Canopy

Using music, jungle sounds and the sounds of war does set the scene, dispenses with clunky dialogue, character introduction and other film necessities but completely misses the self evident need for pictures. From this point on the movie deteriorates into situations devoid of; a story, a journey, any surprise or any redeemable plot. Likely a very cheap film to make it feels like it was made to show film school undergraduates how NOT to make a movie. Two stars. One for the double meaning of the title. The second for the tear shed by the second actor towards the end. Truly a narrative free zone with a recommendation for anyone writing a screenplay to watch a movie to list it's faults, can you do better? By God, you can.

This is a very good film for its story and plot, whatever others may say about a lack thereof. It is without dialogue, which allows the viewer to concentrate on the actual events of the film.

However, the film is lacking in several important aspects. First of all, it is not all that historically accurate. The events of the film are loosely based on a certain circumstantial incident that occurred in real life: two soldiers went out on some scouting mission or whatever and didn't return. They were found just over a quarter of a mile away a week later, dead. Nobody knows what happened; the film basically takes the premise and then creates a completely unrelated story out of it.

Second, although partially filmed on-site where actual military action took place, the so-called "canopy" is nothing like the real southeast-Asian forests.

Third, there is little actual action. Yes, plenty of stuff goes on, but there is little combat. This is a war film, in the jungles of Singapore, no less. There should be combat, because that's what happened.

Given the vast liberties taken with this film, the result is surprisingly good, though it feels a bit unpolished, if not rushed.

Worth the watch if you are not looking for accuracy but want a human-experience thing.

I watched this in the dark with high volume. Which I would advise everybody else to do so also, as this movie is all about it's sounds, feel and atmosphere.

I wasn't expecting much from this movie as I had not heard of it, however I was pleasantly surprised.

The movie is set with one main character who is crash landed in a foreign destination in the midst of the second world war.

The movie is eerie, the scenery is beautiful and the character is very well played. The constant build up of suspension leaves you driven to wondering what will happen next, and although nothing much appears to happen by way of extremities, there is a great awareness of the solitude and danger which could always be nearby...

Admittedly this is not the type of block buster war movie you would put against such movies of recent showing extreme heroism and patriotism, it is not the same, and for these reasons above, I think 8/10 is warranted.. Enjoy

This movie is proof that an 80 minute film can be just as long, boring and pretentious as any 3 hour plus epic costume Hollywood picture. The movie's budget is so low that it can not afford to show us any real battle, and for a war film, that is a big minus. To compensate what it can not show us, the filmmakers over-fill the soundtrack with constant gunfire, explosions, bombings, airplanes flying over heard, etc. It was exhausting after a while.

Of course, none of those aforementioned things would matter in the least if the movie had characters we cared about at all, or a story worth giving a damn about. Every single Close Up shot in the movie feels fake, and the director holds them for way too long before cutting away, making them feel even more disingenuous. The characters have no personality, no soul to them, so we are forced to watch two wooden people for what felt like an eternity, both of do as much overacting as possible for roles that require very minimal dialogue. The movie is simply over directed; everything in it feels fake, especially the actors' expressions. There really is nothing to find here: no drama, no suspense, no tension, only your life wasting away one second at a time.

Be prepared, this movie is about 95% dialogue free. What little there is, is in Chinese or Japanese. The remaining sounds are of the beautifully filmed backdrop, the jungle and all its encompassing wildlife. Oh, I almost forgot the gunfire in the distance. Even though there is minimal talking, as another reviewer mentioned, this film is best viewed at night in a dark room with the volume nice and loud. This way you really feel as though you're a part of what's taking place with the sounds of the jungle encompassing you, if you have a nice home theater set-up. Having taken place in 1942, I was expecting a "period film", but this really could have taken place anytime since then. This film was nothing like I expected but I was in no way disappointed. It was beautifully filmed, acted and leaves you thinking. I highly recommend it to anyone!