I am writing this review on January 27, 2008, on a day on which the newspaper headlines scream about a hazardous US spy satellite which will crash to Earth some time in the next 30 days. Of course, my first thought is: "Man, I've got to watch Until the End of the World. Wim, you're a prophet!"

But now I am struck with the dilemma: do I watch the 5-hour version I have on DVD, or do I watch the 2 hour version I have on a scrappy old VHS tape? I didn't need to consider it very long; I much prefer the 2-hour (short) version, and here's why.

There is one scene which I consider critical to the mood and poetry of the film. It is possibly the greatest, most emotion-evoking scene I have ever witnessed. And inexplicably, it is missing from the 5-hour (long) version. If you've seen the theatrical (short) version, you know what I'm talking about; it's the climactic "end of the world scene" with Peter Gabriel's 'Blood of Eden' playing. I get chills just thinking about it. And this scene exists only on the short version.

Wim Wenders has harshly criticized the short version, calling it "unwatchable" and "the Reader's Digest version". But I believe he is swayed by artists' arrogance. Apparently there was a bitter feud surrounding the cutting of his 5-hour epic, and Wim resents it to this day. But to us, the objective audience, we can see that the short version came out much more lucid, focused and poetic in its simplicity. And, whether by serendipity or unconscious design, certain scenes like the "end of the world" scene were ironically augmented by their edits.

I could ramble on longer about how brevity is often superior to verbosity, but that would clash with the verbosity of my post which I admit is already too bloated and overinflated with redundant phrases like "bloated and overinflated." Heh.

I wish someone would edit this post down to a manageable 2 paragraphs, condense it, distill it, focus it and make it more powerful in its simplicity. And it would be nice to add some Peter Gabriel, too ;)

This film, Until the End of the World (UTTEOTW), has long been called the ultimate road movie or even the greatest road movie ever made. Sometimes when I read stuff like that I cringe and think that this film is far greater than that and calling it a road movie does it a sort of disservice. I've watched this film probably hundreds of times (hate to admit) and in every different format available and have weighed this film, measured this film and only found myself wanting to see it again.

Sure, the film spans 15 cities and 7 different countries and has more story arcs than Los Angeles has McDonalds but the more I watch the film the more I feel that this is less of a road movie and more of a biopic of the fictitious would-be scientist, Sam Faber and his over-bearing family.

I feel that UTTEOTW is a much greater contribution to modern film then most are willing to admit and could quite possibly be one of the greatest films ever made. This film has the same kind of public ground swell audience that Casablanca, The Wizard of Oz and Blade Runner have. All these movies preformed badly in the box office but are seen as some of best cinema that man or woman has been able to bring forward.

UTTEOTW has been seen by many to be a failure of sorts because of the immense runtime and the resolution set in Australia that is almost an entire third of the film, in all versions. It seems, historically now, that the studio execs thought that it would be inappropriate to subject any audience to five hours of film and that the American audience was too daft and wouldn't buy the whole concept, thus kicking off the mess that the film has gone through for almost twenty years now. Yes, it has been almost that long now.

The film in different edits, according to lore, has gone from a 20 hour version, that Wim Wenders had vehemently held position on for almost six months before acquiescing to releasing a `meager' 8 hour version and then later produced a 5 hour version. He was horrified when the studio forced a 151 minute version that he looks back at in complete disdain and refers to as the `Readers Digest version' and has stated that it is `unwatchable'. I don't know about the 8 and 20 hour version and which is better, because I and many others have not seen it, but I have seen the 5 hour version many times and now look at it as vastly superior (in presentation) to the theatrical release, but the theatrical release is far from unwatchable and is actually the version that the majority of the audience is familiar with and enjoy.

Wenders suffers from the same ills as Ridley Scott does, as he sees his films his way and not the way the world sees them, and that's perfectly fine. Ridley Scott doesn't like the Harrison Ford `Philip Marlowe' narration while an immense group of the fans loved it, myself included. Wenders doesn't like the theatrical release while most of the world is awed by it.

So, when the audience did see this film, it was the beginning of a new decade and Wenders, like Werner Herzog or David Lynch, had built up a core audience of supporters worldwide that appreciated his films for storytelling, the movement and the sheer reverence that seemed to manifest on screen. UTTEOTW came out at probably the very beginning of the emergence of the modern independent film movement that has now firmly taken over the industry. Even though they had budgeted $23 Million dollars for production, a lot of the funds came because of the acclaim given to Wings of Desire again with Solveig Dommartin, but the money didn't necessarily make this film the typical large-budget studio film that others were producing around the same time for the same funds when this came out. A quick search of movies released in 1991 shows an abysmal year aside from Jonathan Demme's masterpiece `Silence of the Lambs'.

This movie is undoubtedly Wenders greatest work, and I have watched every film he's put out - before and since. Sometimes I see glimpses of this film in his other works and can tell that this film's reception in the world still weighs heavily on his mind. Like Al Gore, he's traveled the globe giving lectures with his film and has his own ideas about its impact and what more can be done. It seems that some of the legal battles may never go away, specifically the ones that are associated with Warner Brothers.

This review is for the above product as well, the Region 2 PAL version which was recently released into the market. When I watched it I could tell it probably didn't have the stamp of approval from WB. The quality shows it to be almost a straight VHS transfer from a low-end computer system which puts a lot of visual noise on the screen and in the audio. Some people who have purchased this version have complained, but really I don't see anything wrong with it as it's just a full-frame DVD that will suffice for now for those looking for the 151 min VHS version on DVD. I recently discovered that the difference in the run-time is due to PAL speed-up adjusting it 4%, from 158 mins to 151 mins. The supposed essay that accompanies this DVD is on-screen text about the film which is basic information about the film.

My recommendation when it comes to versions is to purchase the 3 Disc Director's Cut set from Amazon.co.uk and just live with the fact that the first fifteen minutes of dialogue that's had with Solveig and Chico are in French with no subtitles. If you watch the film you can pretty much get the gist of what's being said anyways, Chico needs more beer, he likes the Beatles, sex and Solveig tells you how much you can buy a goat for in Ethiopia.

I had read in January of 2007 that Solveig had died of heart failure and was deeply saddened as I found her to be an incredibly unique talent and hypnotizing to see on the big screen. I would have loved to have seen her star in a few more films and even break back into the American marketplace. What a shame she's now gone, she'll be missed for sure. If there ever was a audio commentary made with Solveig, I would sure like to hear it, so there's always reason for another release.

I've put a list of all the different versions below, that are available and that I own, so you could get an idea of what's going on with this movie and its debacle of a distribution:

1991 VHS Tape Theatrical Release 158 mins
1991 R2 Samsung Japanese Laserdisc 179 mins
2004 PAL R2 Italian 3 Disc Set 280 mins
2004 PAL R2 UK 3 Disc Set Director's Cut 280 mins
2007 PAL R2 UK 1 Disc VHS Transfer 151 mins


For those in America interested in seeing these films but are worried about the DVD Regions / PAL difference. Don't fret because there are some very easy ways to set your DVD player to Region 0 which will make your player Region free and you can watch all movies from around the world. Videohelp dot com has most players remote codes which will help you easily make the adjustment. I've changed all my players this way and have been happy ever since.