Iceman is finally getting a proper American release. However, I’m not sure if the untold story of Otzi the Iceman is something that audiences clamored to see. There is an effort to take the real world X-ray readings and DNA scans of the Iceman corpse to figure out what his life was like 5300 years ago. The Iceman was found covered in the blood of at least four other people. Plus, they could tell he died from an arrow fired into his back. The result was our hero in the Alps then fell into a crevice and was crushed to death by snow/ice/cold.
Modern cinema doesn’t explore the Stone Age enough. However, it feels the need to frame everything as a growth or revenge tale. That dramatic structure gets in the way of a brutal film told only in Rhaetic language. If you guys dug Apocalypto, then this will be for you. The casual audience will be bored between attacks, as they want to find something that helps them get past a film in a language that no one has spoken in centuries.
But, this isn’t a movie for everyone. Iceman is an endurance tale about what happens when civility doesn’t exist and society is governed by a base set of rules. Kill or be killed. Terrific work all around.
