i really have little idea why this film is so adored. i have no idea if its reputation lies in something it does for iranian cinema (and i obviously know nothing about), that it won the palme d'or and was adopted by certain critics, no idea.
why do you like it?
i liked the beginning where the impression is given that mr. badii is cruising. i thought that bit raised the question of what one is willing to do for money (not specific to the belief that this was about cruising, but labor in general).
then, through the tediousness of the rest of the film and getting restless, the end is a nice gimmick. i have no idea what is going on with the shift, assume it has something to do with cultural taboo on suicide and it was a necessary distance for the film to take to be acceptable (but i'm not going to hold onto that theory very hard, especially once one of you smarty pants comes into set the record).
i didn't care much for the shift from the mystery-of-the-job to it being about suicide. not sure why, it felt cheap.
while some of the visuals were nice, it is hard not to be spending so much time on landscapes, so not much credit to be had there. so much time spent in the car, why? the head shots in the car did nothing for me. i was a bit bothered by the rough equation of desert to suicide and culture to life. the impression is certainly that by the end of the film, where we are shown the city and its houses and the museum of natural history, that mr. badii is wanting to be alive; while he wants to be dead "outside of civilization". this bifurcation is also illustrated with the questioning of the laborer with the UCLA sweatshirt on, mr. badii almost seems disappointed of the guy not knowing what his shirt says.
a big part of my distaste is also about being turned off by the moralizing against suicide. if it is possible to make a compelling argument against suicide, this film fails miserably. is suicide a metaphor for the decline of civilization, exemplified by the military? if so, that certainly didn't work for me.
anyway, i am quite interested in why people love this film. i'd love to know what you get out of it, which parts work.