Gray's Anatomy

Gray's Anatomy is an 80-minute film directed by Steven Soderbergh in 1996 involving a dramatized monologue by actor/writer Spalding Gray. The title is taken from the classic human anatomy textbook, Gray's Anatomy, originally written by Henry Gray in 1858. It was shot in ten days in late January 1996 during a break Soderbergh had from post-production on his previous film, Schizopolis. The monologist film is about Spalding Gray, the main character, who is diagnosed with a rare ocular condition called Macular pucker. After hearing all of his options, such as Christian Science, Native American sweat lodges, and the "Elvis Presley of psychic surgeons", and the dangers of what surgery could bring, he decides to go through the other forms of medicine provided. This in turn takes him on a journey around the world and steers him away from surgery more so because of religious reasons, often in a dramatic and humorous fashion. This was the fourth and last of Gray's theatrically released monologue films, following Swimming to Cambodia, Monster in a Box, and Terrors of Pleasure. The film is available on DVD and MiniDisc. A remastered version was released by The Criterion Collection on DVD and Blu-ray in June 2012.