Nicolas

Martin & Porter video guide give it a Bomb!
Any different opinions?

ernestrp

I found it rather boring myself.

sfsdfd

This film is pretty twisted. It's not for your typical 21st-century American viewer, because it does move rather slowly, but the atmosphere is very interesting and the plot is good.

- David Stein

Pants

This is not a film you would describe as enjoyable. It is very twisted and strange. Its juxtoposition of sex with violence will turn off many people. The movie depicts people who are evil to the core. I found it slow near the end, but good. This is one of those movies where I watch it and go "OK that was Fu-ked Up and strange, it made me feel uncomfortable, but I see more or less why the film makers made it." But then the movie haunts you and you think about it occasionally and want to revisit it again. It is not a film you will watch once and think is a masterpiece and recomend it to your friends. It is a film you will be disturbed by and not be able to forget about, you will not be blown away but you WILL continually think about the film, and to me that makes it great.

sfsdfd

HERE THERE BE SPOILERS:

I disagree with Pants's review. I wouldn't characterize anyone in the film as "evil to the core." The porter and his ex-prisoner enjoyed the master/slave relationship in general and the S&M aspects in particular; just watch the sheer joy they express when they resume their former relationship in an emotional explosion. This focus of the film doesn't show either of them as "evil," but rather fetishists resuming their old habits. Furthermore, they seem to enjoy pleasing each other (in whatever twisted way they do that) as much as themselves.

The murders that occur during the film are another story, but I doubt you could categorize the killers as "evil to the core." None of the murders are pointless or prolonged; the killers swiftly bump off their prey for a pretty good reason.

As for the Nazi background of several of the main characters: The film doesn't deal at all with the Holocaust or mass genocide. The Nazi background is used strictly to A) set the mood of the film, B) connect the porter and the woman, and C) lay the foundation for the trials, witness elimination, etc. that follows.

Also, I disagree with Pants that the ending was slow; rather, the gradually constricting barricade formed by the porter's (ex-)friends imparts a sense of claustrophobia and desperation to the film. I found it quite moving how the main characters knew what was coming, but were powerless to stop it.

I do recommend this movie. It's very different from anything you've seen before. Pants is correct that this film creeps into your head and stays with you for a while.

- David Stein

Justin Doring

The Night Porter is interesting. That's the best word to describe it. No, it's not a great film, but it is very interesting, and definately worth seeing and probably worth owning. To say the characters are "evil to the core" limits them as one or two dimensional. They are far more complex than that. The acting is excellent, and I didn't find the film slow at all. It really brings you into the characters' "different" world. Not for everyone, but the film is certainly not a "bomb."

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