"considered to be one of the best films of all time"

By a few, I guess.

There's no amazing revelation, no stunning human truth revealed, no emotional crescendo or really any worthwhile conflict to resolve. No devastating reveal, no amazing writing, no "oh man you gotta watch this part!"

It has its rabid snob fans, who love to chime in and tell me how I didn't get it, but this movie is the most cliche of all examples of what a pretentious indie film is. Well, between this and Fando y Lis.

It's cool to love the movies, but it'd be stupid to recommend normal people to watch them.

The movie is an exercise in style, the same story could've been told in an hour.

I mentioned how dull it was last night and a salty fanboy said

> Since the other poster doesn’t seem want to actually explain it’s plot (or have understood its underlying themes), I’ll take a crack at it. It takes place in a Hungarian village where their farm has failed. People betray, cheat on, and plot against each other. It’s a mood and character piece with nihilistic themes about authoritarianism and how religion can be corrupted and used to take advantage of people. It’s definitely not for everyone, but it’s considered one of the best films ever made for a reason, and the other guy clearly missed the point.

So that's the counterargument. I wrote a bit about it here.

The day after I watched this uselessly long movie, I watched the 5 hour cut of Fanny & Alexander - that's an actual good movie. I recommend that one instead.

It you're a salty rabid fan don't @ me, I don't care. Unless you have an argument about why we needed 8 minute long shots of cows to truly understand the townspeople's fears and worry about money, and how there's just gosh darn it no other way to tell this story - I've heard it all before.

edit: If you really want to see a Bela Tarr movie, watch Werckmeister Harmonies. 10x better than Satantango.