Bang Rajan (2000)

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

I saw this movie before reading any reviews, and I thought it was very funny. I was very surprised to see the overwhelmingly negative reviews this film received from critics.

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

***SPOILERS*** Satisfying in much the same way that Akira Kurosawa's SEVEN SAMURAI is satisfying (the way BRAVEHEART is satisfying; the way THE 13TH WARRIOR is satisfying, on many levels at once), BANG RAJAN is must-see fare that tugs the old heart strings by way of the battlefield. That it's based on historic heroics only makes it that much more compelling. Any artistic license taken can be readily forgiven: the end justifies the means. It also seems appropriate that Oliver Stone should be in some way responsible for this one finding a wider audience via video; if anyone can relate to a PLATOON of warriors waging jungle warfare, it's Stone. This is the kind of action film we need more of: one from the heart.

I lent this on VCD from a friend of mine and I was impressed. I watched a non-subtitled thai version and I don't understand a word thai. this movie re-accounts the struggle of a small village against one of 2 burmese invasion armies and holds out for about 5 months -against all odds.I was pleasantly surprized to find a thrilling action movie without too much sentiments, but just enough to not all hack & slash and not to much to become hollywoodish overly dramatic to the very annoying level of fase-turn-off-the-dvd-player (like Peal Harbour). The comparison with braveheart is easlily made -since this movie has one of the last mass-armies scenes that is not computer enhanced (like 10 soldiers digitally multiplied by 1000)Which is a very impressive sceneThere are a few flaws. I thought the fight scenes a filmed a bit messy. It does creatw a feeling of the chaos that is melee, but unfortunately, if one can't tell one villager from another -the all look a-like, which makes the action scene little difficult to follow(compare Black Hawk Down where all were mostly caucasian and had short trimmed hair, underneath the identical helmet all wore in combination with the same desertpaterned uniforms). Concerning the main characters, this problem is solved by giving one a babyface, another a mowhawk hairsyle and british-like moustache and another a beard etc. The more you watch the the less this problem becomes The other flaw are the special effects, these are really bad. BUT I must say that didn't annoy me.The story is easy to follow, even the flashbacks are easily spotted. The acting is good (for me I watched bodylanguage, facial expressions and intonation of voice, what else can you do when you don't understand the language) The actionscenes are very impreessive especially those with lots and lots of people fighting. The music is great as well, maybe no John Williams, but more than adequate enough to accompany any feeling a scene should return, whether it's a gentle look between 2lovers or an all out end battleGreat movie -I'm still impressed!

***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** zTagline: there are brave hearts but not the "Braveheart"... It has good of its own, but don't compare it with "Braveheart". Braveheart does has much much more to offer. However Bang-Rajan is just war and survival, it may have something else but definitely not deep enough to deliver!! An disappointment if compare to Braveheart.Battle scenes are still "not-bad", a bit messy. Not as powerful, just chops & slashes. The camera angles are jumpy too. Nonetheless, i think they have done a serious job. Good enough for its own name. ***spoilerz***...till the last, even women will go to fight... There's a scene in the last battle i thought which COULD BE the very and the most powerful scene in the movie was when E Taeng Aon got shot on her chest, fell to the arm of her man, both wounded badly. As he was holding her close, also tried desperately to fought off the enemies around them, just sadly powerful. BUT the next second, where the disappointment came, camera changed to he was looking at her, dying, dead, he screamed her name!! That took a total of 10 seconds till he got a fatal sword slash on his back, he died. Personally, i think the 1st part is perfect, but the last part is just there to destroy the 1st, totally wasted. It could have been done in a much much better way, sadly wasted...

This movie was just released on video in Denmark, and I persuaded a friend to watch it with me. He thanked me afterwards! This is a great movie, and the battles are just INCREDIBLE. You can only compare it to Braveheart, but this movie avoids being as over-the-top romantic.The only problem is that the people are a little hard to tell from each other (wow, do I sound like a racist!). We have a hero with a big moustache. A drunk with a beard. A guy who is younger than everybody else. And thats about it. The rest of the men look like each other with the same haircuts and facial hair. And the names being so different from western names makes it harder to follow. Luckily, it doesn't really matter who of the men did what. This is a film to watch for its fighting scenes.If you liked the fighting in Braveheart, you just have to see this. I believe the budget was smaller for this one, but the battle scenes are very convincing. You have to see it for yourself. Actually I think this movie is better than Braveheart, even though I liked that a lot!