Underground

Rating:
Summary: An original masterpiece
Review: This film is filled with so much energy and joy that no audience can come out of it unmoved. This film has so many layers of story, that not one person will have the same impulses after seeing this picture. And isn't that what counts: to see a picture that makes you think what you just saw instead of just going mindless out of the cinema?

The story is perfect mix of tragedy, comedy, romance,hate. Everything we incapsulate in what we call a life. Underneith it tells the story of heroes,glorification of heroes, war criminals. It's not often i get swept away by a film but this film really managed to capture what the film medium can do. A mix of bitter sweet story, that changes emotions and attitude throughout the film

As original as two Coen brothers films combined and as moving as anything you will ever see........ Perhaps the best film of this decade... Seldom do you learn so much about the times you are living in as in this film. It's a must see for anyone who consider themselves even a bit interested in films. Masterpieces like this are so hard to come by that no one can afford to miss it.

Rating:
Summary: The boldest, most ambitious film of the 1990's.
Review: Out of the collaboration of three ingenious artists, Dusan Kovacevic, the great writer of comedy, Emir Kusturica, a master of the absurd in film-making, and Goran Bregovic, the most wonderful musician alive, arose "Underground", the most ambitious, most daring, and perhaps simply the best motion picture of the nineties. Kusturica is a supreme magical realist of cinema; he has a hold on the absurd like very few other film directors. For this reason, he was clearly the best man to try and adapt Kovacevic's novel "There Once Was a Country" for the screen. The novel is a brilliant allegory of fifty years in Yugoslav history (1941-1992), written in a multitude of styles, from fairy tale, to comic sketch, to classic tragedy. The scope of the story is enormous, and even Kusturica seems to have some trouble pulling it off, especially towards the end, as the film tends to get out of hand and become rather hard to follow. Nevertheless, on the whole Kusturica's telling of the story is successful. His wonderful direction is only enhanced by the superb cast, hilarious and mad as it is. Performances by already established actors Miki Manojlovic, Slavko Stimac and Lazar Ristovski, as well as the less well known Mirjana Jokovic, are delightfully original, and truly masterful. The film also features a phenomenal soundtrack by the forementioned Bregovic. This is a movie everyone should certainly see, though in all honesty it is only the peoples of Yugoslavia who can truly appreciate it. In fact, the movie is dedicated to those few lost generations who lived through the period in question.

Rating:
Summary: Film Starts Here. Talk about this movie! Buy someone a copy.
Review: When the patriotic Blacky, from the film, has had enough he takes matters into his own hands, with hilarious, redemptive, celebratory results. The film is universal and is very worth watching without subtitles which can be distracting to the excellent acting, but I find that the dialogue helps lend to many metaphorical musings. I plan on watching this film as many times as I've seen Morvern Callar. Too many. The comedy in Underground is fast, subtle, and frequently metaphorical. The musicians are well paid and they are integral to the film. Final thought:"Franz!"

Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece!
Review: Magic, wild, powerful, absurd and disturbing at times. It pulls you in from the opening shot set to the wild score of the gypsy brass band, following guns-wielding, slivovoce-swigging main characters, Blacky and Marko. (A note on the band: The name of the band is "Boban Markovic Brass Orchestra", one pretty difficult to come across. Buy "Jova Stojiljkovic and his brass Orkestar" or as one of the reviewers suggested - "Fanfare Ciocarlia"(Amazon has them both). Band is present almost in every shot, which as a lover of Balkan music, I greatly appreciated. Through the first 2/3 of this epic, its music swirls you through a carnival of masterfully filmed events(weddings, brawls, deaths, fights, escapes, etc) right to the nightmare of the Bosnian war. Then smile is instantly wiped out from your face, as you watch former Yugoslavia burn amd the protagonists anihilate each other. In the final scene all the characters meet and party again on an island, drifting away, for the first time under a broad daylight. As a whole, this film is an uproarious, fast-paced, out-of-control comedy and a powerful testament against stupidity and absurdity of war.

Rating:
Summary: The Balkans in us
Review: 'The Underground' deals with people's corruption, blindness of the followers (all of us are followers, so don't feel excepted), Balkan mentality, put in scene through perfect characters (played by perfect actors)... All that at a time of war, later socialism and finally destruction of post WWII socialist ideals. In fact, the first version of 'The Underground' I saw, was the 5 hour-long marathon version. After some months I came to see the shorter cinema version. Whatever version you come along don't miss to watch it.

It is a masterpiece of Kusturica's surrealism, just remember the scene after the first nazi bombing of Belgrade, when animals of the zoo run freely on the streets.. Or the underground system.. Remember the electric shocks, the making of the war movie.. Most of the scenes are just perfect as well as the scenario. Perhaps you need to be somehow connected to the Balkans to understand scenes like the one when Lazar Ristovski (Blacky) asks the gipsy musicians to follow him as he goes to the toilette. Some people argue that this movie is too political, but I would say that it is more about people than politics.

Bregovic, the maker of the music for this movie, has created something far greater than he had expected. By now, the music theme is extremely popular in Serbia and can be heard everywhere on Belgrade's streets performed by little gipsy groups.

Since 'The Underground' is not comparable to any other movie, and only because of that, I won't say that it is the best movie ever. However it is still influencing my judging of other movies. It is the most important movie to come out of the Balkans and represents a landmark in European film history. Simply said, it is perfect.

Rating:
Summary: Absolute Masterpiece
Review: Directing, performances and music. This is a movie that you should not miss.

Rating:
Summary: hard to stop analyzing this!
Review: in this installment from kusturica's creation, the similarities between this movie on one hand and on the other {the plato's cave, the second half of the 20th century of yugoslav history, the communist history of european nations, the history of totalitarian societies} make it hard to separate tragic from comic. kusturica continues his creative journey with an updated subject (the dissolution of the yugoslav state) while still employing the same magic-realist set of tools that has made him popular ever since 'time of the gypsies,' music, actors, etc.

the only exception i would take with this movie (and this might have started with 'father is away with business') is my unease, as viewer, with kusturica's program. in other words, when confronted with the burden of kusturica's take on 50 years of communist (yugoslav) history, i cannot easily suspend my critical sense vis a vis history in order to fully enjoy the story. and critical sense and magic-realism don't go well together. yet, somehow, the ever-postponed end leaves the viewer on a good balance.

Rating:
Summary: But how to see it on DVD?
Review: I love this film. I won't mince my words. It's not the greatest film ever made, and I won't conjecture what is, but it's amongst the greatest I've seen (and yes, I have seen a fair few in my time). Those that feel it is a poor film (you'll see that very nearly everyone feels strongly one way or another) just don't get a) what the film did at home as a social commentary or b) that yes, people in that part of the world do party loudly and do practice the art of suspension of disbelief in their culture and upbringing - some people call it appreciation of art and artistry, but never mind all that. We Slavs are a passionate people, for better or worse.

This "review" is really to point out that the widescreen DVD of Underground is available from Australia. I have looked high and low for years for this. There is an Italian DVD release, a Belgian DVD release, but I've only just found (and ordered) the Australian DVD release (Croatian language, English subtitle). Of course, you'll need an appropriate DVD player, but those are easy to come by.

One doesn't have to like the film but please do bother getting your reasons right.

Rating:
Summary: A Black Comic Epic, A laugh in the farce of history
Review: I think some sections of this film are very funny and some sections comment very poignantly on events of the last 50 years. Its a parable in some parts, an all out comedy in other parts and a satire in still other parts. I think maybe there is enough in this film to make three films. Its not the most tightly structured film, in fact its a sprawl. Viewing it one begins to believe no idea seemed too ridiculous so they eliminated nothing. As result you get a kind of everything and the kitchen sink entertainment. Its easy to get lost in this film or to lose your place. You almost have to analyze different scenes or sequences separately because anything you say about it may hold true for this part and not for that part. Its one of those films I am glad to have watched but was glad when it was over. Covering so much history the film is a kind of all night dance marathon and at times it seems the only point to it is to remain standing or if your the viewer to stay awake. By making its lead characters a kind of slapstick act, a black comedy team to be more precise, the film is driven by a gusto and verve which laughs in the face of history. In fact these two characters seem larger than anything history can throw at them. That is until the WW11 Nazi occupation phase of the story ends. Once communism takes hold the characters no longer perform together and the film loses its appeal and its edge. That edge is replaced by a darker kind of movie, a darker kind of black comedy. Under communism a different tactic must be deployed --the comedy team splits up--one half of the team performs a political charade above ground, the other remains tied to his Yugoslav roots below ground. This divisive schizophrenia is a clever tactic but the division imposed on the team zaps the joy out of the film. The communist phase just isn't fun, its like the comedy slowly oozes out of the film.
Fascism provided a common enemy for Yugoslavia to unite against while Communism turned citizens againt each other. The message is clear enough but the films zany antic strategies seem to get misplaced especially during this sequence which could be funny but isn't. The film within a film sequence which takes much too long to make a fairly simple point is one example where the film could have been cut. I think the film loses momentum and focus more than once as ideas are developed which feel more like tangents which veer away from the main story. By the final sections of the film the viewer will have fallen asleep at least once and when he/she awakens it will seem like he/she has awoken to another film altogether--which is perhaps the film makers desired effect. The final scenes deal with some recent history that has yet to be digested fully, however, and I'm not certain the film even knows exactly whats its saying in those final scenes.

The film works best if you just surrender to its methods or its madness(which are impressionistic and surreal not literal) but some people like myself will find themselves wishing for more method and less madness. In the final scenes the party goes on, the band plays on, the dancers dance, but there is no joy nor comedy in those scenes because people have taken sides against each other and there is no longer cause to celebrate nor any country to celebrate in. Its poignant and moving but its been so long since the story began one mourns but is uncertain just what one is mourning for. What was Yugoslavia? Maybe it was only a fiction after all, a stage where the farce of history was acted on. And now the play is over. Maybe every country, however brief, is only a fiction that once undone ends in madness for the thinking and a mindless kind of joy for those who accept that life is irrational. Maybe comedy is the only coping tactic left to deal with such a series of tragedies.

Rating:
Summary: A modern classic
Review: This film is truly a masterpiece. Kustarica deserved his "Palm D'Or" at Cannes for this one. It is a remarkable statement about the insanity of the Balkan wars, and war in general. Further, it is funny, touching, and extremely memorable. I don't want to give too much away (some reviews really do too much of that), but, this is truly an 'essential film of the 1990s'. Further, Goran Bregovic's soundtrack is spectacular. There are so many memorable songs, such as "Mesecina" and "Kalashnikov" that will be running through your head years after you've seen the movie.