Utopian Destruction. . .

Rating: 10/10 (12 December 1998)

Underground is simply the best film I have ever seen. Although I didn't quite understand the political subtext of the film, I felt that the general mood of the film was amazing. . . to me, it was a ceaseless stream of forward momentum waiting to explode, and when it does explode (or when the underground society explodes into the "real world" above), the consequences are tragic. Which brings me to what I felt the film was really about. . . is "reality" defined by what is within or what is on the "outside"? And, is it possible to build a peaceful society on the basis of a lie, even when that lie is partially justified? Life. . . death. . . rebirth, those three words sum up to me what Underground was about. . . it's too bad that Underground only got a limited engagement in America, and it is not yet out on video here, because, in its own way, Underground resembles Titanic in its yearning for a long ago time when things were so different. . . as the initial title of the film says, "Once Upon a Time, there was a country," and the rest of the film examines how that country was torn apart by senseless war and strife. . . and violence. The only american film which I have seen that matches Underground is Michael Cimino's Heaven's GAte. ..