The King Is Alive (2001)

Overrated and overhyped

One of the best films i have seen

An Exercise In Nonsense

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

While shifting airports by bus in Africa, a group of passengers is driven to the middle of nowhere in the desert by the driver that is following a defective compass. They run out of gas and they reach a ghost village inhabited by a single man, Kanana (Peter Kubheka). One passenger that has experience with desert gives five advices to the others to survive in the spot, among them to keep the spirit high, while he travels through the desert seeking for help. One intellectual in the stranded group suggests the performance of King Lear to keep the morale of the survivors. Along the days, while hope decreases, the tension increases among the survivors. "The King is Alive" is a tragedy in a tragedy, with a group of people stranded in the desert performing King Lear to keep the spirit of the survivors. The story has a breathless beginning with the driver absolutely lost and the despair of the passengers and is raw and disturbing, when the survivors return to a primitive stage of human condition. The performances are outstanding and this Dogma 85 film was released in Brazil on VHS by Cult Films Distributor. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "O Rei Está Vivo" ("The King is Alive")

The movie is being televised as I write.I simply forgot how horrible an experience I had watching it in the cinema.The whole idea of the movie is flawed. The fact that intelligent Europeans and Americans stranded in the desert forget all concept of morals and civilization within a couple of days is laughable. The madness of Lord of the flies was longer in the making.Details that annoy are plenty. One is the single African god-like character that mysteriously survives the horrible climate and have done so for ages without losing his mind and he seems to have no supply-problems either. Ridiculous. So too is the rescue attempt from the tour guide, an Indiana Jones look-alike, whose rescue attempt ends in tragedy and death a 5 minute walk from the hut. Then there's the choice of Lear, imposed onto the group by a guru-like joke of an artist. He reminded me of my hippie high school art teacher.The worst thing though is Levrings choice of Lear. Obviously is an intellectual brain-fart. How that ever was going to be an pass-time is never clear to me.Positives are few and far between. It's a beautiful movie, but that's never important.High school intellectualism. Weird for the sake of weird. It's a complete waste of time unless you like thrashing useless art movies.

Wow. I was speechless after seeing this movie for the first time (a feeling I still experience even after almost a dozen viewings). I've never seen such an eloquent, spellbinding, and above all logical, presnetation of King Lear. Truly the best setting for such a play is by a broken down bus in a desert.The first thing that struck me about the film was the unsurpassed clarity of the footage. Even in dark scenes around the campfire everyone's face is perfectly in focus and the viewer feels he is with this poor unfortunate bus travelers in where ever it was they got stuck. The well placed cut aways of the lost traveler in the desert enhance the story-telling experience. Sike, this movie sunks.

I was inspired to write this because the other review was so dismissive of the film. The set-up may be contrived, but I found Levring's film compelling, visually inventive, richly atmospheric, and often surprising. The relationships among the characters drew me in and the performances were gripping. All told, the film provides an inspiring example of the Dogma approach to filmmaking that ventures beyond the formulaic Hollywood mold. Props to Levring and the actors!