Wim Wenders' flop of a movie during the late 90's deserved a bigger audience than it got. In fact, the only reason why I even heard about it was from the praise that Gene Siskel gave it. I still think the late Chicago critic overdid it with his praise, I still see a nice picture here. Is it worth a perfect ten stars? No, I just hope it raises the 5.6 rating it currently has.
To really get this, pay close attention to the dialogue, infer, and beyond that simply watch it more than once.
We are first introduced to Hollywood producer, Mike Max (Bill Pullman). He explains that as a kid movies scared him, so he grew up to make them. I love storylines about movies so I really bought into Mike Max's story. He is so consumed with the business that he barely notices his wife (Andie MacDowell) is about to leave him. (This threads out into her trying to take over his company.) Ironically, both still care deeply for each other. When Mike gets kidnapped by two hitmen, he narrowly escapes while they get sniped. He goes into hiding at his Spanish neighbours' house while still trying to find out who is after him. This is the cheesiest part of the picture with Max having a change of heart with his life. It is basically a "going native" subplot.
Secondly, we meet former NASA member Ray Bering (Gabriel Byrne) who now runs a top-secret high-tech surveillance system overlooking all of Los Angeles. I love movies about surveillance like 'The Conversation' so I really got hooked with this storyline too. Although he looks at the entire city, he also his some people above him that say what goes. When Mike is about to get killed, the camera on him manually fuzzes out. Unsure about the purpose of it all, Ray emails Mike a file detailing the system as means of getting an outsider's point of view. His life is in danger too.
The most wasted story involves a detective named Brock who looks into Max's disappearance and strikes up a relationship with the star of Max's new film, Cat, who has also been keeping in contact with Max. For a plot about digging into a disappearance, I was sure bored. This is the biggest downfall of the movie.
Each of these stories intersect in fascinating ways. I have heard people say this movie is confusing, but Wenders just chose to let the audience infer. It is never explicitly said who ordered Mike's kidnapping, but throughout the film, we take a safe guess. Despite all the stories coming together, it seems like it all happens in such tiresome ways. There is after all lot in this film going on.
The movie also provides great commentary on violence. Mike thrives on violence, but soon has a change of heart. And the surveillance team that Bering works for tries to put an end to violence in the city, kind of like in 'Minority Report'. Lastly, Wenders decided to put the title to use: there is barely any violence shown. For instance, a bar brawl lasts maybe two seconds at the most. And the quality of camera that shows Max's kidnappers being killed is much to poor for it to be anything explicit.
If the rating for this was higher, I would have given this an eight out of ten. It tries to be a huge deal but does not amount to anything massive. It does not have the shocks of 'The Conversation', the philosophy of 'Minority Report' or the smooth swiftness of another major LA picture, 'Short Cuts'. I do not mind what Wenders presents to us in 'The End of Violence', I very much like it. It simply falls short of greatness.
3/4
To really get this, pay close attention to the dialogue, infer, and beyond that simply watch it more than once.
We are first introduced to Hollywood producer, Mike Max (Bill Pullman). He explains that as a kid movies scared him, so he grew up to make them. I love storylines about movies so I really bought into Mike Max's story. He is so consumed with the business that he barely notices his wife (Andie MacDowell) is about to leave him. (This threads out into her trying to take over his company.) Ironically, both still care deeply for each other. When Mike gets kidnapped by two hitmen, he narrowly escapes while they get sniped. He goes into hiding at his Spanish neighbours' house while still trying to find out who is after him. This is the cheesiest part of the picture with Max having a change of heart with his life. It is basically a "going native" subplot.
Secondly, we meet former NASA member Ray Bering (Gabriel Byrne) who now runs a top-secret high-tech surveillance system overlooking all of Los Angeles. I love movies about surveillance like 'The Conversation' so I really got hooked with this storyline too. Although he looks at the entire city, he also his some people above him that say what goes. When Mike is about to get killed, the camera on him manually fuzzes out. Unsure about the purpose of it all, Ray emails Mike a file detailing the system as means of getting an outsider's point of view. His life is in danger too.
The most wasted story involves a detective named Brock who looks into Max's disappearance and strikes up a relationship with the star of Max's new film, Cat, who has also been keeping in contact with Max. For a plot about digging into a disappearance, I was sure bored. This is the biggest downfall of the movie.
Each of these stories intersect in fascinating ways. I have heard people say this movie is confusing, but Wenders just chose to let the audience infer. It is never explicitly said who ordered Mike's kidnapping, but throughout the film, we take a safe guess. Despite all the stories coming together, it seems like it all happens in such tiresome ways. There is after all lot in this film going on.
The movie also provides great commentary on violence. Mike thrives on violence, but soon has a change of heart. And the surveillance team that Bering works for tries to put an end to violence in the city, kind of like in 'Minority Report'. Lastly, Wenders decided to put the title to use: there is barely any violence shown. For instance, a bar brawl lasts maybe two seconds at the most. And the quality of camera that shows Max's kidnappers being killed is much to poor for it to be anything explicit.
If the rating for this was higher, I would have given this an eight out of ten. It tries to be a huge deal but does not amount to anything massive. It does not have the shocks of 'The Conversation', the philosophy of 'Minority Report' or the smooth swiftness of another major LA picture, 'Short Cuts'. I do not mind what Wenders presents to us in 'The End of Violence', I very much like it. It simply falls short of greatness.
3/4