There is only one detracting review and the reviewer doesn't appear to know what he's talking about. He didn't like it. OK. Let's go on. The rest of us did. Why? One reviewer says it exactly, "I...kept thinking about it [the film]...the next day..." This is a touching piece of cinema. Why? Visually, it's a delight: from the beginning sleazy scenes of the Big Apple, to the black and white Wild, wild West and the colorful Macedonian landscape. The costumes are wonderful, the violence is graphic and realistic in all its gore. The tale unfolds in several parts which only partially come together, like a mosaic of interspersed stories, each with its own motif and twist. The realism transcends mere realism to a state of surrealism at various points. There are several archetypical elements that appear and reappear, heroes, antiheroes, shapeshifters, threshold guardians, dragons,etc., and the mythic journey proceeds on two levels-- indeed, the past is tied to the present and the future by the power of myth. The old queen dies and her spirit is resurrected in the transference of the magic elixir, the power of freedom, to her heir, a would-be robber and assassin. The images of the planes, both old and new, flying across the sky adds to the metaphor of the flight of spirit.
I can see why this film was not well received. Its far too cerebral and transcends its very own violence with all its blood, guts [literally] and gore by ascending into the psyche where all of us fear to tread.
As nearly all the reviewers record here, this is one hell of a fine film and piece of art.
I can see why this film was not well received. Its far too cerebral and transcends its very own violence with all its blood, guts [literally] and gore by ascending into the psyche where all of us fear to tread.
As nearly all the reviewers record here, this is one hell of a fine film and piece of art.