others claimed the film was exactly the masterpiece everyone expected it to be. The film led with a devastating 40-52% on Rotten Tomatoes, which is terrible for a film of this scale. Although positive reviews stated the film was “A thought-provoking and beautiful experience”, they gave high-praise to the film's audacious scale and Tom Cruise's full commitment to his satirical role which gave the film the comedy it needed so desperately, the negative reviews overpowered them so tremendously that the movie was shaping up to be as big of a disaster as it discusses.
In the advertising leading up to the film, the team didn’t ignore those hateful reviews, instead they leaned into the mixed opinions and discourse online. They quickly launched a controversial and aggressive “Decide for Yourself” campaign that stated that only you could choose whether the film was a masterwork or not. They put quotes from disagreeing critics side-by-side like “Masterpiece” and “Unpleasant” and “Brilliant” and “Insufferable”. Other ads used a quote from one critic stating “Digger should not be ignored”, implying that whether the film is great or not doesn’t matter. But this was all futile, because despite this desperate attempt to gain viewership, Digger opened to only a measly 8 million dollars at the domestic box office, which is incredibly small compared to its gargantuan 170 million dollar budget plus an estimated 100 million extra in marketing. In order to break even, Digger would’ve had to make around 300 million dollars, but as of October 9th the film has only grossed around 30 million. People on social media blame early marketing for the film saying it was too vague and didn’t properly describe exactly what people were getting themselves into while watching Digger. But there’s one more advertisement that caught my eye prior to the film's release. It displayed good and bad reviews from various critics as per usual, but instead of listing the name of the critic, they showed the country from which they came from. This is where a pattern started appearing, the wide majority of American reviews were mainly negative, while the reviews from critics from other countries were overwhelmingly positive, seemingly finding a relation between Americans and their comprehension of the film. This suggests that the heavy and unfiltered themes of the world's current events were too extreme for American audiences.
Now, Digger is looking to lose around 260 million dollars and is competing with John Carter (2012) to be one of the biggest flops in Hollywood history. This of course is terrible news for the realm of cinema because it will teach Hollywood executives that bold and new ideas won’t go over well with modern audiences. After speaking with an insider at Skydance (a massive media and entertainment company who helped produce Digger), they stated that they were shocked the film was losing as much money as it was because Iñárritu was such a well-respected and prestigious director. Considering this is his first English film in over 10 years after Birdman and The Revenant this could likely mean the end of Iñárritu’s career which is such a shame because he is truly an incredible director. This could also mean the end of Tom Cruise playing in new roles, since Digger was his first stand-alone film in around 8 years.
So what does Digger’s complete failure mean for us? Will Skydance stop production of these advanced and powerful movies in place of even more sequels and spin-offs that they are confident will make more money? Will they reject ideas like Iñárritu’s that take too many steps forward? Will the important themes of Digger be lost and buried beneath the rest of the waste that Hollywood produces now? Maybe a couple years from now, Digger will get the recognition and appreciation that it deserves from an audience who actually needs to hear what Digger has to say about both sides of the story. There’s one thing for sure… Digger was a tragedy, it was ignored by the ignorant people the film pokes fun at, and now every second is a second closer to the point where Digger’s reality becomes our own, and now you know why: Digger should not be ignored.
