If you only think of German films as (romantic) comedies or history lessons for school lessons, you should definitely take a look at The Captain. The film by Robert Schwentke about a particularly dark chapter of the Second World War sounds like boring school material at first.
Behind the film you Stream now with Amazon Prime subscription * can, but hides one of the most impressive and uncomfortable German films of the last 10 years.
The Captain is a disturbing war grotesque from Germany
The film takes place in 1945, just before the end of World War II. Here the young private Willi Herold (Max Hubacher) gets a captain’s uniform. In order not to be exposed and executed as a deserter, he assumes a false identity and, together with a small squad of other soldiers, merges more and more disturbingly with his new role.
With a mix of blind obedience to power, extreme excesses of violence and fascist mechanisms The Captain is becoming more and more of an uncomfortable viewing experience. Director Robert Schwentke, who previously shot slick Hollywood blockbusters like RED, RIPD and Insurgent, could not have gone more extreme with this work.
With stylistic devices of surreal theatre and the sheer war grotesque, he combines psychological aspects such as the disintegration of the human soul during the National Socialist era with explicitly portrayed details and terrible hints.
The protagonist from The Captain really existed
The main character from Schwentke’s film really existed. The real role model was also called Willi Herold. At the time, as a 19-year-old private, he was involved in various killings in the so-called final phase crimes of the Second World War.
Together with his accomplices, he eventually became convicted of murdering 125 people. In reality, it is estimated that there were even around 180 people.
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