Underground

I rarely weep during movies. At the end of this film, however, I began to weep bitterly--not because I was saddened by the story (although it is sad), but because I knew that I could never hope to create anything as beautiful as the movie I had just watched. It is this sort of film that both inspires and frightens aspiring film makers.

Underground is without a doubt, one of the very finest movies to emerge from Europe. After seeing Underground, one realizes that one has just witnessed cinema at one of it's highest levels. This movie is what "The Tin Drum" was supposed to be, and so much more. Absolutely Brilliant on all levels.

I first saw "UNDERGROUND" in 1996 about a year after it was shown

at Cannes and winning the highest honor in the world of cinema; Palme D'or was the tiniest honor that could be awarded to this eternal masterpiece ..... I have seen over 3000 movies so far and keep on watching at least 10 every week but nothing can ever replace even the memory of this unique work of art.....

I have seen all Kusturica's movies; His touch is so magical and his technique so unique, that I dare to say noone can't even imagine to be able to make another better movie And it'll remain the best movie of my life ... ETHEREAL AND OUT OF THIS WORLD .......

If you get a chance to see this projected on a sheet in an unheated high school gym with hard chairs and flat Pepsi, DON'T MISS IT. You can get a VHS copy--DO IT. (Unfortunately, there's no DVD ... YET, right, New Yorker Films?) I walked into an art house theatre in Nashville, Tennessee, no reviews, no word of mouth, just this poster of a woman wearing a red dress, her arms wrapped around the barrel of a tank's cannon. I came out one second (or was it two and half hours?) later a different person. People and movies are imperfect things--this one is messy, joyous, horrific, ecstatic, beat, danceable, romantic, provocative, drunk--this movie tastes like Slivovitz and sounds like Heaven's carnival. And there's a monkey. Once there was a country ...

When I first saw this movie on the indie channel, I taped it. I immediately watched it again, totally stunned by the extent of energy, imagination, ideas, images with which I was being blasted. Talk about a universal masterpiece! This movie should be required viewing on every screen, large & small in the US. We Americans lead such narrow sheltered lives; we are so eager to see things in black & white, to have our opinions dictated by columnists & newscasters. This movie should take off a few blinders. On the other hand, people will still opt for easy cartoon ideologies over the indisputable truth about the ferocious & predatory predilections of all "sides" of humanity. Thank god for visionary humorists like Kusturica.