Can a WWII Movie Ever go Wrong?

Rating: 9/10 (21 February 2016)

Seeing this movie is like watching Elephant by Gus Van Sant (in terms of the visual style), but maybe five times more depressing. A lot of the film is done in long takes where we follow Saul's perspective from behind his head as he navigates his complex journey, interweaving between various work groups in different concentration camps.
What is both great and confusing about the movie is that the plot points are touched on very briefly. The way that conversations take place in Son of Saul are naturalistic: since the characters are aware of what they are talking about and planning, things are not overly explained, allowing the audience to fill in the information not given to them. The general ideas of the plot points are easy to follow, but multiple viewings may be required to FULLY register what is happening.
The film takes place in a matter of about a day and a half, and while the movie only runs at less than two hours, with all the long takes the movie feels close to running in "real time." Because of these elaborate long takes like in The Revenant, released the same year, we have to admire the direction and choreography involved in all of these long takes, especially considering the large amounts of extras used in the film to make it feel authentic.
This isn't a traditional narrative as far as cinema goes, but it is a great one. People die without much attention focused on each death: the characters move on, but isn't that closer to authenticity? To reality? It's been done before in films like Saving Private Ryan and Children of Men and it encapsulates the sad reality of death in war: it happens and there is nothing to do about it. This being said, some may not like the protagonist, Saul, for similar reasons, but then again this is not an uplifting movie by any means.
One last note: the film has a 4:3 ratio rather than what has become the standard: either 16:9 or 2.35:1, but this does not make the film worse by any means. This is a great foreign film from the 2010's.
3.5/4.0