Another overlong Oscar baiting historical drama with plenty of neat touches

Rating: 7/10 (22 November 2014)

The Last Emperor is a best picture winner. We all know what this means. It's too long, it's about something deep and meaningful, it's light on the watchability, it's pretentious and it's probably not actually the best movie of that year. And TLE ticks most of the boxes in the best picture rulebook and it's impossible for something like this not to be critically acclaimed and awarded with Oscars. With the butt numbing run time and poor pacing which means the film half heartedly goes in and out of fascinating content I think we can all say safely 9 Oscars was a bit excessive. However, this is a good historical epic. The visuals could have come right out of an art gallery and many beautiful images are created without there being a pixel of CGI in sight. The acting is all around pretty good, and you can tell the director Bernardo Bertolucci really knows what he's doing and has plenty of experience in the film business.
TLE works thanks to its sobering and moving story which has some interesting themes to do with power and yearning for power. It's fairly powerful on an emotional level and by the end one does feel genuinely moved. It's got plenty of boring moments but plenty of interesting ones as well and it feels authentic and recreates the period well. It doesn't come across as manipulative or overly sentimental and you get the impression it is telling the story accurately without artistic deviations from fact. It does meander, but it has to be admired for the powerful storytelling and amazing visuals. It's not the most enjoyable film ever but it is a very interesting one and you still enjoy it a fair amount. Overall, this is a stirring and interesting historical epic which is rather entertaining and thought provoking, although they could have made it a bit faster. Still, that's Oscar winners for you.
7/10