WAITING FOR THE BARBARIANS (2019)

Genre: Drama
Director: Ciro Guerra
Cast: Mark Rylance, Johnny Depp, Robert Pattinson, Gana Bayarsaikhan, Greta Scacchi, David Dencik, Sam Reid, Harry Melling
Runtime: 1 hr 54 mins
Rating: NC16 (Some Nudity and Disturbing Scenes)
Released By: Shaw Organisation
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 5 November 2020

Synopsis: The MAGISTRATE (Mark Rylance), administrator of an isolated frontier settlement on the border of an unnamed empire, looks forward to an easy retirement until the arrival of COLONEL JOLL (Johnny Depp), whose task it is to report on the activities of the ‘barbarians’ and on the security situation on the border. JOLL and his officer (Robert Pattinson) conduct a series of ruthless interrogations. The treatment of the ‘barbarians’ at the hands of the Colonel and the torture of a young ‘barbarian’ woman combine to lead the Magistrate to a crisis of conscience and a quixotic act of rebellion.

Movie Review:

Waiting for the Barbarians is the kind of artsy movie that runs treacherously long and slow that even if you cut out half of the movie, you will still not miss out anything or worse, gets what the movie is trying to tell you.

Featuring a star-studded cast that includes one of Steven Spielberg’s frequent collaborators, Mark Rylance in the leading role, Johnny Depp, Robert Pattinson and Harry Melling from the Harry Potter franchise. Waiting for the Barbarians tells the story of a benevolent Magistrate (Rylance) who runs an outpost out on the frontiers. When a swanky looking Colonel Joll (Depp) turned up to investigate suspected cases of uprising, the Magistrate finds himself disgusted by the ways Joll conducts his so-called investigations and accusations against the local tribes.

Joll is very much a torturer in the same vein as his lackey, Officer Mandel (Pattinson) who turned up halfway into the movie. Together with Joll, Mandel decides to torture the Magistrate upon learning he has helped freed and return a native to her home. A while later, Joll departs with a force to confront the so-called barbarians while Mandel stays put. Although we never really see Joll in action, we can only assume Joll very much underestimate the power of his “enemies” when he returned to the outpost very much shaken and disheveled.

Waiting for the Barbarians is a prestige project helming from Columbian filmmaker Ciro Guerra and the source material from an acclaimed book by South Africa writer J.M. Coetzee who also wrote the screenplay himself. From these two reasons alone, we believe why so many big names actors flocked to this literary adaptation. Bear in mind, it’s also a laborious movie where everyone speaks in hushed, measured tones against lavish backdrops shot in Italy and Morocco courtesy of cinematographer Chris Menges.

Despite all the accolades, the motion picture is brimming with nothing but empty arthouse touches. It desperately wants to showcase the ugliness of colonial mentalities in the unnamed empire presumably the British probably. Yet the end product just comes across as pretentious and boring. The Magistrate is a character played beautifully by Mark Rylance though some of the actions carried out by the character just seems dubious. Imagine him nursing the wound of a native till he falls asleep at her feet or an unnecessary prolonged sequence which sees him and the native making an arduous journey across the desert to return her to her home.

Majority of the film is focused on the Magistrate and his love for peace. He knows white men are the source of conflicts instead of the natives or barbarians as they are called. Instead of channeling the energy on the tumultuous relationship between Joll and the Magistrate, Guerra and Coetzee spent an awful amount of screentime on scenes that don’t contribute much to the ongoing narrative and story.

Other than Rylance, Depp and Pattinson have nothing worthy to show off here except lending some star or onscreen sociopathic power to lure some unsuspecting audiences. Instead of sending chills down one’s spine with some traumatizing and disturbing messages about colonial oppression, you are left with Colonel Joll’s brief amusing allegory on sunglasses. At the end, Waiting for the Barbarians is a movie with grandeur, superior ideas that never really translate well onto the big screen. In fact, we are still waiting for the barbarians so to speak.

Movie Rating:

(Waiting for the Barbarians is ultimately a purposeless flick except being visually arresting with a star-studded cast)

Review by Linus Tee