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Kind of "Sorcerer on Ice" or "The obligatory escort mission part of the game."
In the not-too-distant future a horrible war has been going on for many years in some European country that Monty Python probably made fun of in some sketch in the 1970s. Or maybe the war covers the whole continent of Europe? At any rate, one side is losing and sends a small group of people on a desperate mission to turn the tide, a kind of suicide squad sent to skate across some frozen sea with mysterious vials which will, or so we're told, end the war immediately. Rapace just wants to reconnect with her daughter, but she is a skilled skater and is picked to travel with a motley crew of ice commandos.
I think it is worth it for the visuals alone. It's often pretty to look at and has a dark plausibility to it along with some interesting visual ideas (which I won't spoil here, but it is a macabre serving of flares and corpses, burnt out vehicles, and shelled buildings).
Reviewers of the film appear to be frustrated that the reasons for the war are not given.
Another review writes,
I sense in some of these reviews, that the critics are mad that they have not been given a concrete morality tale which they can adjudicate as being orthodox or heretical. The dreaded "both sidesism" suggests "moral equivalence" which is not acceptable, because there is definitely a right side of history. The point of the film, of course, is that war is a crime, that war is pointless, and nothing would date this film more quickly than to ground it some contemporary controversy.
I do agree, however, that we never really get a chance to bond with or care about any of these characters, outside of Rapace with whom we share a subjectivity and knowledge of her past. A bit more character development beyond the thumbnail sketch would be nice.
The soundtrack has heavy pulsing synthesizers, giving the proceedings an appropriate sense of doom and connecting it by feel to horror and action films of the 1970s.
My one objection to the film is that a party of skaters on flat terrain would not escape the notice of a modern military with thermal imaging, satellites, and drones. They would stand out like bright little light bulbs an a perfect plains of ice without cover, concealment, or competing/confounding sources of heat.
In the not-too-distant future a horrible war has been going on for many years in some European country that Monty Python probably made fun of in some sketch in the 1970s. Or maybe the war covers the whole continent of Europe? At any rate, one side is losing and sends a small group of people on a desperate mission to turn the tide, a kind of suicide squad sent to skate across some frozen sea with mysterious vials which will, or so we're told, end the war immediately. Rapace just wants to reconnect with her daughter, but she is a skilled skater and is picked to travel with a motley crew of ice commandos.
I think it is worth it for the visuals alone. It's often pretty to look at and has a dark plausibility to it along with some interesting visual ideas (which I won't spoil here, but it is a macabre serving of flares and corpses, burnt out vehicles, and shelled buildings).
Reviewers of the film appear to be frustrated that the reasons for the war are not given.
The geopolitics of this situation are kept intentionally obscure. In an opening flashback, a car radio mentions rioting, “both sides” blaming each other, and the start of a civil war. ... The enemy is only ever referred to as “the enemy.” ... no ideological rift is ever explained. Whatever set off the conflict must have been serious, because the society is nearing complete destruction.
All this lack of detail is presumably intended to underline how meaninglessness the conflict is, or to keep audiences from getting bogged down in their personal political opinions about the war. But really, it just feels like a failure of imagination that makes the film itself feel meaningless: a bleak disquisition on how war is hell, but also looks kind of cool.
All this lack of detail is presumably intended to underline how meaninglessness the conflict is, or to keep audiences from getting bogged down in their personal political opinions about the war. But really, it just feels like a failure of imagination that makes the film itself feel meaningless: a bleak disquisition on how war is hell, but also looks kind of cool.
Brother has been pitted against brother, and yet the dividing lines between them remain hazy. At a glance, there’s no evident rift of class, race or ideology defining the sides in this conflict. No one mentions what they have got against those bastards in the opposition, or the way of life they’re willing to die to preserve. That doesn’t have to be a problem; many soldiers marching off to fight cannot articulate the big-picture geopolitical impetuses for doing so, and that’s just how the powers that be like it. But seeing as we are here to question the morality of military action, it would certainly help to understand what everyone is arguing about.
I do agree, however, that we never really get a chance to bond with or care about any of these characters, outside of Rapace with whom we share a subjectivity and knowledge of her past. A bit more character development beyond the thumbnail sketch would be nice.
The soundtrack has heavy pulsing synthesizers, giving the proceedings an appropriate sense of doom and connecting it by feel to horror and action films of the 1970s.
My one objection to the film is that a party of skaters on flat terrain would not escape the notice of a modern military with thermal imaging, satellites, and drones. They would stand out like bright little light bulbs an a perfect plains of ice without cover, concealment, or competing/confounding sources of heat.
Last edited by Corax; 03-22-22 at 07:16 PM.
