Occupied City (CREDIT: A24)
Narrator: Melanie Hyams
Director: Steve McQueen
Running Time: 262 Minutes (Including a 15-Minute Intermission)
Rating: PG-13 for A Disturbing History Lesson
Release Date: December 25, 2023 (Theaters)
What’s It About?: In a year of high-profile lengthy theatrical releases, Occupied City is the longest endurance test yet. Clocking in at over four hours (with a break in between), this documentary from director Steve McQueen features footage of modern-day Amsterdam juxtaposed with voice-over narration describing events that happened during the Holocaust at various buildings in the Dutch capital. The visuals were shot during some of the most intense chapters of the COVID-19 pandemic, which invites you to draw historical parallels, if you please. But for the most part, it’s all presented profoundly matter-of-factly.
What Made an Impression?: Exhibiting the Evidence: I’ve never seen any movie quite like Occupied City, and I’m kind of surprised – almost stunned, even – that it’s getting any sort of commercial theatrical release at all. It might be worth seeing just on the basis of that uniqueness alone. But you might also come to the same conclusion that I did, which is to say: this feels more like a museum exhibit than a movie, wherein the narration would play on a loop in a room throughout the day while the images are projected on the wall.
Viewing Strategy: Extending that museum exhibit idea, that would likely be a preferable way to take in Occupied City, since it would allow you to get up and stretch and keep the blood flowing. As for the cinematic form that it actually exists in, it at least helps that there’s an intermission to prevent a total lack of mobility. But even if you do get up at some point during either of the two halves, don’t worry. McQueen himself has said that pee breaks are part of the experience. After all, four hours isn’t massive enough to fully capture this subject, so you’re going to be missing out on something anyway. You might as well embrace that fact and not lose touch with the outside world too much if you do decide to go see Occupied City.
Occupied City is Recommended If You Like: Thoroughness, University lectures, An even-keeled speaking voice
Grade: 3 out of 5 Amsterdams
Jmunney's Blog 