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World on a Wire (1973)
World on a Wire (1973) Image
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76 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 7 Critics What's this?

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  • Starring: Barbara Valentin, Karl Heinz Vosgerau, Klaus Löwitsch, Mascha Rabben
  • Summary: A dystopic science-fiction epic, World on a Wire is German wunderkind Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s gloriously cracked, boundlessly inventive take on future paranoia. With dashes of Kubrick, Vonnegut, and Dick, but a flavor entirely his own, Fassbinder tells the noir-spiked tale of reluctant action hero Fred Stiller, a cybernetics engineer who uncovers a massive corporate and governmental conspiracy. At risk? Our entire (virtual) reality as we know it. This long unseen three-and-a-half-hour labyrinth is a satiric and surreal look at the weird world of tomorrow from one of cinema’s kinkiest geniuses.(Janus Films)… Expand

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 7
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 7
  3. Negative: 0 out of 7
  1. Time Out New York
    Reviewed by: Joshua Rothkopf
    100
    World on a Wire is the discovery of the season, rarely screened in America but very much a key chapter in Fassbinder's story--a step toward bigger budgets and slicker production values, yet clarifying of his core artistic legacy.
  2. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Shawn Levy
    Sep 22, 2011
    91
    Genuinely breathtaking.
  3. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    Oct 12, 2011
    75
    World on a Wire is slowed down compared to most Fassbinder. He usually evokes overwrought passions, sudden angers and jealousies, emotional explosions, people hiding turmoil beneath a surface of pose. Here there's less of that emotional energy. But if you know Fassbinder, you might want to see this as an exercise of his mind, a demonstration of how one of his stories might be transformed by the detachment of science fiction.

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