Charming and brutal

A Disappointing Continuation

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

I'm a fan of survival films, especially desert survival films like "Flight of the Pheonix" and "Sands of the Kalahari." Other films could partially fit this description as well, such as "Lawrence of Arabia," "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "Sahara," "The English Patient" and even the recent "Mummy" flicks."The King is Alive" is such a film. A bunch of travelers get stuck in the desolate Namibian desert and conduct Shakespeare's play "King Lear" to pass the time and keep their sanity."The King is Alive" is a Dogme 95 film wherein the director is bound by various restrictions, such as actual locations, natural light, no soundtrack or special effects. This is not necessarily a bad thing; in fact, it could well lend a gritty realism to the picture.Unfortunately "The King is Alive" is a colossal bore. The characters are all incredibly unlikable; the story is dreary, slow and boring. The reenactment of "King Lear" comes across unbelievable and pretentious. The film basically shows the WORST in humanity and hence comes across negative, hopeless and pessimistic. Despite the beautiful Namibian photography, this is a very UGLY film.Want proof? One girl fatally poisons another woman for no important reason and an aging man literally urinates on a dying woman (!!). Need I say more? Needless to say, if you're looking for a hope-affirming film that will testify to the endurance, greatness and triumph of the human spirit, this is not it.I'm not suggesting that all films have to be optimistic in nature, after all, I'm a fan of some fairly solemn films (e.g. "Apocalypse Now," "Runaway Train"), but this is ridiculous. I'd hate to meet the screenwriter because, whoever it is, he or she must be a very UGLY person.I give one star for the gorgeous cinematography, half a star for Jennifer Jason Leigh, the only remotely likable person, and half a star for the gritty realism.I saw the film twice and literally threw it away after the second viewing. Why not sell it or give it away? Because it's morally irresponsible to pass along garbage.Oh, by the way, the end credits rip-off the credits sequence of "Apocalypse Now." Perhaps the director felt he had an equally great film on his hands. Not even close.

One of the Dogme 95, this is the story of a bus load of people who end up lost in the African desert thanks to a non-functioning compass. Stranded at a deserted mining camp the group decides to put on a production of King Lear to pass the time. Tempers and passions flair as emotions become raw and exposed in the burning sun.As with all Dogme films this is low tech and in your face. The people and the emotion are the story. These are films that allow actors to show you how good they are. These are also films that can irritate the hell out of you because very often they come across as extremely contrived. This film is an example of both being a really good actors showcase and being contrived.The problem for me with this film is that at the outset I didn't care about anyone. I found the group to be a bunch of high maintenance people who are now in a situation where they can whine some more. The feeling lessened as time went on and things begin to happen, but it took awhile. I think part of the problem was that I disliked the set up, which seemed far too artificial, though certainly it's plausible.I also wasn't that keen on how some of the film was shot. Like all Dogme 95 films its shot using only hand held cameras so the film has an odd feel at times. It mimics, as some people have pointed out, the look one would get if one had shot the film using a camcorder, which lends a sense of being an actual record, but at the same time it seems careless and jarring, and less than natural, despite the fact it strives to be.I liked this film. I didn't love it. I think I would have liked it more if I had come in a few minutes late and could have thought that I missed something. It's a rather bleak film with some people I didn't care for. It's a hard film to warm up to for that reason. If you're interested in an off beat dark drama I'd give this a try, though I would suggest you weigh your decision against how you feel about any previous Dogme films you've seen.6 out of 10 (your mileage may vary)

A ragtag collection of Western tourists in Africa suffer the misfortune of their plane breaking down, so they're compelled to hop on a bus to travel across the Namibian desert to reach the nearest jumping-off point back to civilization. Not surprisingly, the driver's compass ends up not working, and they find themselves way off course, coming to a stop at a deserted ghost-town that had been a barracks during the fighting in WWII. They find some kerosene (useless in terms of re-filling the tank of their bus), a storage room full of half-poisoned carrots in tin cans, and a native hermit who views them with indifference. The one fellow amongst them who appears to have something on the ball in terms of survivalist techniques goes off to get help. They are to remove the tires from the bus and burn them if he's not back in five days: hopefully, someone will see the black smoke.Does this sound interesting? Well, sure, even if it sounds a lot like *The Flight of the Phoenix* or any number of films in the "deserted island" genre. Which is why it's surprising that *The King Is Alive* is Number 4 (if anyone is still counting) in the ongoing "Dogma 95" series, which, if I remember that ridiculous "Dogma 95 Vow of Chastity" correctly, proclaimed that "genre films" are strictly verboten. Oops. Well, anyway, you can tell it's gonna try and be all arty and stuff in order to compensate for the fact that it's a genre flick. Yep, it doesn't take long for one member of the group, a wizened old stage actor, to start scribbling down -- from memory! -- the various roles from *King Lear* on, well, rolls of paper. The idea is that performing the play will help while away the time. All of which really goes against the absconded survivalist's advice to stay optimistic (didn't the old actor ever do a dinner-theater performance of *The Odd Couple* just once in his life?), quite apart from such an activity being a colossal waste of precious time and energy.This movie is so bad I really don't know how to continue. It's so monumentally stupid, so full of absurd situations and characters that it beggars rational criticism. It may be a timely moment to offer Full Disclosure: I despise this so-called Danish film "movement" to an almost irrational degree. I think my face even turns slightly red at the mere mention of Dogma 95. First of all, if the name of your movement has the word "dogma" in the title, you've already lost me; secondly, in this particular instance, the movement's insistence on the abnegation of individual artistic achievement is a recipe for arch hypocrisy when you consider that the filmmakers here are plundering one of the greatest works of the greatest INDIVIDUAL writer who ever lived. (But, doubtless, the Dogma crowd believes the Works of Shakespeare were actually penned by a consortium of Elizabethan bigwigs like the Earl of Oxford, Francis Bacon, Walter Raleigh, and the Queen Herself.)Hell, I may have forgiven the whole enterprise if it had played the scenario for farcical purposes (attacking the precious Dogma -- now THAT would be subversive!). But the movie takes itself very seriously, and soon devolves into the clichés attendant upon the genre in which it unmistakably belongs: people turning against each other; the men growing beards; the inevitable deaths of a few of the principal actors. All with a straight face. "Is this the promised end?" Well, not quite: we also have to endure the abysmal transfer of DV. For this is another Rule in the Dogma 95 Vow of Chastity: hand-held digital video only. Some friendly advice to the Danes: your "movement" is in trouble when your finished product has worse visual quality than an average high-school graduation home video. Professionalism belongs in an artist's bag of tricks, right alongside his own individuality. "Artisan" and "artist" are kindred words, Mr. von Trier: not every jackass with a $100 hand-held can be a filmmaker. Pass it on. And by the way: allow your Dogma directors to be credited for their films, while you're at it. The fact that the writer of *The King Is Alive* receives credit, while the guy (or girl) actually filming it doesn't, is just a wee bit hypocritical. Contemptible. 1 star out of 10.

I cannot pretend to understand all the subtleties of the film as I am sure they are tied metaphorically to the subtext of King Lear, which I am only remotely familiar with. However, this film captured my attention and kept it. Wonderfully acted and refreshing casual with it's loose style, the human drama and character relationships are immediately captivating. There are some slow sections and bits where the movie strains belief, especially in the sudden decision to do a play, but overall a worthy experience for those, like myself, bored with shallow, explosion ridden, special-effects driven blockbusters. At any rate, this is one of those where you have to decide for yourself.