Movie Man Darian Watching All Night Long

Waiting For The Barbarians 

This film is a gorgeously shot and incredibly well acted slow burn that is gripping to its last frame. It’s packed with such shocking and at times incredibly unsettling images but shown through the lens of such brutal honesty. Led by a truly magnetic lead performance by Mark Rylance and great supporting turns by Johnny Depp and Robert Pattinson. This film isn’t for everyone as for some people it’s approach to the subject matter can seem incredibly hard to watch at times as well as the pacing as the film does really take its time to tell it’s story. Now I never had a problem with it as the epic cinematography and amazing score also helps you soak in each single shot of this film. 

Firstly, The performances brought to the film is incredible! Mark Rylance delivers an emotional punch of a performance that hits you to your core. He carries such an emotional weight on his shoulders while being so emotionally quiet in the first half of the film and then by the last half he opens up his heart and you see him emotionally bare everything onscreen. Then you have Johnny Depp who brings this sinister and incredibly quiet but intimating performance to the screen in such a terrifying way. Then you have Robert Pattinson who’s not in the film that much but for the screen time he does have he chews up the scenery with his Brutal intimidation and unpredictability. The film has strong performances across the board from everyone involved. But it’s Mark Rylance and Johnny Depp who steals the show with their gripping performances. 

Secondly, the performances were the big positive for this film but it did have its fair share of flaws. The film definitely does falter at times from its lack of character depth from the supporting characters involved. As we find a lot about Mark Rylance’s character but from everyone else besides him as intriguing as they are we find little about them so it’s harder for me to connect with them. As if they fleshed out more backstory or about the other characters besides the main character I would have more investment into them instead of it feeling shallow. The film also Has a runtime of almost  two hours and as much as I loved the slow pace of the film their are parts that did drag on that could of either been trimmed or cut out entirely. Besides that these are the only flaws I really had with the film the lack of character depth among the characters and some of the pacing. 

Lastly, Waiting For The Barbarians is a visually striking piece of film. It’s terrifically acted with the stand out performances by Mark Rylance and Johnny Depp both commanding the screen with a iron fist. The cinematography and score of the film brings the frame to life in a story of visual beauty but also shows the brutal nature of what happened to native Americans and the sheer violence and horrible conditions they suffered. At times incredibly disturbing to watch but I respect them not shying away from it and showed it for how it happened Waiting For The Barbarians is a brutal, visually striking and powerfully well acted film that everyone should go see. I recommend everyone go check this film out. 

This film centres around a man who’s job is to look after the native Americans in the tough conditions their currently living in but when the government brings a Solider to make inspections in a very brutal and violent manner he stays true to himself and does his best to defend the people he promised he would look out for. 

Rated R : disturbing images, violence and language 

Mark Rylance : Rylance delivers a powerful emotionally charged performance that will have you rattled! Rylance is one of those actors that is vastly underrated even after his Oscar winning performance in Bridge Of Spies not many people know about him and it’s a damn shame as he’s a terrific actor. Here he plays a man who follows the rules and obeys his commands by his government but when the government he once trusted starts doing horrible things he abandons his faith to the government and does whatever it takes to restore peace to the place he swore he would protect. Mark brings a brutal emotional honesty to his portrayal of this character and it’s genius in his approach to it as in the first two acts of this film he’s very  emotionally contained and doesn’t let his emotions cloud his judgment. He is a kind man and wants the best for who he is told to look after and you can see the gentle and tenderness in his eyes and in the way he delivers his dialogue. So when he comes across anything violent or anything done for the sake of hurting others you can see a part of him fill with rage but also a part of him die inside as just from his expression on his face you can see the absolute hurt he’s in by witnessing it. Then as the film progresses we see him starting to crack under the total anger he has to how the native Americans are being treated by the government so when the third act comes you see Mark release a emotional driven speech that just sends waves of raw emotion and you can feel every word he says. You see the rage in his eyes and the sheer pain in his voice and it’s so genuine. Mark pours every bit of his heart into this performance shedding so many layers of himself and showing sides to him we may not have even seen before. It’s a performance of tenderness that breaks over the brink of emotional weight he carries. He’s absolutely mesmerizing in this film giving one of the best performances of his career Mark Rylance is truly outstanding! 

Johnny Depp : Depp delivers a performance that is terrifying, sinister and creepy! Depp plays this character of a government office soldier in such a cold hearted way. Johnny is not In this film that he’s definitely a supporting player in the film and for the screen time he does have he’s amazing. Depp has this really terrifying energy he gives out the moment you see him and he doesn’t explode in fits of rage he is quiet and his eyes are constantly covered by these sunglasses but once he removes his glasses you can see the blackness in his eyes and it’s scary. As when he speaks his lines you can tell that the character he’s portraying believes what he’s doing is the right thing which it isn’t and it’s scary as he goes to incredibly brutal measures to get answers out of people and no matter how painful it gets he won’t stop. He shows this dark depth to him he’s done before but here it’s bone chilling as when he delivers this one specific speech towards the last part of the film he does not flinch and he delivers the lines in such a way that makes you so utterly creeped out as he refuses to listen to anyone else except what he thinks is right and Depp brings the dark depth needed to express this character onscreen as terrifying and bone chilling as possible. He’s only in a few scenes but wow does he light up the screen with his creepy unpredictable onscreen presence when he’s in the scene. Johnny Depp is incredibly captivating and truly terrifying another terrific performance by Johnny Depp. 

Ciro Guerra : Ciro brings  a visual beautiful striking film that covers very tough topics in a honest way. Ciro captures the subject of which he tackles head on in an engaging way that draws you in the moment it starts. Now they way he goes about discussing this story isn’t sugar coated or glamorized in the slightest it’s brutal, violent and disturbing and the thing is I admire him for showing it in how things actually happened. Because he could of skipped over the uglier elements of what went down but he doesn’t he shows the audience this is what happened and how horrific it was and theirs a respect to have for him as it brings a more emotional intensity by being as realistic as possible in the depiction of the events of this film. He focuses in on two characters really the Mark Rylance character and the Johnny Depp character and it’s done so well because instead of him overcrowding the film with to many characters he instead focuses on just the two and their massive different views on the people they look after. When you see the violence it’s shocking and intense and theirs this documentary style he brought to the frame and what I mean by that is the film didn’t feel like a film because of how he shows the story it felt so authentic and real. While also getting terrific performances out of his entire cast he really gets you gripped into this tale of brutality and the treatment of others and it’s so well told by Ciro in a visually striking and thought provoking way overall terrific direction by Ciro.