I didn’t hate it.
I just sat through it wondering how I’d create a thesis through a feminist lens or a Marxist lens. I settled on Marxist because it’s got some really rich and weird stuff to it. The feminist stuff is pretty much still similar problems to the old Grimm take.
I last saw this as a teen. I knew it was good, but also out of my reach. I was a fool who knew enough to know I didn't get it.
Cut to now and I completely get it. There's so much going on in this thing. The balance of nature and man; the obfuscation of war played through the obtuse structure of the main central plot; the brutality and pointlessness of the repetitive nature of warfare.
It's a slow burn, and the voice over feels ham-fisted in parts, but be damned if Mallick didn't make this thing absolutely hum with meaning.
I expect a kind of screwball romp and instead this bleak vision of fame and desperation just stabs out of the screen. The lines oscillate between light and fun to biting and razor sharp constantly. This was far more scathing than I expected, and I was enraptured the whole time.
