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Ice

Play trailer Ice 1970 2h 12m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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82% Tomatometer 11 Reviews 70% Popcornmeter 50+ Ratings
In a dystopian 1970s America, a group of underground revolutionaries are mobilizing against a repressive, fascist government at war with Mexico. After one of their own, Robert (Robert Kramer), is tortured by government agents, the radicals take action. Through domestic terrorism and guerrilla warfare, the revolutionaries join with a Chicago cell doubling as a theater company -- but the road to freedom is long and tortuous, and victory may not come easy for them.

Critics Reviews

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Pauline Kael The New Yorker 09/11/2023
These weaknesses in the movie as plausible dramatic entertainment are just what make it such a revealing account of the anomalies in this movement that is concerned with immediate destructive actions rather than a vision or a long-range plan. Go to Full Review
Jonathan Rosenbaum Chicago Reader 03/20/2014
The mood is terrorized and often brutal, but the behavioral observations and some of the tenderness periodically call to mind early Cassavetes. Go to Full Review
Molly Haskell Village Voice 01/18/2013
Genuine and admirable. Go to Full Review
Jon Hogan Hyperallergic 02/05/2020
Ice provides a unique, New York City-centric take on dystopia. Go to Full Review
Elizabeth Hardwick The New York Review of Books 03/14/2018
In Ice there is a deliberate lack of art, decoration, plot, characterization. All of these elements are missing and in their place is revolutionary dedication. Go to Full Review
Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews 05/28/2014
B
Its intense desire to honestly tell its story comes through loud and clear. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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09/02/2013 A time capsule of an earlier decade, filmed on a miniscule budget. See more walter m @Harlequin68 08/30/2013 Ice" is an experimental film set in an alternate United States that is at war with Mexico(or substitute Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan or Syria. No extra charge) and has clamped down on the civil liberties of its citizens, requiring identity and travel cards and setting curfews. In response, there is an underground political movement that while disavowing terrorism is planning a violent action in concert with other groups. In the meantime, they screen deserters while seeking to educate and recruit others, especially if they happen to be cute women in coffee houses.(To their credit, some also seem just as interested in making love as making war.) As you can imagine, there are grave consequences to getting caught, as I still have no idea where that guy is trying to put that needle... From its grainy black and white look, "Ice" looks like it was filmed on the fly while making great use of New York City locations, including the old TWA terminal at Kennedy Airport. Throughout, the movie also includes documentary footage, intertitles and one women reading in negative exposure while sitting on the Brooklyn Bridge which I suppose is included because it looks cool(which it does). At the same time, the movie proves being different does not always work out for the best, as it also suffers from slack editing and repetitiveness which hampers the movie's valiant effort to educate the audience. See more 12/12/2009 "Ice" melts, and is cold, and boring. See more Read all reviews
Ice

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Movie Info

Synopsis In a dystopian 1970s America, a group of underground revolutionaries are mobilizing against a repressive, fascist government at war with Mexico. After one of their own, Robert (Robert Kramer), is tortured by government agents, the radicals take action. Through domestic terrorism and guerrilla warfare, the revolutionaries join with a Chicago cell doubling as a theater company -- but the road to freedom is long and tortuous, and victory may not come easy for them.
Director
Robert Kramer
Genre
Drama
Original Language
English
Runtime
2h 12m