Director Wim Wenders crafted a majestic, multi-continent -spanning, and quite long near masterpiece here, that near the end falls somewhat short due to certain loosely connected plot outcomes. Here, I am reviewing the 'quickie' 2 hour US version, though.
The cinematography , casting, sound track... are all about as good as it gets, the cat and mouse chase between the main characters is nicely done, and through it all we have the overhanging threat of a global nuclear catastrophe in the form a runaway Indian nuclear satellite, which I felt could have been more urgently presented. All the characters meld well with the script and plot, but near the end I felt that the 'end of the world' aspect- the threat of literal annihilation- should have went in a more dangerous direction. Wenders punted .
Part road trip movie, and totally an early 90's hipsters favorite, everyone should see this commercial failure- turned cult classic at least once, and try to watch the extended full length version if you can, I hear it is overall more engaging, it just adds up better, than the US one, despite the length ( about 5 hours).
One subplot is the two edged nature of technology- nuclear power to heat and light up our lives yet a satellite might end it all.. and then more technology might save the day...... and a mysterious invention that relates to vision and dreams, but do we really want this?
Overall very good, plus Max Von Sydow and William Hurt are in it, so how can you refuse ?
Review of Until the End of the World
