In einem fiktiven Land nimmt nach dem Tod des Diktators dessen Sohn die Machtposition ein. Dieser hat Zweifel am politischen System und plant eine Revolution. Als diese vollbracht ist, muss ... Alles lesenIn einem fiktiven Land nimmt nach dem Tod des Diktators dessen Sohn die Machtposition ein. Dieser hat Zweifel am politischen System und plant eine Revolution. Als diese vollbracht ist, muss er feststellen, dass sich nichts geändert hat...In einem fiktiven Land nimmt nach dem Tod des Diktators dessen Sohn die Machtposition ein. Dieser hat Zweifel am politischen System und plant eine Revolution. Als diese vollbracht ist, muss er feststellen, dass sich nichts geändert hat...
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The story, set in a non-specific time and place, draws on revolutions, emperors and dictators from history. It is not simply of the Left, nor of the Right. It is more complex and questioning than that. Idiots in positions of power make a terrible mess. Idealistic intellectuals take over and make a terrible mess. We've seen it and continue to see it the world over. The message is see what power can do. It is never year Zero. One must always learn from history. The film makes a rare plea for wisdom.
The cast list is extraordinary. The roster of stars, working for a fraction of their normal fee I believe, appear to seize with gusto the unusual material they have been given and turn in excellent performances. Particularly noteworthy are Tom Hollander and Donald Sutherland as the two sides of the dictating coin and Jonathan Hyde and Robert Daws as the Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee courtiers, funny and frightening by swift turns. Ralph Fiennes gives a career best. And the elephants? What do they mean? Make up your own mind.
Another great movie getting a mediocre score. It's a shame. Though I do understand that this is not the material for your average escapism of everyday life. This grim and violent tale is perhaps only interesting for those with an interest in modern history.
This film is set in a fictional country that takes elements from many utilitarian countries around the world to give us things to relate to. To me the most interesting was the Kim Jong-il analogy. A president for life who succeeds his father and is very interested in the film industry. Others will likely see other references.
As the film progresses, we follow this country through stages of governmental upheaval. We ride on the shoulder of an idealistic prison guard as he chooses sides, and faces the consequences of that choice.
As the movie was building, I felt like it was building a Pro-Terrorism Utopian government, but in the end I was left hopeless, because of each plot turn making the movie yet more dour.
Symbolism abounds, and you will find yourself trying to locate the meanings of the symbols, which are perhaps a tad too convoluted for my tastes.
I was completely immersed in the story, and I found the progression of the movie to be very compelling, but the overall message of hopelessness clashed with my youthful idealism.
I recommend this movie as debate fodder for political theorists. Its dark themes limit its audience otherwise.
I suppose when one lives long enough(72), there is no surprise when others find novelty in a regurgitated past. Even the music,(particularly Schubert's trio theme) presents us with a Kubrick/Proustian remembrance without the substance.
Although many seem to find an echo of the W Bush years, I find myself sensing a brave new world aspect to our new President. Mantras for "change", iconic adulation, even an Inaugural speech in which we are referred to as "My fellow citizens"--Robespierre redux.
Fiennes, as usual, is compelling, even when it's not clear that his own actions were spurred by a higher morality. Castro was indeed a hero in the 50's, but his half-century left a river of blood and suppression. It is clear in the film that principles are the first victims of power.
I think that before audiences stand and applaud this film, they should ask themselves if they are ready to stand up to tyranny, even if it is well-spoken and attractive. I doubt if most viewers were alive during the McCarthy years, or recall Hollywood's total capitulation to the witch hunts or blacklists. Nor do they remember Stalin's trials, Mao's re-education programs, or so many other acts of oppression.
I realize that I've strayed from a direct review of this film, but I'm dismayed at all that has been forgotten or overlooked by those who seem anxious to fight for freedom.
The movie takes place in an unnamed country, an outlandish mix of Haiti, Iran, pre- revolutionary France, and suburban London. It's a get-along or find-yourself-in-a-re- education-camp kind of place.
The film plays as both taut political thriller and broad farce. It's a grim sign of the times that even the most outlandish aspects of this world feel like political deja-vu. Politicians are voted in based on their acting credentials; the President-for-Life is also a self-styled auteur of 'B' action movies; the sycophantic TV news-anchors remain upbeat and bubbly as they bend to the political winds, switching cheerily from Brooks Brothers to burqas.
At the heart of the movie is the relationship between imprisoned playwright Thorne (Donald Sutherland) and the man who guards him - Joe (Ralph Feinnes.) Thorne is a tortured man in possession of a brilliant mind, who's been reduced to writing on the walls of his cell with his own excrement.
Joe works for Junior, the buffoonish but cunning dictator played brilliantly by Tom Hollander. Junior is part infant terrible, part cold-blooded killer. Some will see parallels between him and other political leaders - the wealthy, goofy President trying to live up to the image of his father, the manipulation of a nation's fear of terrorism to hide gross abuses of power, etc.
Joe is cursed with a moral compass. He comes to recognize Junior as evil, but struggles with whether betrayal of the regime is the same as betrayal of his country. At first, Thorne looks like Joe's savior. But the question of whether Thorne is a Vaclav Havel - an intellectual who could save his country, or an Abimael Guzman the imprisoned Peruvian professor and leader of the Shining Path terrorists, is grimly answered in the movie's closing act.
The cast is remarkable, nothing you wouldn't expect from Fiennes and Sutherland, and Lara Flyn Boyle does a terrifically dark and funny Lady Macbeth as Junior's wife. But Tom Hollander's performance deserves special note. Junior is now my favorite movie villain, ever. Frankly, I'd never heard of Hollander before, but here he turns in such a spectacularly comic and sinister performance that I've now Netflixed all of his other movies. If there's justice in this world (and according to this movie, there's not), Hollander would get an Oscar and a huge career out of this film.
LOTB a highly stylized, gorgeously shot movie the rich production design and cinematography beg comparison to Terry Gilliam's 'Brazil' and Jeunet & Caro's 'Delicatessen'. Like those films, LOTB also takes place in a surreal dystopia that feels physically warped by abuses of power. Also, like those films, LOTB is darkly cynical and very, very funny.
It's a rare pleasure to see this kind of razor-sharp satire wrapped in a thrilling, artful, and well-crafted piece of story telling.
Wusstest du schon
- WissenswertesThe movie contains several references to many real life revolutions and dictators: women wearing veils covering them from head to toe after the revolution (Iran), calling each other "citizen" (France); the gray uniform Thorne wears that resembles Stalin's (Russia) and Mao Zedong's (China); the First Lady's ludicrous wardrobe just like Ferdinand Marcos' wife (Phillipines) or dictatorial power being inherited from father to son (Haiti). Also, Thorne's beard looks similar to Marx's, and the "re-education" camp maybe a reference to Russian gulags.
- Zitate
Maximilian II: They'll remember you as a murderer.
Thorne: They'll remember me as a surgeon! A surgeon who cut a cancer from the body of the State!
- VerbindungenFeatures Electrocuting an Elephant (1903)
- SoundtracksNellie The Elephant
Written by Ralph T. Butler (as Ralph Butler) and Peter Hart
Top-Auswahl
- How long is Land of the Blind?Powered by Alexa
Details
Box Office
- Budget
- 18.000.000 $ (geschätzt)
- Bruttoertrag in den USA und Kanada
- 5.244 $
- Eröffnungswochenende in den USA und in Kanada
- 5.244 $
- 18. Juni 2006
- Weltweiter Bruttoertrag
- 25.116 $
- Laufzeit1 Stunde 50 Minuten
- Farbe
- Sound-Mix
- Seitenverhältnis
- 2.35 : 1