9 / 10
Official trailer
The Lighthouse is Robert Eggers’s 2019 American indie psychological drama and the director’s second feature. The film depicts two lighthouse keepers stationed on a remote 1890s New England island whose isolation and conflict produce accumulating psychological breakdown. Willem Dafoe plays Thomas Wake, the older keeper. Robert Pattinson plays Ephraim Winslow, the younger assistant. Eggers and his brother Max Eggers wrote the screenplay. A24 produced the film, and it was shot on black-and-white 35mm film in 1.19:1 narrow aspect ratio. The work was released in October 2019 after Cannes Film Festival recognition.
Two men lose their minds in a tiny tower in The Lighthouse, and I had a wonderful, queasy time with it. Dafoe and Pattinson go all the way out on the ledge, and Eggers shoots them like a silent film that can’t stop shouting. The 9 is love, and my only grumble is that the period dialect makes you work harder in a couple of stretches than the scene gives back.
The film works as psychological drama and as study in the conditions of isolation under shared confined accommodation.
The work refuses the dramatic structure that mainstream cinema typically deploys. The narrative organizes around the two characters’ accumulating psychological breakdown across approximately four weeks of depicted isolation. The structural design uses extreme formal commitment including the narrow aspect ratio, the black-and-white cinematography, and the period-accurate dialogue to develop atmospheric content that conventional cinema can’t match. The work continues Eggers’s commitment to historical authenticity combined with sustained genre engagement.
The Formal Approach
It works through extreme formal commitment that the dramatic content requires. The 1.19:1 narrow aspect ratio produces particular compositional discipline that wider formats wouldn’t have supported. The black-and-white 35mm cinematography reflects period-suitable visual conditions while providing particular atmospheric tone. The period-accurate dialogue uses documented 1890s New England language that requires serious viewer engagement.
The formal approach also works as an argument.
The narrow aspect ratio mirrors the physical and psychological squeeze of the lighthouse, the black-and-white strips away the variety color would have offered, and the period dialogue blocks easy contemporary identification. I think that boxy frame is the smartest choice in the film. It makes the tower feel like it’s closing in on the two of them, and on you, and no amount of narration could have done that.
For Writers
Formal constraints can carry argumentative weight that more accessible formal choices can’t match. The Lighthouse’s narrow aspect ratio and black-and-white cinematography argue about isolation conditions through formal means. This applies to fiction. Consider whether your work’s formal choices support its content or work independently of it. Constrained formal choices require preparation so that the constraint reads as deliberate engagement instead of as authorial limitation.
The Two-Performer Structure
Almost everything rests on the two central performances. Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson carry the entire dramatic weight across approximately one hundred ten minutes of runtime. The structural design uses the limited cast to develop intensive dramatic engagement that ensemble cinema can’t match. The two performers must sustain the dramatic content without ensemble support.
The two-performer structure also has specific effects. The audience can’t escape the tension by shifting attention to supporting characters, and neither actor can lean on an ensemble. Both have to commit fully across the runtime. Dafoe is the reason I’d rate this so high. He plays Wake at full volume and somehow never tips into cartoon, and Pattinson meets him blow for blow.
For Writers
Limited-cast structures require committed contributions from each contributor without ensemble support. The Lighthouse depends on both Dafoe and Pattinson sustaining the dramatic content across the entire runtime. This applies to fiction. Consider whether your work distributes dramatic weight across ensemble or concentrates it in limited cast. Limited cast allows intensive engagement that ensemble can’t match. The investment in committed individual contributions is serious.
The Mythological References
Serious mythological references work alongside the immediate dramatic content. The depicted lighthouse, the appearing seabirds, the particular mermaid sequences, and the wider thematic structure draw from Greek mythology, Norse mythology, and broader maritime folklore traditions. The references are structural content instead of decorative variation.
The mythological structure also carries an argument: isolated maritime life produced its own myths, and the characters’ breakdown runs straight back into them. The mythology works as historical reference and as living cultural background the story makes accessible. The mermaid sequences unnerve me more than anything else in the film, and the seabirds run a close second.
For Writers
Mythological references can carry argumentative weight that works alongside immediate dramatic content. The Lighthouse integrates Greek, Norse, and broader maritime mythology with its immediate dramatic content. This applies to fiction. Consider whether your work’s broader cultural references produce argumentative content or are decorative variation. The strongest references work at multiple levels.
Craft Note
Eggers’s structural decision to commit to extreme formal constraints required careful preparation across multiple production departments. The narrow aspect ratio required particular cinematography preparation. The black-and-white film stock required particular lighting approach. The period dialogue required serious dialect coaching. The location work required particular weather management on the remote production location. The completed film works because the preparation supported the structural ambition across all departments. The lesson applies to creative work broadly. Extreme formal commitments require coordinated preparation that maintains the formal choices across all production departments.
Is The Lighthouse as good as people say?
I give The Lighthouse a 9 because every formal gamble Eggers takes pays off, and two actors hold the film together without a slack scene.
The boxy black-and-white frame, the performances and the mythology underneath all push in the same direction. The dialect costs it a point with me, and that’s the only thing keeping it from a 10. Anyone who cares about American indie film or psychological drama should see it.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Stormy Isle: The Lighthouse, American Cinematographer
- Cannes 2019: The Lighthouse, Lux Aeterna, RogerEbert.com
- The Lighthouse (2019), IMDb
