Change Your Image
Rick A.-2
Reviews
Silent Running (1972)
Flash Gordon meets Mr. Robert's Neighborhood
I had only modest expectations for this film, but was still shocked by how bad it was. It seemingly was inspired by "2001: A Space Odyssey" with a human rebel instead of a computer which then takes over the all-important mission. It's embarrassing however to compare that great film with this insipid piece - comparatively it lacks much of the production value, most of the scientific plausibility, and all of the intelligence. Here, replace HAL with a well-meaning but borderline-psychotic, St. Francis-like environmentalist and build the plot on sloppy melodrama, with a supposedly positive message which is as shallow as after-school drama.
Die Siebtelbauern (1998)
A truly great movie
"The Inheritors" is a truly great movie. Great art can invite you in and massage you, and guide you back out again, hopefully in a new direction. This movie does that for me partly because of its allegorical nature. I see it as a religious allegory, with Lukas as the Christ figure, and the land representing the mystical body. The movie's greatness comes in the way it points out of itself, to a more universal, democratic experience. In this way "The Inheritors" can be compared to another great film, "The Sweet Hereafter". Both generate their emotional impact in loosely holding the viewer while pointing to a possible world outside of the movie. To see the beauty, we simply have to be willing to enter into it.