Sachin E
"We should acknowledge the fact that the whole history of mankind is a story of a slow suicide commited by a living matter that by sheer accident acquired the abilty to think, but that did not know what to do with this fateful capacity."
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
04/27/24
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Yellowfur D
8.2/10 "Letter from the Dead" itself is a letter from the dead. The only blue in the dusk, the only starlight in the darkness, when we still have the strength, we embark on an unknown future.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
09/27/23
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andrey k
A grim and partly philosophical tale about the horror of the nuclear apocalypse and its aftermath for the survived. Fashioned after the manner of Tarkovsky who was fond of apocalyptic scenarios. Now it's more like an insight into the fears of people during the Cold war, though of course this kind of fear will never go away.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
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Audience Member
Interesting and depressing movie with great staging.
In some ways, really similar to "Threads".
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/03/23
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Audience Member
Inspired by the Chernobyl incident, and in the middle of a decade that released several cinematic anti-nuclear manifestos around the world, Andrei Tarkovsky's protégé directs and produces what is potentially the best contemplative, post-apocalyptic, thought-provoking masterpiece that deals directly with the meaning of being human through the exposure of our nature and weaknesses.
Proportionally to the unprecedented poetically powerful visions of suffering featured in <i>Begotten</i> (1990) are the visions of destruction and isolation portrayed in Konstantin Lopushansky's ode to humanity. Beneath the desolate wastelands and piles of bodies, beyond the extremely dangerous death conditions in the exterior, beyond the images of explosions, bullets and flames engulfing all forms of life and the viewer's senses, lies an invaluable humanitarian message of impossible calculation:
<i>"There lies before us, if we choose, continual progress in happiness, knowledge, and wisdom. Shall we, instead, choose death, because we cannot forget our quarrels? We appeal as human beings to human beings: Remember your humanity, and forget the rest!"
-B. Russell, A. Einstein, F. Joliot-Curie</i>
Among the hundreds of adjectives that can describe this film, "honorable" can be found. It has an impeccable hope towards humanity. <i>"Because as long as a human being walks on, he has hope.</i>" The film wasn't intended to function as a condemnation against humanity, but as a reproval of our current direction and a simultaneous exaltation of the universal aspects of humanity. We witness intellectual discussions attempting to either explain the aftermath or to live inside psychological defense mechanisms of hope, fantasies and denial to keep the human spirit alive:
- The moral side states that if the moral values had to die was because they were baseless.
- The existentialist side states that the face of death is not scary anymore given that everything has perished.
- The humanitarian side states that hope can still be found in youth as the only remaining symbol of innocence, and that it is impossible to imagine that humanity will be wiped out permanently from the face of the earth.
- The scientific side states hypothesis, but is not sure about a single one, and proving them takes too much time... Ironic...
- The astrological (and determinist) side states that a "war" was just a curtain. Everything had been prophesied by the stars, and therefore we were irremediably predetermined.
- The Nietzchian side states that God is dead, not in the sense of inexistence, but from the perspective of God looking down at us as repugnant, hopeless beings.
- The religious side states that God has a plan.
You may disagree with one or more of these sides, but these differing perspectives are what keeps us away from a homogenous, dystopian Aldous Huxley society divided into classes and separated by status. In the face of tragedies of incommensurable proportions, the basest instincts rise to the surface and pervade: letters to a dead son, camaraderie, brotherhood, faith, fortitude, suicide attempts, hopelessness, pessimism, but all summed up by a common denominator: love. Be it divine, allegorical, human, erotic or family-related, love is what keeps us standing and gives us a purpose to live.
It is not so late yet to reconstruct our society, but a fact remains a fact, and the facts today are:
* We had never had so little time to start anew than the time we had to day, and each second we have less time.
** Death has victory so assured that it gave us a life as an only advantage. Use it wisely.
98/100
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
01/22/23
Full Review
Audience Member
unlike other films I have seen, revolving around the same topic, Letters from a dead man is strikingly realistic. Many of them claim and even seem, but there is always something »prefabricated« about them (either the annoyingly pompous soundtrack, some unnecessary love-stories or an even more annoying over-dramatization). Lopushanski has made a deliberately depressive andâ¦oppressive motion picture that takes away all the »little joys« and yet, prevents you from walking away (unless of course, this kind of films are not your taste. Somehow, it is quite predictable, because, as I said before, everything in this film is extremely believable, starting with the characters. There are no prophets here, no misunderstood geniuses, no strange beauties, but ordinary people put face to face with an extreme situation. And this is what makes the film effective.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/18/23
Full Review
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