Prolabas Deeper than the descriptions

Konterr Brilliant and touching

Usamah Harvey The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Roy Hart If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

st-shot Jean Luc Godard's Made in the USA is a smug bore of a film with the director riding high in his peak period during the Sixties that featured abstract works mocking narrative style and bourgeois lifestyle while embracing Maoism. While some of his works ( Breathless, Weekend, Alphaville, Les Carabiniers ) hold some fascination his overall canon is one of grand tedium where he drones on in endless political thought and non-sequitur with cloying pretense and name dropping for the post modernists to dig. Enter "USA," looking like a refugee from a Jaques Demy musical, featuring another of Godard's obsessions, adorable wife and muse Anna Karina seeking out the man who murdered her husband. Wearing some pretty Paris frocks and inflecting monotone Godard gets the rest of his cast to go along as well while slathering his jarring but underwhelming compositions in gaudy color, sloppily editing (signature Godardian artistry) then sitting back and waiting for the art house critics to proclaim this dull goulash a "subversive indictment of..." take your pick. Along with Fellini, Bergman, Kurasawa and Truffaut Jean Luc Godard was part of the foreign film movement that helped transition film appreciation in America from entertaining block-busters to carving out a niche in the market with small personal art films. His first feature Breathless is considered for its introduction of a new film language (ellipses) the birth of the new wave. After that came a series of similar broadsides against the decaying West that may well be still going on today given the old guy is still making highly obscure films. But the game was up by the end of the 70s and all very evident in this flaccid mess (sorely missing the camera work of Raoul Coutard) re-hashing the same theme, ideas, distance seen in all his other works. I admire Godard for still be able and desiring to make films in his 80s. But given his messy incoherent, filmography he may be more con artist than film artist. Looking back at that seminal moment in film history where film editing changed forever, John Cassavettes Shadows (59) seems to have beat Godard and Truffaut to the punch. For Godardian loyalists only, especially the ones willing to fall for his Big Sleep re-make blurb and his hackneyed visionary politics that might aptly re-tile this mess as Made in Venezuela.

jakob13 Dwight MacDonald might not have liked Goddard's 'Made in U.S.A.'It is a film that marries high culture and low, which bristles DM disdain for 'masscult'. For 2016 film goers 'Made in U.S.A.'is a 20 questions quiz. It has everything thrown in from soup to nuts, from pulp fiction to politics to literature to American politics to Hollywood and even to the signature of the 'last of the Red Hot Mamas' Miss Sophie Tucker. Goddard references Horace MaCoy's 'Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye', which rests on Anna Karina's breast in the opening shot, but substitutes it with the words of say Samuel Beckett. His characters have the names of Hollywood directors, Goddard admired. Selig or Misoguchi for example. Or writers like Ben Hecht. His bad guys bear the monikers of Nixon and Robert Macnamara. Into his script he doffs his hat to the poet Prevert or Louis Aragon or the writer Jean-Paul Sartre. Otto Preminger is a street name. Richard Widmark is in good company as a killer, and he delights in Karina killing the detective novels David Goodis. Who today recalls the abduction of the Moroccan leftist opponent of Hassan II, abducted at noon in St. Germain des Pres? Or Mers El Kebir or the failure of the Free French to wrest Dakar from Vichy control? Or the destruction of Agadir during a strong earth quake or the crushing to death of protesters when the police closed the Metro Charonne? And Goddard's disembodied voice rings out on an AIWA tape recorder as he condemns the sterile politics of the French Right and Left and the pusillanimous Communist Party, a condemnation which finds echos into America's presidential brouhaha for the White House. 'Made in U.S.A.' is full of talk that today might send the viewer to turn off his DVD player. Is it a museum piece? an obscure film that best be viewed by cinema students? Goddard's film is a relic of the turbulent 1960s, of a France exiting from a long war in Algeria in 1962, ending fighting wars from 1939 till June 1962. As the country under DeGaulle's Fifth Republic energized a tired France, the American war in Vietnam brought about what the French called the 'May Days of 1968', but we are ahead of the story the film tells. 'Made in U.S.A.' reflects through Goddard's lens the 'Sturm und Drum' of those seemingly forgotten Times.

valadas As far as the meaningless images and dialogues let us know it looks like this is the story in the movie: A girl goes to a provincial town to investigate about her lover's murder and take her revenge on that. Once there she involves herself with one and another in obscure dialogues and nonsense sequences, ending up by killing two of them (because she thinks they were the killers or at least belong to the murderer's gang?) The motives of the supposed murder stay obscure and the movie develops itself in intersected images and sequences that explain little. And it finishes with the usual meaningless ending of Godard's movies. Godard is a movie director that most distinguished critics present as one of the greatest of our times who even influenced such directors (these are great indeed) as Altman, Scorsese, Wenders and Tarantino. Since till now I haven't seen a single of Godard's films that I liked I suppose that the fault must be mine. However I am not alone in this appreciation.

Andy (film-critic) There is no questioning the power of Godard. His cinematic talent reaches much farther than my mind could even begin to escape, and upon watching some of his lesser known films these days - his sheer imagination was something that is decidedly missed in today's film experience. Watching "Pierrot Le Fou", the vivid color, the uncontrollable ability to combine any genre into one frame, and the dedication of his actors was demonstrated. A less-fan of his "Breathless" film and more into his experimental work, "Fou" was right up my alley - yet, watching "Made in USA", I was completely flabbergasted. This film was confusing, colorful, intelligent, philosophical, brutal, and a slice of what America was producing at the time, while all the while being completely Godard. Destined never to be a favorite among purists, "Made in USA" requires more than one viewing and an accompanying owner's manual to navigate, but the final destination is worth all the work. Using Anna Karina as our guide, this spy-thriller (if I could say that) takes off with a huge step and never looks back. Do not watch this movie late at night or while doing anything that will cause you to glance away from the screen. Every moment in this film is necessary, every word that Godard has our actors speak - while at times confusing and thought provoking - is needed to tell this dis-narrative story. Godard is a master behind the camera for this film - giving us an early glimpse as to what was in store with "Pierrot Le Fou", his bold color and well read characters (each one is always holding a book - Bravo!), are just the crust. What made "Made in USA" stand out was the obvious connections to Walt Disney, the "Big Sleep", and nearly everything coming out of the 60s in America, but what makes Godard impressive, is that one needs to search to see it. He doesn't spoon feed you a narrative that makes your heart gush at the end, Godard creates challenging cinema that will not be enjoyed by all, but if developed - if watched over time - if studied, remains important even 43 years later. "Made in USA" is another Criterion release that looks and sounds perfectly, but - even with my discussion on how great Godard's work is - isn't the greatest release from the master. Yep, I am a Godard fan, but I am picky. I didn't enjoy "Breathless", but "Pierrot Le Fou" I hold very highly - and this - well, "Made in USA" is intelligent, but perhaps a bit too pretentious. The idea behind this film is solid, but it is the execution that had me nervous. Godard is eloquent in introducing us to certain characters and elements, but gives them names of his favorites like McNamara and Nixon that just feels weighted by symbolism and inside jokes. The viewing took place over the course of three days, not due to the diminishing subject, but because a rewind was needed to ensure that parts didn't go missing or lost. Crafting one part puzzle, one part social commentary, one part comedy is difficult - and for the beginning film watcher - this probably isn't the best film to first experience Godard. Here is what I liked - I loved not knowing. What was exhilarating about this feature was the unknown. The confusing dialogue, the menacing tape voice, the constant barrage of planes flying overhead (if that IS what that noise was), and the possible hope of knowing Richard's last name - keeps one wanting to finish, but getting there is a battle. The dialogue is either a love or hate moment. As there is no linear story, from the spoken perspective, and it is easy to get lost in Godard's cluttered words. For myself, it was at times refreshing - and at other times a disaster. Without a linear narrative, it was difficult to understand how one character fit within the scheme of events. What was happening between Paula and Mr. Typhus? Just thinking about it gives me a headache.The scenes that stood out in this film were the bartender moments (where you could call him Paul or Bartender, but not "sir"), the pinball machine in the garage, and the billboard store room characters. These made me chuckle and see the humor that Godard was demonstrating, but the others just felt murky and disjointed. Again, I would like to state that every scene was necessary, but were they great? The imagery was spectacular - giving us the color palette that he would later use in "Pierrot Le Fou" - and the cinematography followed suit. For me, it was just the language the bogged me down. I wanted to know these characters further, I wanted to further know the story of the skulled man, and who was double crossing who. "Made in USA" is an important film, I am glad to see it within the Criterion catalogue, but it is an advanced film. The average film watcher will not like this movie, even I felt lost sometimes - but I am so very happy that I watched it.In another review, this film was quoted as a "B-side" to the Godard cannon, and I couldn't agree more. Could I watch this movie again? Absolutely, but not right away. I look forward to re-exploring this piece of cinema, understanding what I missed, and seeing the inside moments that may have slipped by me the first time. "Made in America" isn't perfect, and I don't know anyone that can take a ten minutes of a tape playing discussing politics, but this self-proclaimed "B-side" finally has a release it deserves. Grade: *** 1/2 out of *****