Begotten

Rating:
Summary: "Gother than thou"
Review: Yeah, remember those kids who wore silver ankhs so big they would make Flava Flav cry? Yeah, so they made a movie. This thing plays out like a Bauhaus video that wont end. If it was, say, 20 minutes it would be good. It has some creepy imagery, but it goes on WAY TOO LONG. As it stands, it warps space and time in some kind of moibus loop of pain. I couldnt get drunk enough to enjoy this movie. Pretentious and overdone. Did I mention it goes on forever?

Rating:
Summary: Not worth all the hype, but still definitely worth seeing
Review: So after reading what seemed to be hundreds of reviews praising this movie, calling it things like.. "A beautiful, highly disturbing masterpiece", and "One of the ten most important films of modern times", I finally ordered this movie off the interenet, hoping to see a movie that was simply going to blow me away in every asepect.

I'm a huge fan of scary movies, and while I knew this was going to be anything but your conventional scary movie, I was basically looking for something that was going to give me nightmares for weeks on end. Was I looking in the wrong place? Perhaps. But regardless, my reaction after finally seeing the movie that was hailed "One of the ten best pictures of the year", was simply... "What the..."

Yes, this movie was highly unsettling at times. The first 15 minutes of the movie left me totally speechless. A very creepy looking guy (the guy on the cover) sits in a chair, pulls out his guts, cuts pieces of them off with his razor, and tosses them on the floor. Also, when the "townspeople" (I think that's what they're supposed to be) kill off "mother earth" and "the son of earth", it was also something that was, at the very least, difficult to watch.

However, my biggest complaint is that for seriously half of the movie I was asking myself, "What exactly is going on?" The high-contrast black and white style of the film does add an eerie, original aspect, but a lot of the time it's to the point where you literally cannot distinguish what's happening. And it does get annoying.

Another complaint I have... it seems a little drawn out for the amount of things that happen in this movie. This guy guts himself, craps all over his leg (that was pretty gross), then some girl emerges wearing a mask, impregnates herself by means of which I will not go into detail, gives birth to a naked guy who literally does nothing the entire movie but constantly shake and make strange breathing noises.. then for seriously 30 minutes they are dragged around by guys in cloaks, after which they're brutally killed.. then follows is another 20 minutes of God knows what's happening (looks like the townspeople are ripping them to pieces maybe?.. I honestly couldn't tell at all), then pieces of them are buried in the ground, and you see fast-fowarded images of plants growing.

And that's it. Am I missing the point? Probably. But to the average viewer, while the scene of the guy gutting himself will always stick in my head (this guy seriously looks downright scary... how he resembles a "god-like figure" though is beyond me), it really wasn't exactly what I was looking for. Also... what's with the crickets and birds chirping throughout the ENTIRE MOVIE? If anything, those sounds represent peacefulness, which is all but what's going on in this movie.

So in conclusion I will say, if you can get your hands on it, watch it. It truly was an experience watching something like this... I've never seen anything like it (except maybe Eraserhead... but still by a long shot). Don't pay 25 bucks for the DVD though based on the reviews alone, though (like I almost did). Simply put, this is not the greatest movie ever created. Probably one of the weirdest, though, and just like it says on the movie box, you WILL be marked after watching it.

Rating:
Summary: Like none other
Review: I cannot say that there is a single movie that is like Begotten (Eraserhead's your closest bet, but that's still pretty different from this movie). The movie brutally portrays the birth of the miracle of life. There's absolutely no dialogue and no mercy if you will. The movie intrigues me like no movie has ever done. I was in awe when watching the movie alone in the dark. Definately check this movie out.

Rating:
Summary: A Rorschach test, indeed.
Review: loved the trailer.
film was dispointing though. with the time and energy taken to create this surreal nightmare the director could have at least utilized his obvious artistic skills to make the violence more realistic and less hokey. a superior camp film that would have been much more compelling and important if misdirection had been applied and some of the more beautiful shots (the seeming waves behind a lense deformed creature's lurching for instance) were held onto as lovingly as the (intended) disturbing images. a real let down for the price and hype.

Rating:
Summary: Weird
Review: Weird is definitely a good thing in my book. This fits the bill, however, I found it to be somewhat tiresome after awhile. Yes, it does indeed make "Eraserhead" look like "Ernest Saves Christmas", but the minimal soundtrack and extreme closeups of god-knows-what tend to get annoying after awhile. Some of the scenes seem to go on FOREVER. However, the opening is definitely very stark and provocative, but unfortunately from there, it alternates between interesting and "next!". If you are looking for something unusual and hypnotic, this isn't bad, but I found another movie, "Decasia", very similar but much better.

Rating:
Summary: A Must-See for the Adventurous and Open-Minded
Review: Begotten is a major accomplishment along the lines of David Lynch's Eraserhead. In a sense, Eraserhead had to come before Begotten to prepare the way (like the John the Baptist of movies). Eraserhead was a totally unenjoyable film that I saw four times in the theater, the first time watching the movie, the subsequent viewings also watching to see if anybody left the theater (I never saw anybody do so, and each time the auditorium was quite full - and this is about ten years after its premiere, and one time in Virginia!).

I attributed the stalwart nature of the audiences to the fact that the precisely (and beautifully) composed, lit, and shot film images gave the impression that Lynch knew exactly what he was doing and was getting just what he needed to properly represent his vision. Juxtaposed against the totally repulsive, nightmarish images and storyline that were at once bizarre, revolting and often dull as dirt, the viewer senses a mystery that transcends the picture plane. Instead of just representing a mystery (such as in any run of the mill murder mystery) the celluloid itself and the projected images in effect become artifacts of an actual mystery. Viewers wonder throughout "what kind of a person would knowingly create such a bizarre, unpalatable film?" as obviously Lynch did. Throughout the film, viewers are trying to find the clue in the artifact that will unlock and explain Lynch's motivation.

Begotten is similar, if a little bit more representative of a mystery than a mystery in it's own right. It is difficult for the uninitiated to interpret, but once given a clue as to the story line it is fairly easy to keep up with on that level. Merhige creates an excellent simulacrum of the subconscious underpinnings of many recognizable myth cycles, as if he was on hand to shoot these images where and when they were originally generated in our collective unconscious, inspiring a feeling that one is, in fact, viewing an artifact from either long forgotten antiquity or the most far off reaches of human psyche. It is quite easy to consider the latter as true in a very real sense.

The reason I believe Lynch's Eraserhead had to come first is that the earlier of the two films relies more heavily on traditional narrative forms (probably the first time anybody said that about Eraserhead!). Once prepared by Lynch's Eraserhead, it is possible to recognize Begotten's raw film style as a fulfillment of the director's vision, rather than dismissing it as a haphazard, mistake-ridden, or even meaningless film. The difficulty interpreting Begotten, when viewed through a lens previously exposed to Eraserhead, is obviously not due to a lack of skill in storytelling on Merhige's part. Just as rests are an important part in any musical score, vagueness and unanswered questions are an important part of Merhige's storytelling technique.

The images in Begotten have a documentary-style, organic feel that is reflected in the soundtrack, composed of synthesized sounds mixed with field recordings of natural sounds (thunder, birds, crickets, bells, etc.). The synthesized elements are mixed under the natural elements and as such, push the viewer toward certain emotional responses without being obvious. I found it to be a masterful melding of both digital and analog elements,and complementary to the film. The overall appearance of the was created entirely through the manipulation of the film, rather than relying upon any digital effects. Again, the final product is extremely organic and human, which I hesitate to write, due to the difficulty in justifying my response in any quantitative or even qualitative manner. This, though, is the norm for films whose whole transcend the sum of their parts, which Begotten does.

A word to the wise: discount the liner notes and don't try to interpret it. This is a movie to experience rather than figure out. Just watch, listen and feel this movie.

To me, this is the feel-good hit of the 20th century! If you're a Christian, you'll want to heat up the Jiffy-Pop, gather Grampa, the kids, and the whole family to watch on Christmas Eve. You'll be glad you did.

By the way, everybody hates you.