Review of Wings of Desire (1987) by Brandon B — 04 Mar 2010

The movie Wings of Desire is a waste of one hundred and twenty-seven minutes. I'd give it 2 out of 5 for ratings just because they attempted to make a work of art even though they failed. Also if you have nothing better to do with your time and want a movie to put you to sleep then you have found it. Directed by the renowned Wim Wenders and Peter Handke, its theatrical release was May 6, 1988. The movie is based upon two angels Damiel (Bruno Ganz) & Cassiel (Otto Sander) who follow the lives of people in Berlin. In the beginning of the movie there really is no storyline and everything is in confusion. The two angels can hear everything that goes on, so you get every person's thoughts right after the other. This is confusing because people are just saying random things and there is really no point at first. The angels are unseen to the people and only a few can sense them. Mainly the kids can sense the presence of the angels.

The first half of this movie is pure nonsense and the fact that it's in German makes it all the more worse. They have English subtitles but who wants to watch a movie and have to read the subtitles as well, and not to mention that the movie doesn't really make sense at first. All of the issues this movie has just make for a bad combination. Instead of spending your time watching the movie and getting a grasp on the key points, you're worried about reading the dialogue.

On a more positive side, the movie switches from black & white, to color every once in awhile so you can get a feel of the angels approach on the city. Also there are small portions of the movie that are in English but it still does not over shadow the fact that the rest of it is in subtitles. As the movie gets closer to the end things start to make sense. The entire time the angels are watching over the people and have an understanding of how real life is like. In the end Damiel finally comes down and becomes a human. He is excited about this very much for he gets to experience everything for himself. He sets out in search of a woman who was a circus performer. She is also in search of him but she doesn't exactly know that. Damiel is able to try new things that he has never been able to try before. He can now touch people, drink coffee, and talk to others which are things that he could not do before he was human. All of this is fascinating to him and he's pretty happy with his choice of finally becoming human.

This movie could have been better if there was an official storyline and purpose. Also the beginning needs to be cut because it serves no purpose and only causes confusion. Maybe if Wings of Desire is remade with some popular directors and has a good cast it may be something of importance, but for now it's just a waste of time.