In 1991, Wim Wenders leveraged the success of his crossover hit Wings of Desire to mount a project he'd dreamed of for years: a globe-trotting sci-fi epic he considered the "ultimate road movie". That film is UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD, and if you've never heard of it.... well. Warner Bros. made Wenders trim his nearly 5-hour cut by almost half, and the resulting film confused audiences and critics and sank without a trace. (But what a soundtrack!) And yet, the film all but predicted GPS navigation, smartphone addiction, and even free travel within the Euro area. Until very recently, American audiences had only seen the truncated version, but that is starting to change. This week, Bill and Renan watched one version or both—more than 10 hours' combined viewing between them!—and in this week's episode they unpack it and try to explain what worked, what didn't, and which version you should watch.

Film links:

• Until the End of the World on IMDb
• Until the End of the World on Wikipedia
• Differences between original and director's cut
• Boing Boing interview with Wim Wenders
• MovieLine interview with Wim Wenders
• Vulture interview with Wim Wenders
• Roger Ebert review of original release
• RogerEbert.com review of director's cut
• Guardian review of director's cut
• Village Voice review of director's cut
• New York Post review of director's cut
• CriterionCast review
• Film soundtrack on Spotify

Show links:

• Rate us on iTunes! 
• Friend us on Facebook!
• Reblog us on Tumblr!
• Follow us on Twitter!
• Email us at [email protected]!