The Good German

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The Good German

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The Good German

Beau Bridges, Boris Kievsky, Cate Blanchett, Christian Oliver, Dave Power

"The Good German" takes place in the ruins of post-WWII Berlin, where U.S. Army war correspondent Jake Geismar becomes embroiled with Lena Brandt, a former lover who is trying to escape her past in th...( read more  read more... )e aftermath of the war. Intrigue mounts as Jake tries to uncover the secrets Lena may be hiding in her desperation to get out of Berlin. Tully, a soldier in the American army motor pool assigned to drive Jake around the city, has black market connections that may be Lena's way out--or lead them all into even darker territory.

Id: 4867461

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The Good German Recent Reviews
  • SirPant
    October 1, 2009
    SirPant
    This film is awful. Why on earth they thought it would be a good idea to film a post war era film in a classic noir style is beyond me, they couldn't even get it right! I saw the cameraman's shadow twice! This film falls flat on its arse and almost becomes a parody. The acting is...( read more) abysmal with only Clooney surviving (just), Blanchett and Maguire are ridiculous (what?s the point of Maguire when we have Gyllenhaal?), the script is stupid, naughty words 'n all and the story, well that's the biggest disappointment of all. It?s like Soderbergh tried to remake Casablanca! Maybe he is as crap a director as I always thought he was! Avoid!
  • RiderOfTheStorms
    July 30, 2009
    RiderOfTheStorms
    Loved the style , the acting, music. Blanchett was so fuckin sexy in this! but didnt like ne thing else
  • pier007
    November 18, 2008
    pier007
    Cheap neoclasicism is what Steven Soderbergh, his screenwriter and actors did. This bunch of retrogrades can't come up with something engaging in the tradition of Casablanca, the third man, or germany year zero.
    George Clooney and Toby Maguire produce some good results (though th...( read more)e latter looks out of place), and Cate Blanchett keeps mimicking Marlene Dietrich with flat results.
    Stylistically interesting, but hollow in the rest.
  • EarthlyAlien
    October 25, 2008
    EarthlyAlien
    "They want me to decide who the ardent Nazis were. Truth is, it was the whole country. Nobody's hands are clean."

    The Good German may be the best example I've ever seen of a film being suffocated by its style. As you've probably heard, the film was deliberately sh...( read more)ot as though it were being made in the 1940s, with period lenses, lighting schemes and framing. There are scenes meaning to echo Casablanca, The Third Man and The Maltese Falcon, but they go beyond homage, beyond knowing self-reference, and straight on into being insulting, laughable distractions.

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    The story: War correspondent Jake Geismer (George Clooney) is sent to Berlin to cover the peace conference after the surrender of Germany in WWII, and, he hopes, to seek out his former love from before the war, Lena Brant (Cate Blanchett). This proves easier than expected, as she is currently a prostitute, being pimped out by a young American black marketer named Tully (Tobey Maguire), who also happens to be Jake's driver. Just as Jake discovers the connection, Tully is murdered. Tensions and complications mount as Russian and American forces attempt to cover up the murder, while Jake tries to solve it and reunite with Lena. But, you know, is she hiding something too?

    The film is based on the intelligent novel by Joseph Kanon, and was adapted by Paul Attanasio (Quiz Show), who made several changes, none of them successful. Kanon's book was, in addition to being a murder mystery, a sober account of how Russian and American forces tried to get (by any means necessary) German scientists on their side for the Cold War they knew would be coming. This point is off to the side in the film. But the most startling change is that in the book, Lena and Jake were still in love, which added an extra layer of complication to the choices they had to make. In the film, Blanchett plays her as cold and remorseless, which is far less interesting. The film needs a Meryl Streep in Sophie's Choice or, obviously, an Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca.

    Also, in the film, you see Tully's dark side, which doesn't work for several reasons. For one, Maguire is a fine actor in the right roles, but isn't convincing while beating someone in the head with a stick. For another, Tully is supposed to be charming, supposed to lure Jake into trusting him, and the two halves of his personality never fit together. Part of this is due to a fundamental error on the part of Steven Soderbergh, who attempted to have his actors mimic the external style of acting practiced in the 40s. That's a great idea for an experiment, but this is the wrong script to try it on. Attanasio gives the characters modern dialogue, not the stylized speak so beloved in classic films. The effect is jarring.

    Clooney, an understated actor to begin with, can handle the assignment, though he doesn't give us a character we care about, or are even much interested in. Throughout the film he seems to be going through the motions, as though he doesn't care about the outcome, when he should be desperately trying to set things right and get information. Blanchett, arguably the most gifted actress around when it comes to accents, unfortunately broods around with a German accent that seems lifted from a third-rate vampire film, and Maguire, as mentioned earlier, shifts from an ah-shucks, gee-whiz demeanour to fury and violence.

    The level and graphicness of violence in the film illustrates the film's biggest weakness. Can you imagine graphic violence in a 40s era film? What about graphic sex? Of course you can't, that kind of content was prohibited, and if Soderbergh was interested in reproducing a 1940s film, he should've gone all the way. As it is, he overdoes the style. There's a point where he wants to draw our attention to a line on a sheet of paper, so he darkens the screen around it, which was done a lot in the past, but you can just see him crossing the method off his list of stylistic bases to cover. It's not needed (in fact, this film wasn't needed), because the paper is essentially blank. By using it there, he's just showing off, and and making us roll our eyes.

    Another thing that annoyed me considerably was the fact that, while the film is obviously shot in black and white, Soderbergh often points his camera straight into the sun, so everything appears bleached out. This film is almost literally in black and white, with few shades of grey providing shading or texture, a far cry from the detailed and textured photography in the best examples of the 40s (especially The Third Man and Great Expectations).

    I read that Soderbergh's first instinct was to shoot the film as a noir, but then decided to "honour" his favourite films of the golden era by filming (or copying) it in their style. An admirable goal (I would love to see more films experiment with that old style, but not replicating it like this film does), but his first instinct was the right one. The modern content and dialogue clash with the traditional production, and while the result is mildly interesting, the whole film feels disjointed and wrong. It's no big secret that I'm not a big fan of Soderbergh (he's one of the most overrated American filmmakers of his generation, as far as I'm concerned) but I respected him enough to not see this coming. Let's hope he redeems himself with the Che Guevara/Benicio del Toro double bill. I've heard great thing about The Argentine.
  • allan913
    September 27, 2008
    allan913
    A powerful and masterful edge of your seat thriller that mixes romance and mystery in one fantastic and marvelous movie. A masterpiece. Director, Steven Soderberg never fails to at being a superb and brilliant filmmaker. Movies dont get better than this. Stylish and engrossing fi...( read more)lm noir in the old black and white tradition and works wonderfully. A teriffic, explosive, haunting and unforgettable film. Endlessly compelling and electrifying. Intriguing and dazzeling. Feels like and looks like a classic. George Clooney is brilliant. Cate Blanchet is stunning.
  • SuperVision
    December 11, 2009
    SuperVision
    Good and bad mixed together: Good acting but bad writing, good choice about B/W but done with mistakes. By the way, it's fun to see Cate Blanchett with a German accent!
  • HateYouIgnorant
    October 31, 2009
    HateYouIgnorant
    !Comercial or Stupid! :|
  • jamesm1068
    October 3, 2009
    jamesm1068
    good to see once if your in the mood for a slow movie, it was alright
  • Hallez
    September 13, 2009
    Hallez
    Modern Film Noir however its slow confusing and generally quite dull as Clooney does his basic acting skills for the entire film.
  • whosinthenews
    September 11, 2009
    whosinthenews
    Toby McGuire can't act, George Clooney's character starts walking around in circles and showing up literally EVERYWHERE. And certain moments feel forced in their attempt to emulate Casablanca and The Third Man...but I can't say I didn't enjoy this. It's stylish, beautifully shot,...( read more) most of the acting is tolerable, and the use of archival footage mixes seamlessly with the action lending the atmosphere a convincing (yet nostalgic) emotional weight.
    Mostly this film is an example of miscalculation. That's all. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. Too many critics subscribe to the 'masterpiece or crap' philosophy in regards to films that take stylistic risks, or attempt to borrow heavily from other sources, and should realize that filmmakers aren't out to desecrate their inspirations and hence there's no reason to get so defensive when writing a review. There is no real blasphemy in the film world that warrants the need to falsify (however slightly) your opinions as a means of some kind of retribution for "sins" committed against classic cinema.
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