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| Critical praise accompanies the ominous still that makes up this stark poster for Robert Schwentke's The Captain |
Willi is a deserter from the Nazi war machine towards the end of World War II, when he happens upon a German officer's uniform and decides to assume an enticing - and mad - new identity as a deserter-punishing commander.
The Captain is written and directed by great German filmmaker Robert Schwentke (Heaven! (1993)). It is based on the true story of German war criminal Willi Herold. The English title is a literal translation of the original German title.
It is a strangely compelling and deeply loathsome and hard-to-digest film. It does not feature children but is otherwise at par with past hard depictions of the Holocaust in its degree of unpleasantness. - Not because there are assaults of a particularly barbaric nature in The Captain, but more so because the film successfully portrays the mass psychosis among the Nazis, which made their morally vacant death trip possible.
Max Hubacher (Sleep/Schlaf (2020)) is frighteningly good as the attractive, Fascist, blood-thirsty title character, and you almost feel ill from the honest depiction here of an army devoid of heroes. With good effects, production values and strong camera work (by Florian Ballhaus (Allegiant (2016))) and an industrially droning score (by Martin Todsharow (Enfant Terrible (2020))), which accurately compliments the themes of dehumanization, violent atrocities and psychosis. SPOILER The final scene polemically points out how radicalization and contempt for life and can thrive in any age, (although, I think, the point is made without the scene being particularly successful.)
The Captain is a grim, grim film.
Related posts:
Robert Schwentke: Top 10: Best German movies
RED (2010) - Schwentke's utterly hollow comic book adaptation
Flightplan (2005) - Foster rules in well-shot, uneven plane thriller
Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: Reportedly 5.8 mil. €, approximately 6.32 mil. $
Box office: At least 1.1 mil. $ (central market missing)
= Uncertain (known markets leave a return of just 0.15 times the cost, - box office disaster status, - so the film is surely a hefty flop of some kind)
[The Captain premiered 7 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 118 minutes. Shooting took place in Germany and Poland. The film opened #63 to a 7k $ first weekend in 1 theater in North America, where it it peaked at #57 and in 10 theaters, grossing 109k $ (9.9 % of the total gross). The biggest markets were Australia with 597k $ (54.3 %) and Netherlands with 112k $ (10.2 %). But the film's Box Office Mojo site is, mysteriously, missing the film's home market (Germany), which should be its biggest. The German ticket sales are also not to be found elsewhere. Missing are also the film's Polish and French gross numbers (both Poland and France were co-producing countries) and its approximately 47k $ gross in Denmark. The reason for the omissions are unknown but they obfuscate the box office facts to the point where an accurate theatrical ranking is impossible. The film won 1/5 German Film award nominations and a European Film award, among other honors. Schwentke returned with Snake Eyes (2021). Hubacher returned in Lasst die Alten Sterben (2017). The Captain is certified fresh at 83 % with a 7.60/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of The Captain?
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