Romer

I just wanted to counter Chuck Arrington's negative and (in my opinion) misguided review of this film on the main site. This is a truly great film and worthy of all the critical attention it has recieved. Unlike the movies we moviegoers(and Americans in particular)have become accustomed to, this film tells its stories in a complex fashion, which sometimes includes silence as a technique. There is not constant stimulation but plenty of time to think about the events & words of the characters. But, in the end, there is no way to defend such a film against those who just can't or won't enter into the spirit of it and insist on labeling it boring. (Another example being the recent Terrance Malick "The Thin Red Line.")

I certainly agree that the sound & picture leave a lot to be desired, but it's absurd to hold against it the fact that the film is in a foreign language. If you don't like subtitles, don't see foreign films. That leads me to my main question: why Mr. Arrington would review the movie at all?

I hope all who have an interest in great movies will give this epic a go.

Romer

redshift

I have already taken leave of DVDTalk, but I also felt that I also needed to counter this misguided review as well.

Romer has made several valid points regarding the general bias of the reviewer towards foreign films, and as such, perhaps he is not best suited to review the film. Contrary to the statement that the film is about the Ten Commandments, Krzysztof Kieslowski has stated in the documentary, I'm So So, that Decalogue is about how people break the Ten Commandments in their daily lives, and is not about depicting the Commandments per se. The comment about "severely economically depressed Poland" is also inaccurate, and shows the usual chauvinistic bias to America. All of the films are about middle-class Polish people. I did not see the economic poverty, only the spiritual despair.

As for the lack of commentary, Kieslowski places great faith in the human intellectual capacity to derive meaning from his films without having to spoon feed the story. As such, his films are always open ended and inconclusive. Furthermore, he also passed away six years ago and rarely gave interviews, never pandering his films to the interview junket, so a Kieslowski commentary would never have been recorded, even if he were still alive.

As for the lack of extras, I can only wonder what the reviewer is searching for. Deleted scenes? Outtakes? To introduce such gimmicks would only take away from the gravity and tone of the film.

In closing, inasmuch as I dislike much of the mainstream films that exist today, I do not dedicate myself to reviewing (nor specifically, tearing down) films that will obviously not interest me, nor would I be a fair judge for. I will leave the glowing reviews of the Alien trilogy and ID4 to those who will buy those films anyway. I expect the same courtesy to be shown for such monumental works as The Decalogue in return.

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Strictly Film School

eXcentris

As french director Robert Bresson once said:
"Are you sure you have exploited silence to it's full value?"
Mr. Arrington obviously has no clue as to
what the above statement means...

[This message has been edited by eXcentris (edited July 19, 2000).]

Sem

I am not going to argue with Mr. Arrington on the merits of this film, because any person who rates ID4 with five stars should get his head checked. What's more important we need to petition Geoff to remove this misguiding review from the site. With the amount of traffic it receives, most people who never heard about the film might get turned away from this masterpiece.

dave955

You might also get someone to put up a positive review.

sfsdfd

Remove the negative review? Why? That's not right. People have different impressions of any given movie and they're entitled to their right to decide. Furthermore, people who read reviews must remember that the reviewer's opinion could vary greatly from their own (if they saw the movie.) Anyone who's dissuaded from purchasing The Decalogue by one negative review (mixed with lots of positive reviews) shouldn't be reading reviews anyway.

I also have to disagree with the positive comments on The Thin Red Line. I thought it was awful. But The Decalogue is a fantastic movie.

- David Stein


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"You face... The Tick!"
"No, I face a zebra. You face The Tick!"

eXcentris

I agree this review should not be removed.
Anyone interested in any film should seek
out more than one opinion. This just happens
to be one of them however misguided it might
be

Eeyore

I'm a little late to the party, but i'll add my opnion here: While Mr. Arrington is certainly entitled to his opinion, the review adds relatively little that would be of any help to DVDTalk members. It seems to be inappropriate that he reviewed this film at all. Why is someone who regards subtitles as a "language barrier" reviewing foreign films!?

Just because it's 10 hours long doesn't mean you have to watch ALL 10 HOURS in one sitting, or that there is no replay value because you won't want to watch it all in one sitting a second time. I can't imagine anyone saying that the monty python box set has no replay value because it's 24 1/2 hours long, so why say it here?

I would recommend the decalogue to anyone, especially anyone who has seen (and enjoyed) any of the beautiful trois coleurs series. These short films are really pretty amazing, especially when seen for what they are... instead of comparing them to big-budget holywood action films. No, the picture isn't absolutely pristine. No, it isn't widescreen (because it was made for polish tv on a small budget). It isn't the x-files, it isn't an action film, but it is definitely a gem. If you give it half a chance it's quite an amazing collection.

garmonbozia

I haven't read the review in question, but will look for it now. I must say that if anyone is going to make any list of films that are truly materpieces, I would not trust any list that did NOT have The Decalogue on it. If there are any stories that I have been told that I will never be able to forget, they are these 10. I spread them out over a week and watched 2 a night and it was one of the most enjoyable weeks of my life. I didn't buy them when they first came out because they were a tad expensive. I think the MSRP is about 70 bucks. I of course did not pay MSRP, but after having seen them, would now gladly pay twice the MSRP to have them. I advise people who may be concerned about the religious content to not be concerned. I am agnostic and thought that there was no religious agenda in these films. Kieslowski seemed to just use the ten commandments as a structure in which to narrate these stories and the only place that the commandments appear are the titles for film on the box.
WARNING TO FIRST TIME VIEWERS:
do not read the descriptions of each story on the box. I purposely did not because I don't like to read film descriptions or even watch a trailer for something that I have already decided to see without doing such. But I did read the descriptions afterwards and there are slight spoilers. Those descriptions on the box are the only complaint I would have with the set.

[Edited by garmonbozia on 03-06-01 at 08:09 AM]

Birdcell

Agreed, Garmonbozia... While I try to be respectful of others' opinions, I can't trust the cinematic opinions of anyone who'd slag the Decalogue. Each episode is rich, complicated and gorgeous. Indeed, I question the humanity of anyone not moved by the death penalty or Holocaust-related episodes...

garmonbozia

oh ugh.
I just was reading parts of the review in question and it has to be one fo the worst reviews i have ever read. the reviewer does nothing more than recount the plot. it's one thing to not like something and yet another to not like somehting and not successfully be able to explain why. this reviewer should definitely not be reviewing foreign films if he considers it the "language barrier" something that would cripple a film. people who are inherently against certian genres should not review them. for example i should never be asked what i thought of a romantic comedy in general because I hate most of them, but if i see one i like i can say "even i liked this movie and i hate most romantic comedies". but in general i should not review them. maybe the reviewing system needs to have somethign worked out where people get to pick film genres they like so reviews can be done by people who like the types of films they are watching. that would be more objective. review what you know enough to rate against similar things.

here are links to the reviews in case anyone else reading this thread would like to see them and are too lazy to search for them yourself: (but I would suggest not reading them if you have never seen The Decalogue and plan to....some spoiling could occur, no endings spoiled from what I read, but possibly enough)

http://review.dvdtalk.com/reviews/Re...ew.asp?sku=838

http://review.dvdtalk.com/reviews/Re...ew.asp?sku=837

[Edited by garmonbozia on 03-06-01 at 10:27 AM]

garmonbozia

does anyone know where the titles come from that were used in the review? there were not the titles that were on my dvd box. my titles are the commandments.

Richard Malloy

That's an unfortunate review, but certainly not one that would sway knowledgable film-viewers. The only damage that might be done is to the newbie viewer who might be put off from these films due to a single, misguided review. Other than that, it's just more grist for the laugh-mill. Of course, one does wonder how someone with such a limited grasp of cinematic aesthetics could land a position reviewing films...

And he certainly compounds the problems caused by the spoiler-laden blurbs on the packaging by providing such detailed plot synopses. One of the many joys of The Decalogue is how Kieslowski slowly reveals the motivations and circumstances of his characters and how he thwarts our expectations and redirects our sympathies at nearly every turn. In addition to the dim conclusions this reviewer draws, his detailed synopses will, to a very great extent, ruin the pure enjoyment and experience of these films by those with the capacity to appreciate them.

DVD Smurf

Silence, yes, is the moment for ultimate personal quest for stimuli of any sort. I just turned in paper on this exciting topic. In my paper I discussed one particular scene in A Clockwork Orange, where Alex is "enjoying" Mr. Alexander's hospitality of pasta and wine. Kubrik is using silence in this scene to enhance the moment. And regarding Thin Red Line , click on the link and read my review of this great film out of my perspective. A last detail, talking is silver, silence is gold.

garmonbozia

There is finally a positive review of Decalogue giving it the Collector's Series status that it so richly deserves:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/read.php?id=1805