Steineded How sad is this?

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Freeman This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

AllNewSux This movie is bleak, it is depressing as Hell, but it may also be the most honest and most realistic looking post apocalyptic film ever made. Without question this would qualify as Robert Altman's strangest and least known film. I understand that it is a bit slow paced and confusing, but stick with it. I honestly recommend reading the plot off some webpage BEFORE watching the movie. If you do that you'll have no problem following the confusing plot, but you'll still probably never understand exactly how to play the game of Quintet. Paul Newman is great and he and the rest of the city's populace seem to be in constant misery in this amazing backdrop of rottweilers, steel and ice. Did I mention the ice? This is easily the coldest film you've ever seen and it feels so realistic that you'll need an extra blanket to watch it. Is this movie for everyone? No. I wouldn't recommend it as a date movie or something to watch with your stoned friends, but if you're a science fiction fan this masterpiece of loneliness and coldness deserves your attention and perhaps a rediscovery by people who don't constantly look for the "Hollywood ending".

tieman64 In a post-apocalyptic future, in which the Earth is blanketed by snow, two travellers journey to a distant city. Once there, they discover the last remnants of humanity living a primitive existence within the battered remains of what was once a thriving plaza.After a bomb kills one of the travellers, the survivor, a seal hunter played by Paul Newman, is sucked into playing a local board game called Quintet. As the film progresses, the sinister rules of the game are slowly revealed.Shaped like a pentagon, it becomes apparent that the Quintet game board resembles the layout of the film's ruined city. Similarly, when a player is "killed" on the game board, those who did the "killing" must literally assassinate the opposing player in real life. Presiding over this deadly game is a referee who strongly resembles the film's director, Robert Altman. He exists "out of the game world" and is treated as a God/Satan figure, playing devilish games of life and death with the poor humans. Furthermore, the film links the "five sides" of its city/game to what one character calls the "five stages of life". These stages are "primum" (the pain of birth), "secundum" (the labour of maturing), "tertium" (the guilt of living), "quartum" (the terror of ageing) and "quintum" (the finality of death).Altman thus takes this simple board game and uses it as a metaphor for the hopeless lives of Earth's few remaining survivors. This is an existential tale of humans coping with the imminence of death, our seal hunter hero surviving only because he plays by his own rules.On another level, the film seems to set up numerous Biblical and religious allusions, only to purposeful knock them back down. There are references to the birth of Christ, Joseph and Mary, Satan, Jesus, God, The Passover, St Christopher, white "doves", rituals etc, which Altman playfully introduces then promptly undermines. Altman loves to deconstruct myths, whether he does so here I'm not quite sure.6/10 – An inferior rip off of Bergman and Tarkovsky's "Stalker", much of this film simply consists of people huddled around a game board or walking in the snow. Chop 40 minutes from the film and you'd have a pretty decent flick, but as it is, there's not enough material or depth here to warrant a 2 hour running time. Worth one viewing.

Gloede_The_Saint (Only minor spoilers) Offbeat oddity director Robert Altman returns to the screen with yet another non-commercial and highly artistic film. Having gone through a Altman kick in the last couple of days I have found many hidden pieces of gold and this is one of them! The story is set in the future and we follows Essex and his wife Vivia who are on their way into a town where Essex used to live. We're somewhere with loads of ice and we're apparently close to human extinction. As a result the humans have become a cold breed and they all seem to be occupied with this game called Quintet. Altman apparently invented the game in complete form only to use it in this film. now that shows commitment. In the city Essex witness a horrible event which drags him into this game but with an rather interesting twist. The film is incredibly well shot and structured and the acting is as you should expect great! We're talking about Newman, Rey and Andersson here so what else is it to expect. One thing this film manages is to create a mood I have not seen in an other film, sure it's a little close to the one used in McCabe and Mrs. Miller but more like the Norwegian action film Ofelas.Everything about this film is odd. It mixes about every emotion possible and leaves this weird feeling in your stomach. Altman went all the way with this picture, he both reinvented styles used in silent cinema and tried out some new stuff.This is a film you should definitely get a hold of. Especially if your looking for something out of the ordinary while it's also being fairly on the point, straight forward and using a somewhat classical yet offbeat style. An odd but rewarding experience.

bezdomny-5 Sorry--whatever merits the story about the game may have, this movie really loses it with the details. This post-apocalyptic city seems to have plenty of light bulbs and electricity (where from who knows where), but apparently no one bothered to save an electric heater. I am sorry, but if you have electricity, why do you have to rely solely on fire for warmth? Also, some characters seem to have vaguely Italian accents while the rest are deadpan American.And the dogs--jeez! Why aren't the people eating them (instead of the reverse)? And apparently only one breed survived. The dogs are a distraction and rather stupid. The movie could have worked on the level of the game, but the stupid "realistic" details were just the reverse and made the movie false and unwatchable.