Blueberry: La experiencia secreta

This is an odd duck of a movie. I became interested since I'm a fan of Eddie Izzard who plays a mad Prussian lusting for gold. I knew it would be intriguing since its based on a Moebius comic strip, but I wasn't really expecting what I got.

The movie tells the story of Mike Blueberry, a US Marshall in the old west. As he lays "dying" we drift back through his life, stopping at about the point the crazed Prussian is getting everyone hot with gold fever and an old enemy returns to haunt him. Add to the mix shaman, bounty hunters, spirits, double crosses and peyote (for the crew as well as the cast) and you have a unique western.

Its a weird film with portents and visions criss crossing with hypnotic cinematography. This is a movie that looks great. There is a first rate cast, although I do have to say that I found some of the accents, Izzard's and star Vincent Cassel's a bit out of place.

Pretty much everything works except the screenplay which seems intent on being oblique for the hell of it. There is a heavy dose of Indian mysticism that seems to have been put there just to make things seem like they have a deep meaning (I think there was too much peyote behind the scenes). I'm not sure they do. The obliqueness and constant mystic reference slow the movie down to a crawl. After a while I stopped caring and started to look for the DVD remote. (Even worse is the fact that you have to pay attention to this movie or you're going to end up lost, so once I found the remote I had to back it up to see what I missed.) This is not a bad film, its just a rather dull and confused one. I'm sure in the right frame of mind this plays wonderfully, but I haven't determined what that is. I've rated it five out of ten because of the parts. The parts are interesting even if the whole is often a crashing bore. For fans of the cast, rabid western fans and those looking for head trip films only.

I've seen this at the Fantasia movie festival in Montreal. It's fairly slow-paced for a western, but then again this isn't just any western at all.

Nice, deep, trippy, beautiful movie. Incredible rendition of the shamanic/death/near-death experience, I was completely blown to bits and then carefully reconstructed numerous times. To me the movie made perfect sense, and I wasn't left with any questions regarding what went on or any part of the story, but I can understand how it could leave some people a bit confused and perplexed, to say the least. Leave your expectations at the door (or in another room if you are watching it on DVD) for an unforgettable experience!

This is a visual diamond. The frame composition of this movie is amazing! every frame is like a well planed and composed photograph. The music is also wonderful and supports each scene in a remarkable way. BUT, the digital effects gets out of hand and takes over the movie. they should be supporting it, not drown it. The hallucination scenes are very complex and confusing and should have been simplified to bring the story forward. (why do the directors get so carried away by digital effects? they of all, should know that it is the story and the "flow" of the movie that is important, not the amount of digital effects you can put in it!) However, this movie is definitely worth watching, but don't expect a conventional action western!

One of the trippiest and strangest westerns since 'El Topo', but besides visual exploration, don't expect too much coherence in story telling. The film goes deeper and deeper into the spiritual territories, but at the end leaves the viewer dissatisfied as by the end all the visual treats are just an hollow experiments and nothing more. The computer generated meditation and hallucination scenes are there just to be there for visual purpose. Although empty and somewhat confusing, they don't feel like some foreign bodies thrown in as these scenes beautifully melt in with the overall flow of the movie. The cinematography sometimes feel restless with its constant camera pans and rotations. We are never allowed to rest our eyes on steady shot. But the restless camera is supported with good editing so it doesn't start to distract too much.

Unconventional western with unconventional hero and villain with unconventional motives. Not as deep and spiritual as it aspires to be, but nonetheless entertaining to watch mostly thanks to its great cast and lively cinematography. The film that is definitely meant for the big screen to get the full enjoyment out if it.

From an artistic perspective, this is a very original and interesting blend of genres. The story is somewhat generic, but the way it is traversed is very unique.

For those not tripping-balls at the time of viewing, such as myself, this movie really suffers from pacing issues as well as a complete lack of editing. Watching this is similar to having a conversation with someone who's high out of their mind; while some of what they say may have some interesting perspectives, they ramble on, completely fascinated by what they're experiencing, while you're often waiting for them to get to any sort of point. This movie does have a few interesting points, but it is not consistently interesting as to how it leads you to them.

This film needed a lot more time in the editing room to be available to the general viewer, but then again, maybe that wasn't the target audience.