The Guardian

Gathering in the Barn for a typical night of movie watching with my friends, I did not expect to notice so many connections to things we've discussed with camera angles and symbolic gestures, especially of the omnipotent variety, but these things were noticed in The Guardian.

The movie follows an older Coast Guard rescue swimmer as he hits a wall in his career after his entire crew is killed on a mission, so he is sent to the academy to teach new recruits how to properly, according to him, be a rescue swimmer. He uses some different techniques in comparison to what the school typically does things, but the students become more and more prepared with each lesson. If you haven't seen the movie, I'm basically going to ruin it for you right now, so you might want to stop reading or just continue on and not cry as much as I did when I watched the movie. In the end, Kevin Costner, the instructor, takes a student(Ashton Kutcher) that is much like him, and molds him into what he used to be to continue his work after he's gone.

Throughout the film, there are several variations of the two shot including the open screen and the interview style over the shoulder shot, but even more, there is the "God Shot." The God shot is quite frequent, especially at the end of the film when Costner releases himself from a rescue rope in order to save his protigee's life and have him carry on his deeds of saving lives.

Also, symbolically, Costner's character is believed to still be alive and helping victims in their time of need, as they wait for help via the Coast Guard Rescue Team...can we say God-like?? Yes! From open armed gestures to his words ringing in Kutcher's mind, the audience has a Godly connection to this 40-some year old man.

At the conclusion of the film, a friend of mine said, "I always knew Kevin Costner was God! It all makes sense now!"