Iceman

...interesting for the reasonable version of Otzi life, for cinematography and for the status of experiment, for the tension and desire to recreate a lost world. I t is easy to critic this movie but, in my case, preserving the fascination about the discover of the Otzi mummy, the film represents a decent answer to a history who could only be imagined. So, easy to propose comparations or discover mistakes. But the essence remains interesting and the effort is not minor for recreate an entire fascinating universe. So, a not bad revenge story.

It's not that "Iceman" is a great film - not in the caliber of, say, 'Amadeus' or 'The Godfather' - but it does have its own story to tell, and in a way you won't see that much. At the beginning of the film, there's this disclaimer: "The characters in the following film speak an early version of the Rhaetic language. Translation is not required to comprehend the story." And it's true. 'Iceman' is basically a revenge film akin to almost every Chinese martial arts (Wuxia) movie or even Lone Wolf & Cub. Apart from the scarcity of language, the cinematography of the eastern Alps is breathtaking. You can almost call 'Iceman' neolithic Nordic noir for the blues on display as well as the general moodiness and bleak surroundings. Interesting in this day and age to release a near-silent film, but I think this one works.

In 1991, a frozen dead man is found in the Alps. He's been there for 5300 years. "This is his story." Kelab returns from hunting to find his settlement burnt down and his family massacred. A three man war party had come to steal a relic.

It's a little slow to start. It's trying to be authentic which includes limited dialogue and everybody looking like the same caveman. The sets and the costumes seem very authentic. Rather quickly, this gets brutally violent and it's a revenge plot. It becomes a harsh western and that's quite compelling. This can be slow at times especially with the quiet. Nevertheless, this is a simple and effective tale of a brutal age.

A history of our ancestor. Love for the Iceman. Salute to his vengeance.

Not a bad movie, "Der Mann aus dem Eis" gets weighed down by its "plot" which concentrates on Ötzi's violent death and the days before, creating a murder and revenge story with lots of violence but no levity at all.

The movie gets plus points for trying to get its history right; I liked how it highlights the fact that even then, in the late stone- / early bronze age, humankind was already far removed from the nature it still depended upon. A good idea in this respect were some rituals, plus of course the story's MacGuffin, an obsidian shard used for rituals which is kept in a pretty wooden box.

On the minus side, the amount of violence was maybe historically accurate but if you already go the length of portraying a stone age society halfway correctly (including made-up speech), you might as well include the nicer aspects of human life. A few tender looks and embraces during the first five minutes is all we get.

From the technical POV, the production is OK, out of their limited budget they got everything which could be expected and then some - the sets were fine, the costumes great, casting and acting good (nice lengthy cameo by Franco Nero) and of course the spectacular outdoor locations are an asset. Yet in many instances the camera-work stays rather pedestrian, so while the story shares some genes with "The Revenant", the photography is of lower quality (no big deal, Lubezki is a genius and no mistake). There's only two scenes where the pictures really take flight - one chase along a ridge filmed with a drone or cable-camera against spectacular backdrops, really vertigo-inducing that one - and one lengthy sequence where the hero is trapped in a crevasse below the glacier. Both scenes only emphasize that there was a better movie somewhere but it got buried under a too-simple and violent plot.

Recommended all the same, especially for the realistic portrayal of those early societies.