Benutzerrezensionen

An interestingly filmed documentary that suggests a sensory experience rather than just capturing the conventionally "beautiful" images of the life in the sea. If you wish to watch a film that has a conventional narration do not watch this. The camera seeks to document fish, birds, nets, man, the sea etc with the same curiosity and the same intensity, everything being of the same importance. The camera moves a lot in this process and sometimes makes you feel dizzy but at the same time this way of documenting captures the essence of this world where everything moves and swirls constantly. Throughout the film there is an insistent mixing and blurring between the sea and the sky, up and down. The scenes showing the masses of fish tangled in the nets suggest a comment on man's voracity. Beautifully recorded sound. A bit bumpy but an interesting and genuine experience.

If you are expecting a neat little movie with a clear plot, that leaves you with a sense of having experienced something you can summarize easily ... you'll be sorely disappointed. This is a horror film in many senses, presented as poetry and intellectually obscure.

Its title, Leviathan, is a reference to the biblical passage that depicts man's encounter with a sea monster. Here, the monster is man, ripping life from the sea and destroying it in the harshest of ways, butchering sea creatures in such a matter-of-fact, emotionally detached way as to bring you to tears. But the way it is filmed creates a detachment of its own, sort of stifling the viewers' emotions so we can watch without turning away.

It is on its surface a commentary on the commercial fishing industry ... how we have reduced mass slaughter to an assembly-line process ... much like what the Nazis did to the Jews. When man turns against man, we are horrified. When man turns against nature ... it's just business as usual.

If there is a message to the film it's that we are the monsters on this planet.

LEVIATHAN has attracted a fair amount of negative criticism from users. The reason is obvious: it is an essentially plot less piece designed to appeal to the senses and the imagination rather than telling a story. Focusing on the fishing industry in New Bedford, USA, directors Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Paravel create a visually arresting experience in which color and imagery assume paramount importance. The movie is full of memorable images - a flock of seagulls flying at night, a lone bird trying to find food on the fishing boat, the sight of the fishermen lopping the heads off their catch. The movie has a memorable soundtrack, with the sounds of daily life in the fishing industry forming a kind of musique-concrete style score that has a certain haunting power. In thematic terms, the directors are out to show the power of the elements and how human life often seems insignificant by comparison - sometimes the fishermen seem entirely at the mercy of the cruel sea. Nonetheless they acquire a certain stoicism that enables them to continue their work; in one sequence, for instance, a lone fishermen is shown watching the television during one of his all-too- brief breaks from his nightly chores. LEVIATHAN does not celebrate the fishermen's life; it is more concerned to create an experience for viewers, and more than fulfills the task.

'LEVIATHAN': Three Stars (Out of Five)

Another experimental film taking the 'less is more' approach to art and filmmaking. There's no storyline, no character development and no characters for that matter. The movie 'LEVIATHAN' (not to be confused with the 1989 monster flick, of the same name, starring Peter Weller) is a collection of long random shots aboard a fishing ship. It was directed and written (if you can call it writing) by Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Paravel. I found it to be visually interesting but also extremely boring.

The movie is just a collection of random shots (that go on for way too long) about a fishing vessel. It's supposed to be some kind of a commentary on the fishing industry I think. There's a lot of shots of people doing various jobs, with almost no dialogue (and what dialogue there is is not important). It was filmed with waterproof cameras that are clipped to all sorts of people, animals (possibly) and things.

The film received rave reviews and I don't understand why. I think it actually would have been a lot better cut into a bunch of 5 to 10 minute YouTube videos. As a nearly 90 minute movie it's way too long and uninteresting. The shots look cool though and I guess it's kind of an informative look at the fishing industry and life at sea. It reminds me of another recent critically acclaimed but very boring film (with no dialogue) called 'ALL IS LOST'. In my opinion there's not much to it.

Watch our movie review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UR3e7zdl6R4

I've never felt compelled to counteract negative reviews on this site before, but in the case of Leviathan I couldn't help myself. If I had come to this film expecting a traditional documentary on the commercial fishing industry, I may have been contributing my very own one-star critique right now. Then again, if I'd thought this was going to be a traditional documentary on the commercial fishing industry, I probably wouldn't have watched it in the first place.

Leviathan is definitely experimental (though experiential may be a better descriptor for it.) It offers no narration, no facts or figures, no conclusion or agenda. The only dialogue we hear is, for the most part, distorted to the point of abstraction.

What Leviathan does offer is an immersive, hypnotic experience. The sounds and images are alternately nightmarish, surreal and eerily beautiful. Even the rudimentary glimpses into the lives of the fishermen on board are rendered at an odd reserve, remaining as enigmatic as the seabirds we see throughout the film, crashing into the black waves. Experiencing this movie is like being transformed into an alien observer; the ordinary becomes extraordinary.

Of course, everyone's entitled to an opinion, and I can completely understand why a person might hate this movie. It truly is a Rorschach blot of a film, allowing the audience to engage with it from almost any angle imaginable. I think that's where Leviathan's beauty lies. Anyone interested in what movies can show us should at least give this one a shot.

Movie was somewhat like "Deadliest Catch", but shot with a wobbly camera to make it seem more life-like. The result was a very boring movie. Although it only lasted one hour, I fell asleep two times. Some of the shots would be somewhat interesting for 5-10 seconds, but they lasted for 3-4 minutes. And some of the scenes were repeated several times. Additionally, the camera angle made some of the shots hard to understand what you were looking at. This could have been an interesting documentary, if they had not have botched the photography so badly. Watching this movie was a big waste of my time and money. I highly recommend that you not waste your time and money.

This experimental-documentary film examines in a very concise manner the problematic of mass consumption featuring a fishing ship as an all- devouring sea monster - Leviathan. The viewer is immediately immersed in a dark vision of this demonic large steel beast which leaves behind the remains of sea creatures and coloring sea water in red, surrounded with the sounds of fluttering semi-living fish, chains, anchors, ocean and screams of seagulls. They all create this sinister sound like a choked howls from abyss. An impressive visual and sound voyage and innovative approach to the issue (mass consumption) characterize this exceptional work about insufficiently identified atrocities of contemporary civilization.

Leviathan is a bold documentary shot with multiple small camera's from many strange angles. The camera dips under the water oh so often and we see how birds attack their prey. We see up close fish carcasses in containers and blood dripping from tables where the fish are being gutted on board a ship. Meanwhile the crew of the ship mumbles inaudible and sometimes come into frame. Actually there is not much said at all in this dark and claustrophobic tale of life and death at sea. What are the filmmakers trying to convey, no Idea. But what is shown is fascinating and intriqueing. Is it a horror tale showing how our mass consumption threatens all? Or just a grim look at daily life of fishermen trying to earn a pay-check? Either way the film is a enjoyable - albeit a sometimes extremely slowly paced - roller-coaster of a ride. Maybe more of an art piece than straight up documentary but that's OK. If I want to watch people talk about the experience of fishing I can turn on discovery Channel.

I've seen bad movies and documentaries before, but I have no idea what this even is.

Some guy strapped a go pro to his head, and randomly walks around a ship. Might have some merit after the first 5 minutes if it developed into a horror flick from the deep, but I am at a loss for words. No character development, no plot, no dialog, no anything really except a bunch of monotonous visuals.

How this got such a high rating (currently 6.8/10) is genuinely puzzling, if not suspicious.

My guess is someone spent 100's of hours creating fake accounts just to rate it up, or those involved with it's creation convinced all their friends, relatives etc... to give it high ratings.

Fortunately, I could simply fast forward after the first 15 minutes to confirm this oddity is a video was just more of the same thing over, and over again.

Call me old fashioned. I like at least some words or speech, an attempt at a plot, and character development is always nice.

If you want to see a masterpiece of visual and sound like no other, see the documentary film Leviathan. It is one of my favorite films (now) and like nothing I have ever seen, a true experience of nature and life in both the cruelest and most beautiful sense.

The director is able to convey amazing emotion and feeling though just the use of light and shape, let alone the whole piece taking the audience though an experience of life and nature. It's contrasting imagery of experimental visuals based on shape and color compared to ones of stark, bestial nature.

I barely have any words to try and explain how masterful this film is. Please do not avoid it because some of the poor reviews here, watch the film with an open mind and you will experience something that you never have before.

The first thing I want to say is don't watch this movie. If you must watch this movie, then please empty your bladder first. I should get some kind of commendation for having watched the entire movie in one sitting. Yes, it was *that* bad.

I should start off by saying I initially knew nothing about this movie, not even that it was a "documentary". The only thing I knew about it was the title. Based on the title and the first "scene" (can it really be called a scene?) I had a feeling it was going to be a kind of Blair Witch of the sea. It seemed to be very slowly leading up to some disaster. There is darkness at sea. Some fishermen are working on a boat. It's dark. There's no dialog. Nothing but the sounds of the boat and the sea. You just know something is going to happen. Then 15 minutes goes by. Then 20. Then you start to wonder.

It took me a while to realize this is a "documentary". Except, there's no dialog. There's no narration. There are lots of sounds. Lots of water lots of fish. Lots of sea birds. Lots of out-of-focus shots. Lots of meaningless extreme close-ups. Lots and lots of water. There is very little "human" element. Most of what there is are extreme close-ups of pot-bellied, tattooed, chain-smoking white guys... who apparently don't talk much.

I learned nothing from this movie. Working on a fishing boat is lonely, dirty, wet, and hard work. I think I already knew that. The only thing I thought was good about the film is that the sea scallops looked really really good. I may just get some tomorrow. The only thing I could relate to in the film was the scene where the guy is falling asleep while watching television. That should be the movie trailer because it pretty much sums it all up.

Trust me: skip this one.

First of all, i can understand why some folks don't like this movie. It is unconventional, experimental and honest. So not everybody's cup of tea. The first five minutes i was also in a mood of "nahh what is that?" but then i kept watching and let myself go. The scenes are very long so they kinda let you immerse into what is happening after a while. What you see is not nice. But somehow i got hooked. It was almost kinda like meditation. Beautiful and disturbing at the same time. Just images and sound that together form something whole after a while. After i watched it, i didn't knew if i liked it or not. But days later i am still thinking about it, so i decided to like it. It is sort of Art and Reality melted together. An audiovisual experience that drags you down in the world of the sea, the fisherman, the boat, humankind, the world we live in. And it does that without telling you anything you didn't know already, because it doesn't have to.

If you are up for a new experience that will make you think about it for a while, go see the movie!

The only reason I'm leaving this review is because it is so bad; most people whom have seen it refuse to waste valuable time reliving such junk via words. I urge you to down a bottle of your favorite liquor and swallow a few prescription drugs you may have on hand before hitting the play button on this one. It's an absolute disaster of footage imitating and failing at any level of entertainment. This is not a film, nor a short, nor a documentary... It's not even a successful experimental documentary.

Leviathan (2012) is merely a large collection of {extremely poorly executed} Hero HD footage {without any narration whatsoever} stitched together in a cheap NLE on some fisherman's laptop while in his bunk at sea. It seems to have been created exclusively for the pleasure of commercial fisherman. I do respect commercial fisherman, but not this wannabe film. Other than that, IMO, this thing doesn't deserve a page on IMDb.

Strange, odd, and really very terrible in the sense of film making.

This doc is a 'hard' watch but it does repay the effort. Heavymetal is the workers music of choice and the heavy metal of grinding gears and chains on the film's soundtrack is an assault to the ears. The use of small waterproof cameras has enabled the directors to establish highly unusual points of view, underwater sequences of the by-catch flashing past are seared on to your retina ( I had a detachment soon after watching this doc so I don't use the term lightly, you've got to suffer for art), the feeling of immersion in the life of the trawler and the hard physical work of the trawler-men is strong and the longueurs of the repetitive work are not shied away from and the reality of killing fish is seldom off the screen

Blood, guts, flesh, fishes, carcasses, knifes, butchery, filth, water, seagulls, workers, cigarettes, days, nights, alienation, Gopro cameras. This is sensory anthropology at its best. The viewer is trapped into this immersive world and forced to experience life and working hours through the fishermen's eyes. A fascinating, nauseous and vertiginous documentary film about industrial fishing. Masterpiece.

Seeing this film in a theaters absolutely blew me away. The sound design and cinematography is absolutely brilliant. So dope.

Subtle way to tell a large story, I loved how the movie didn't just blast out some fool talking at me about fishing. Who gives a f*ck. This was a more powerful way to get at the same point.

I recommend this film to just about anybody with an open mind, but this is a MUST see in theaters to experience the power of this film. I can't imagine watching this film on a tiny computer screen DON'T DO IT!

Powerful film, beautiful filmmaking, looking forward to these cats next flick

A portrait of the contemporary commercial fishing industry. Filmed off the coast of New Bedford, Massachusetts – at one time the whaling capital of the world as well as Melville's inspiration for 'Moby Dick'; it is today the country's largest fishing port with over 500 ships sailing from its harbor every month. Leviathan follows one such vessel, a hulking ground fish trawler, into the surrounding murky black waters on a weeks- long fishing expedition.

I was looking forward to it but really was quite rubbish. No character development, no plot, no dialog, no anything really except a bunch of monotonous visuals.Tried to watch it twice, gave up the first time and dozed off the second time. Don't waste time watching it.Very pointless.

Compare the critics' score to the user score.

Many people who are well-versed in the appreciation of art say that this film is hypnotic, disgusting, captivating and terrifying... a unique and profound experience.

Meanwhile, one guy gave it a 1-star review because the poster looked like a horror film poster but isn't wasn't a horror film. Another guy gave it a 1-star review because it claims to be a documentary, but it doesn't have narration.

If their 12-year-old niece or nephew could make this film as those people claim, they probably should have: maybe their walls would be lined with awards, too.