Ron Howard's Eden dramatizes the 1929 voyage of European idealists to Floreana Island to escape fascism and build a new civilization purportedly dedicated to "saving humanity from itself." The settlers include intellectuals Dr. Friedrich Ritter and Dore Strauch, and a truth-seeking family led by Heinz and Margret Wittmer. Tensions arise as philosophical posturing, personal rivalries, and clashing agendas unsettle the community amid iguanas and wild boars. Casting choices include Jude Law as Ritter, Vanessa Kirby as Strauch, Daniel Brühl as Heinz, and Sydney Sweeney as Margret. Howard amplifies the pulpy, gaudy elements of the true story, favoring dramatic action and character conflict.
Ron Howard's 53rd directorial effort, Eden, is based on the true story of a group of European idealists who moved to a remote, uninhabited island in the South Pacific, circa 1929, in order to 1) escape encroaching fascism and 2) start a brand-new civilization dedicated to "saving humanity from itself." Things did not exactly go swimmingly for the experiment, as a 2013 documentary on the same subject, titled The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden, points out.
Ritter and Strauch's number-one goal, as a pair of German intellectuals in the 1930s, was to get away from Adolf Hitler. "Getting away from Hitler" may have a familiar ring to it for 2025 stateside audiences. The Ritters devote their time to quasi-political philosophical posturing, broken up by therapeutic sex. The new immigrants who follow them to Floreana Island have different agendas. Cue discontented campers among the iguanas and wild boars.
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