njsolicitor

The unpredictability of life's twists and turns often make us wonder what would have been had one small event gone otherwise. The order which our minds impose on otherwise disconnected events comforts us with the known, the linear, the predictable. Yet, as the existentialists, especially Woody Allen, tell us, the freedom to choose to be other than we are or what others expect us to be is at once as exhilarating and terrifying as it is omnipresent. In between decisions, we are left with the emptiness of knowing that we control our destinies. Yet, we are challenged to fill that emptiness with the projects that become the sum of our lives. Such is the plight of the characters in this film whose lives could have been and paradoxically were very different.

This film is an entertaining device that encourages self-reflection American style. It shows a mature Woody polishing his personal existentialism in a much more entertaining and accessible manner than earlier European films.

Seldom have I seen a low budget sequel or remake with the verve, sophistication, and superb casting of this movie. Current superstar actors, then relative unknowns, make this film well worth seeing. Subtle and sledgehammer references to the prior movie version gave me moments of laughter in an otherwise serious scifi.

A must camp-view for the connoisseur of this genre, this movie lulls the viewer into suspending disbelief and then turns unexpected corners. This movie should be viewed in close proximity to the original version to give the viewer a sense of continuity.

In the quasi-camp-horror-sequel genre this movie is among the best.

This is a panoramic film exploring the wilderness of Tibet through the consciousness of an arrogant Austrian climber (Brat Pitt). As Pitt challenges Nanga Parbet, the ninth highest mountain in the world and one of the hardest to climb, the political chaos of late 1930's and 1940's, and his own demons, the nature of mankind is revealed as layers of civilization are peeled to reveal an inner self paradoxically more powerful and yet more vulnerable to the ebb and flow of inhumanity. His own philosophical journey is a reflection of political machinations of the time, the ontogeny recapitulating phylogenetic change of western civilization resulting in a complex modern world forever coiled for violence and warfare.

This film has a European pace unsuitable for those addicted to action figure movies with huge budgets and high body counts. I recommend it as a "good view" similar to a good read.