Red Cliff Review

This movie does not hold the "top grossing movie in China ever" spot for nothing. John Woo's latest work is the textbook definition of a masterpiece and is the best war movie this writer has ever seen. Period.

Red Cliff is a film about the battle of Red Cliff, a very important conflict during the War of the Three Kingdoms, one of the most important eras in Chinese history. I will save the history lesson and get right down to the meat of the movie.

The international version (which I saw) consists of two installments adding up to about 4 1/2 hours of film. In most cases you would probably watch part1 and then watch part 2 later... I mean that is a lot of sofa dwelling to do all at once. Alas, this movie was just too damn good to delay. This movie did everything right. Even with an enormous cast of characters (all of whom are nonfictional) the film gave enough time and reason to grow attached to them all, even Cao Cao, the film's antagonist.

I could talk about the characterization, cinematography and all that nonsense all day if I wanted (take my word for it... it's good) but this is a war movie, and what do people want from a war movie? F**king war. As far as war films go, this has some of the most incredible choreography I have ever witnessed. Fight scenes are believable and extraordinarily clever for the first half and then suddenly over the top with one lone hero (or a pair) taking on entire units at a time. There was one battle that was so nuts we had to re watch it. On two different occasions a hero rams into a horse so hard it actually knocks it over and sends the rider flying. What don't believe me?




The violence is brutal but not gory. They do a lot of tricky camera work to avoid stupid amounts of gore because, lets be honest, 3rd century warfare was no picnic.

The best part? The best character in the film never even fights anyone. He's a tactical genius named Zhu-ge Liang and he makes carrying a fan almost manly.

As far as I understand the American version of the film condenses the two films into one, effectively cutting the length in half. If you have the oppertunity I strongly... STRONGLY urge everyone to get their hands on the international version.

Oh yeah almost forgot... what do I give the film? How about 10 turtles out of 10. (Oh yeah there is a badass tortoise in this movie... can't believe I did not mention this)