Warten auf die Barbaren

Waiting for the Barbarians is a film directed by Ciro Guerra, and stars Mark Rylance, Johnny Depp, and Robert Pattinson. This is a historical drama where Mark Rylance plays the magistrate for this fortress on the frontier of the "Empire". There is no date or location given, and not even a name for the so-called "empire". This is because the main theme deals heavily with imperialism, and the mistreatment that has gone on in almost every example of it. Johnny Depp and Robert Pattinson are the "bad" guys checking up on the frontier, and trying to handle the barbarians. Now that we have simple routine out of the way, let me describe how I personally thought this movie was. This film has very important themes, and strong performances, but struggles to really keep your attention. The movie starts off pretty strong, with this rivalry between Johnny Depp (who is brilliant in this by the way), and Mark Rylance. It was highly entertaining to see their ideology duel and it looked like it was going somewhere. However, then we get to the long second act where it basically takes too long at everything. Also, there is no Johnny Depp, or any interesting characters or plot really. Mark Rylance is good, but his character is just wimpy, and not charismatic. He is just utterly weak in almost every sense. He is also kinda creepy with his weird foot fetish scenes (you will know when you see them). It finally picks up in the third half which is carried by Robert Pattinson and Johnny Depp. This isn't because Mark Rylance is bad, but his character on his own is just extremely boring. Everytime Robert or Johnny was on screen, it was very entertaining. I just feel they made Mark's character way more interesting. Besides seldom clunky moments, the acting is pretty good. The actual story is kinda interesting, but I feel we have seen it done in a more entertaining fashion. Don't get me wrong, i'm not saying I wanted more action in this movie, I just felt like more conflict was needed especially in the second act. The themes are very important, and it does a good job of showing it (imperialism is bad). The cinematography was okay, it just didn't have a lot of "wow" moments. The soundtrack also didn't strike me much, but was okay. Honestly, if this film didn't have Johnny or Robert, I don't think I would have liked it nearly as much. In the end it is an okay film, but ultimately suffers from being kinda boring the whole second act. I will say that the Johnny Depp and Robert Pattinson performances are worth it in the end. I would recommend renting this movie despite its shortcomings.

This film makes the viewers question who are the real barbarians. I find it engaging and introspective. It's beautifully shot too.

It's a slow burn, but if you're ok with that, you're rewarded with strong performances, incredible cinematography and beautiful landscapes and a compelling lead character to root for.

Although the cinematography and the acting are almost excellent the slow pace of the story makes Waiting For The Barbarians just a movie that is worth watching once but not more. It just lacks some oomph, maybe some battle scenes to make it better. There is some cruelty and torturing though, physical and mental torture, so the story is still captivating and the excellent acting of Mark Rylance is the best thing of the movie. Johnny Depp and Robert Pattinson are for once the bad people, and they did a very good job playing characters that everybody normal will dislike. All in all it isn't a bad movie but it clearly misses something to make it exceptional.

Caught from the first act of the film by the set ,the mood,the music, the customs ,the lighting the performance of Mark Rylance and Johnny depp paving the way for watching a masterpiece..the structure of the characters revealed and their intentions is obvious leading to an inevitable clash between them..then there was the girl which was pivotal showing us another depth of Mark Rylance's character ..feeling guilty for what happened to her people and trying to redeem his guilt by saving her despite knowing what that would lead to ..that's where the film begin to have a lot of holes and unclear parts messed with the continuity of the film messing the script structure and a lot of things was just happening without explanation which made me couldn't fully immersed emotionally with some events despite how heavily strong they were ..loved the pace ,the acting performance the angles the natural light and cinematic look and mood ,the characters complications ..but the misconnections made it a lost masterpiece.