The Wind

Rating:
Summary: THE WIND is Brave, Exciting, Engaging and Intelligent
Review: Unlike the heavy-handed movies that seem to be the norm nowadays, the filmmakers of THE WIND want you to answer the questions they raise about circumstantial ethics yourself. "Love comes in many forms" (the original tagline of this movie), as do horror movies, and THE WIND is a horror movie in the sense that, say, Peter Weir's PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK or Stanley Kubrick's EYES WIDE SHUT are horror movies. This kind of social horror can seem intellectual (and it is, to a point) yet, at its core, it is about the horrifying contradictions of real human emotion. Make no mistake, THE WIND is action-packed with plenty of shocking moments, but its chilling realism and brave insightfulness elevates it way above mere exploitation.

Rating:
Summary: Great directing, satisfactory acting, bad story/script
Review: We watched it, all felt the same. Great directing, cinematography, excellent visual quality, lots of style, audio quality, editing, enjoyable score. Acting was back-and-forth. Some things carried-off very well, very believable. Other things not done so well. No single actor was always great or always bad. They each did some very good stuff and some not so good. But the script was bad. Not horrible, just weak. Story was muddied, sometimes confusing, meandering. A lot of activities occurred, but the story didn't really progress much. It's as if almost nothing happened at all, just a lot of activity. Some surprises, but no feeling of suspense or expectation. No satisfying build-up, climax, then resolution. You never really cared about any of the characters or what happened in the story. The characters needed to evolve more from the opening to the ending.

Rating:
Summary: Don't believe the reviews that say "The Wind" is bad.
Review: Why is it that people judge "The Wind" by what they seem to expect it to be? This is not a typical horror/thriller and it doesn't unfold like a tightly written detective story because it isn't trying to. This movie belongs to the metaphysical mystery genre and it quite possibly stands as one of the finest examples of this kind of mystery. The main purpose of such films is to contemplate the unknown and the filmmakers do this brilliantly. What counts most here is the atmosphere, and the focus is more on hidden emotions than on explaining everything (some other reviewers complain that this is the problem with "The Wind" but they missed the point). The most fascinating thing here is the way the wind is depicted -- it exists, unseen, as an ever-present entity, alive in a sense that is beyond logic or reason or reality. This, I think, is the key aspect of the story because what it really is about is the conflict between culture and nature. And don't let this put you off as too philosophical. "The Wind," while not a monster movie or a crime story, is as involving as either if you understand what it's all about. If you do, you might have a lot to think about and/or talk about with your friends when the credits start to roll.

Rating:
Summary: LORD OF THE TRIES, MAYBE
Review: Young people commit murder in a woods. They start acting strange. Chick gets heavy breathing phone calls. Many Meaningful Looks are exchanged.
What does it all mean? You'll lose an hour and a half of a life that you'll never get back if you watch this yawnfest. That's what it means.

Rating:
Summary: Blowin' in the wind
Review: Young people commit murder in a woods. They start acting strange. Chick gets heavy breathing phone calls. Many Meaningful Looks are exchanged.
What does it all mean? You'll lose an hour and a half of a life that you'll never get back if you watch this yawnfest. That's what it means.