Film Review: Until the End of the World (1991)

Cold War has ended, but people in 1990s still remained concerned that the world might soon end, this time due to approach of new millennium. One of the films to use those sentiments as a source of inspiration and plot background is Until the End of the World, 1991 science fiction film directed by Wim Wenders, known as the most expensive and the most ambitious title in filmography of celebrated German film maker.

The plot begins in (then future) year in 1999, and it is narrated by Eugene Fitzpatrick (played by Sam Neill), a novelist. Indian nuclear satellite is spiralling down to Earth, creating mass panic over what terrible effects its crash might have on the planet. This seems of little concern for main character, Eugene’s estranged girlfriend Clare Tourner (played by Solveig Dommartin), whose life is dedicated to travelling and partying. One day in South of France she stumbles into duo of bank robbers (played by Chick Ortega and Eddy Mitchell) who convince her to help them carry the loot from their latest heist in exchange for a cut. In Paris, Clare meets mysterious but attractive man called Trevor McPhee (played by William Hurt) who is apparently pursued by some dangerous people. She helps him, but he steals her money. Clare decides to track him down and goes to Berlin where she hires private investigator Philip Winter (played by Rüdiger Vogler). The pursuit, joined by Eugene, continues over various cities, countries and continents before Clare joins Trevor and two of them end in Australian Outback. There it is revealed that Trevor is actually Sam Farber and that he stole high tech equipment from US government laboratory in order to help his father Henry (played by Max von Sydow), a scientist who wants to develop technology that can record images from people’s eyes and use them to make blind people, like his wife Edith (played by Jeanne Moreau) see. Henry and his team continues with experiments in his underground laboratory even after the satellite crash which apparently messed up electronics all over the world, making the state of civilisation and humanity unknown to Clare, her friends and small band of Aborigines gathered near Henry’s lab.

While making Until the End of the World, Wenders had already built reputation as the master of road films. By late 1980s, apart from being hailed by critics and winning prestigious awards, Wenders even had some modest commercial successes in his filmography. Until the End of the World, budgeted with tens of millions of dollars, was more expensive than all of his pervious films and it was intensely hyped before the premiere. All that its poor box office results and, more importantly, lack of enthusiasm among critics even more disappointing. Like in many such cases, this failure didn’t prevent creation of small cult status while Wenders supporters found convenient scapegoat in the form of heartless producers and studio executive which had forced Wenders to cut the film to unacceptably short running time of two of half hours, thus making it virtually unfinished, confusing and full of plot holes. Wenders, however, salvaged most of his material and through the years, thanks to ability of home video to cater to fans of longer films, various longer versions appeared. The ultimate, and most likely to be found today, lasts nearly five hours, separated into three parts for viewers’ convenience.

If the current version is compared to original theatrical version, the result is the same disappointment brought with many other “special editions”, “director’s cuts” and “renegade versions”. Until the End of the World in its present form looks only slightly different than in 1991, with some of its flaws becoming even more apparent. The biggest problem is Wenders’ emphasis of style over substance or, to be more precise, his tendency to care more about effective images and sounds than about coherent plot. In this film this is best seen in lack of clear structure. Until the End of the World is clearly divided into two parts. The first part provides what Wenders does best – a road film. This segment is depicted as light-hearted, semi-humorous adventure over increasingly globalised world which features quirky characters, romantic triangle and, what is even more interesting from today’s perspective, Wenders’ strangely accurate depiction (at least if 1999 is replaced with our times) of the near future world and various technological gadgets and importance of video. Wenders adds another twist through homage to 1940s film noir classics by having characters wear fedoras and making his vision of 1999 both futuristic and retro.

When the protagonists finally reach their destination in Australian Outback, film changes its tone and plot grounds to a halt. Hardly anything happens and characters, unable or unwilling to leave their desert hideout, do almost nothing. Wenders and his celebrated cinematographer Robby Müller uses that opportunity to provide some impressive shots of Australian locations and some viewers might find some interest in ethnographic study of Aborigines, but most audience would soon start to lose patience. Even worse is rather cheap and anti-climactic way in which Wenders and his co-writer Peter Carey resolve apocalyptic subplot. It happens roughly an hour before the end, after which Until the End of the World becomes a tale that deals with scientific ethics, addiction and conflict between images and words, the latter represented by narrator forced to used an old typewriter as his only connection to “proper” civilisation. Authors have apparently ambiguous stance towards power of images – when used by wise old Aboriginal people, they are the powerful tools for maintaining collective memory; when used by modern people through technology, they can lead to addiction and alienation from real world. This notion, which many of today’s audience would agree after seeing what TikTok videos do to well-being of young generations, isn’t properly explored.

Those who are patient enough to sit through film can be partially rewarded with generally good efforts of diverse cast. Solveig Dommartin, French actress who was in romantic relationship with Wenders during production and even helped develop screen story, is really impressive in the role of attractive yet silly and frivolous protagonist. William Hurt, on the other hand, lacks chemistry with her, and the same, although to a lesser degree, can be said of Sam Neill whose character is the most passive of all. Veterans like Max von Sydow and Jeanne Moreau are very good in the roles, but their presence looks more like a homage to 1950s classics, like Chishu Ryu and Kuniko Myake, stars of Yasujiro Ozu’s 1953 Tokyo Story which appear in small cameos during segment that takes place in Japan. For the contemporary audience the most attractive element of the film was the soundtrack provided by some of the most popular artists and bands at the time, including Talking Heads, Neneh Cherry, R.E.M. and U2, the latter providing eponymous theme song which became great hit. Their songs are extensively used and Graeme Revell’s musical score is hardly noticeable. Yet, despite all their efforts and occasional moment of fun, Until the End of World is a bloated, overambitious film that demands too much from viewers other than most loyal of Wim Wenders’ fans.

RATING: 4/10 (+)

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