Jump to content

Land of the Blind

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Land of the Blind
Theatrical film poster
Directed byRobert Edwards
Written byRobert Edwards
Produced byPhilippe Martinez
Jon Avnet
Alan Latham
Cerise Hallam Larkin
Stanley Roup
StarringDonald Sutherland
Ralph Fiennes
Tom Hollander
Marc Warren
Lara Flynn Boyle
CinematographyEmmanuel Kadosh
Edited byFerne Pearlstein
Music byGuy Farley
Doug Edwards
Production
companies
Avnet-Kerner Productions
Bauer Martinez Studios
Brooklyn Films
Defender Film Fund II
Defender Production
Lucky 7 Productions LLC
Studio Eight Productions
Templar Films
Distributed byBauer Martinez Entertainment
Release date
  • June 16, 2006 (2006-06-16)
Running time
101 minutes
CountriesUnited Kingdom
United States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$18 million (est)[1]
Box office$15,180 (Worldwide)[2]

Land of the Blind is a 2006 British-American political satire drama film starring Ralph Fiennes, Donald Sutherland, Tom Hollander and Lara Flynn Boyle.

Land of the Blind is a dark political satire, based on several incidents throughout history in which tyrannical rulers were overthrown by new leaders who proved to be just as bad, if not worse, and several such cases are alluded to. The title is taken from the saying, "In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king."[3]

Land of the Blind had its world premiere in competition at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, and was the Opening Night Gala film at the 2006 Human Rights Watch Film Festival in London. Its U.S. premiere was in competition at the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival. It received negative reviews from critics, citing a poor scenario while praising Fiennes performance.[4][5][6][7]

Plot

[edit]

An unnamed country is ruled by a petulant tyrant named Maximilian II (often called Junior) whose primary interests include selfish pleasure, micromanaging the country’s schlocky film industry, and enjoying sexual games with his beautiful, yet cruel, wife Josephine. His regime is barely tolerated due to the violence dealt by anti-government terrorists.

One such subversive revolutionary, a dissident philosopher and playwright named John Thorne, is held in a state prison, where he is guarded by a man named Joe. Joe comes to learn from Thorne and respect him for his bearing and intellect, if not his message. Junior, trying to quash spiraling dissent, takes the risk of letting Thorne out of jail, hoping to have him become not a great folk hero but another greedy, dishonest politician. Joe, too, is soon promoted to one of the guards at the palace and a position in the country's elite military unit, where he becomes so disgusted by the excesses of Junior and Josephine that he allows Thorne and his followers to enter the palace and kill them. Thorne becomes the new ruler, with an even more totalitarian regime. His government encourages separating children from their parents, imposes veganism, bans action movies, oppresses women, and eliminates imported medicine all while sending the country's professional classes to grim re-education camps.

For his assistance in assassinating the dictator, Joe is hailed as a hero by Thorne. Nevertheless, as Joe realizes that his one-time friend is just as bad as, if not worse than, his predecessor, he refuses to ally with the new regime. For this, Thorne sends Joe to a re-education camp. Subjected to numerous beatings and isolation, he continually refuses to sign his loyalty oath. His psyche begins to dramatically deteriorate as he is interrogated and tortured, seemingly discovering layers of bizarre hidden conspiracy within the camp and the broader regime of his former friend.

Thorne is killed in his bath by one of his once loyal followers. The revolutionary government is quickly overthrown. Junior's in-laws and nephew are revealed to have escaped during Thorne's revolution and, having lived in exile, have returned to re-establish the old government, and former collaborators and torturers return to civilian life. Joe’s legal case remains in limbo for having destroyed the old government, but also never having 'played ball' with the new one, so he remains in prison indefinitely. Twelve years later, he writes his memoirs while under house arrest, his sanity possibly still shattered.

Cast

[edit]

Historical references

[edit]

Historical references in the film include Jean-Paul Marat (from the French Revolution), Kim Jong-Il, Joseph Stalin, Benito Mussolini, Augusto Pinochet, Anastasio Somoza Debayle, François Duvalier, Rudolf Hess, Jean-Claude Duvalier, Lyndon B. Johnson, Julius Caesar (from William Shakespeare's play), Robert Mugabe, Ngo Dinh Diem, Idi Amin, the PIRA Maze prison protests, U.S. POWs in Vietnam, the Weathermen terrorist group, the Khmer Rouge, the 1979 Revolution in Iran, and the subsequent Cultural Revolution in that country.

Critical reception

[edit]

The film received mostly negative reviews from critics. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 17% out of 18 professional film critics gave the film a positive review, with a rating average of 4.1/10.[8]

References

[edit]
  1. ↑ Business for Land of the Blind IMDb
  2. ↑ "Land of the Blind". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved June 19, 2015.
  3. ↑ Desiderius Erasmus. "In regione caecorum rex est luscus". The Quotations Page.
  4. ↑ Weissberg, Jay (February 14, 2006). "Land of the Blind". Variety. Retrieved March 17, 2026.
  5. ↑ Travers, Peter (June 9, 2006). "Land of the Blind". Rolling Stone. Retrieved March 17, 2026.
  6. ↑ "RECIPE FOR A REVOLTING MESS | New York Post". June 16, 2006. Retrieved March 17, 2026.
  7. ↑ Holden, Stephen (June 16, 2006). "Meet the New Boss, Once Again, in 'Land of the Blind'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 17, 2026.
  8. ↑ Land of the Blind. Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved 14 October 2012.
[edit]
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Land_of_the_Blind&oldid=1360370819"