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Wolfgang Petersen (Germany, 1941) debuted with the
thriller Einer von uns beiden/ One or the Other of Us (1974),
based on Horst Bosetzky's novel "Einer von uns Beiden",
and Die Konsequenz (1977), an adaptation of Alexander Ziegler's novel.
Wolfgang Petersen originally made the war movie Das Boot (1981) for the German
television and only subsequently derived a film from that six-part miniseries
(loosely based on a novel by Lothar-Guenther Buchheim). Even so reduced, it
was the most expensive film ever made in Germany.
Petersen diligently explores the feelings of panic, boredom, claustrophobia,
excitement, resignation, etc, but in the end lacks a unifying theme.
After a while, the cold enumeration of situations that can occur on a submarine
The large cast means that there is no real protagonist, and all characters
are barely sketched, leaving the submarine as the only well-defined entity
with a driving personality. The dialogues are extremely basic and stereotyped,
so there is no room for introspection (most of what we hear are orders or
comments to orders).
Petersen's specialty is the long, silent pauses while the crew is waiting in the dark,
usually followed by frantic action.
Ford's Stage Coach and Clouzot's Le Salaire De La Peur
get updated to the a war context.
Ultimately, Das Boot is as serious and as stiff as Patton,
another war epic that fails to be more than its title.
During the last stages of World War II,
in a French night club the officers and sailors of the German navy are
wildly celebrating, mostly drunk.
The following day a submarine takes off. The captain orders a rapid immersion
as a drill test, but that is enough to make the inexperienced crew sweat.
The captain sense that the war is lost, that the German propaganda is spinning
lies. His only motivation is the thrill of the action. He is either looking for
suicide or testing the possibilities of the boat.
A stiff young officer is the opposite, a strong believer in Hitler.
The crew, just waiting for order, are confused and lack motivation.
The naval correspondent on board provides a non-military viewpoint.
He is more interested in taking pictures and notes than in winning the war.
Time goes by slowly until one full-moon night the submarine spots a British
convoy. The submarine successfully sinks a few of them, but the others
start hunting it with ultrasounds. The submarine rests as low as possible,
the bolts popping up because of the impossible pression, but the ships
manage to spot it anyway. The submarine shakes under the heavy bombing and
leaks open everywhere, but survives. They resurface and finish a ship that
is still burning, only to witness through the binoculars that there are still
men on board and that they will burn to death.
Just when the crew thought that their mission was finished and they could
return to base, the captain receives the order to sail towards Italy.
This means that they have to pass through the narrow Straits of Gibraltar,
where hundreds of Allied ships are on the lookout.
The submarine, bombarded from all sides, has to dive, and this time it
dives too low: nothing can stop its dive until it its the bottom of the sea,
miracously saved by a pile of sand. Except that the boat takes in water and
the engine doesn't seem to respond. The crew works frantically to remove the
water and repair the engine. When they are ready to try, the captain spurs the
crew and gives the order. The manouver succeeds and the submarine resurfaces.
They reach the Italian port and are welcome as heroes. Ironically, the moment
they dock the Allies start bombing the port. All sailors of the submarine
are killed, except the correspondent.
The fantasy film
Neverending Story (1984), adapted from
Michael Ende's
1979 novel,
is a long fairy tale whose charm consists almost exclusively in the increasingly magical landscapes and the increasingly eccentric characters that succeed each other along the child's path.
A child persecuted by bullying schoolmates seeks refuge in a house, and finds himself in a room overflowing with books, in the company of a grumpy old man who tells him about a dangerous book. The child takes advantage of a moment of distraction by the old man to steal the book from him. He then rushes to school, but is very late. He immerses himself in reading the book and finds himself plunged into a fantastic forest.
A mud monster terrorizes a group of dwarfs. Both he and they complain that some catastrophe is jeopardizing their world. They then set off towards the royal palace. The wise man asks the child to find the cure for the empress and to save their worldall without using weapons, but only a magic medallion. At the same time, a hideous creature living in a cave also begins a search.
The child sets off on a journey through misty swamps, loses his horse in the quicksand, meets a monstrous wise man who shows him the way, is helped by a talking and flying dog, and is hosted by a couple (she a witch intent on her potions, he an inventor of the most bizarre gadgets). As the end approaches in the form of a mysterious "Nothing," in a ruined temple he finally meets the hideous creature, and it is this wolf who explains to him that that world is the world of human fantasy, and that the end is coming because humans have stopped dreaming. The end arrives, and Phantasialand is disintegrated by an explosion. However, the empress appears to explain to him what she truly wants from him: that he (he who is reading the book) call her by name. The world is saved. The child (the real one, in blue jeans and a t-shirt) finds himself riding the dog, flying over the world, and even over the child on horseback who had personified him. At that point, he treats himself to a bit of satisfaction: he asks the dog to fly over his city and scare the three bullies.
Outside a storm rages, the child is almost at the end of the book, he looks out the window of the laboratory where he has locked himself away to read, and screams the name into the wind. Then he goes back to reading to see how it ends.
After the sci-fi movie Enemy Mine (1985) and
Shattered (1991), adapted from Richard Neely's novel,
In the Line of Fire (1993), scripted by Jeff Maguire, is a fantapolitical thriller and film-noir that obeys all of Hollywood's stereotypes/conventions and mixes in a few nods to the "Dirty Harry" movies.
Frank (Clint Eastwood) is a secret-service agent who, 30 years later, still
feels responsible for not saving the life of John Kennedy. Someone knows his
feeling and is playing with him: a maniac, Mitch, who is determined to
assassinate the current president and tells Frank over the phone.
Mitch is deadly serious: he kills a bank clerk and her housemate to protect
his identity. Over the phone, he tells Frank that they have something in common:
they were both betrayed by their country. Somehow, Mitch thinks that Frank
should understand why he has become a terrorist.
After every call, Frank and his colleagues try to track down the phone from
which Mitch called, but Mitch always manages to fool them.
The cat-and-mouse game gets more and more complex, as Frank begins to understand
how serious Mitch is, and as Mitch gets plenty of opportunities to diplay his
skills at camouflage.
In his hideout, Mitch is meticulously practicing an attempt on the president's
life.
Frank is the only one to appreciate the danger posed by this psycho, but
Frank's nerves cost him his job, because his superiors think he is out of
order.
Sexy agent Lilly (Rene Russo) sympathyzes with his devotion to the president
and his paranoia.
Frank continues to investigate and eventually tracks down the psycho's name,
but only to find out that the CIA is also after Mitch: he used to work for
them, and is a well-known assassin.
Frank almost catches Mitch, but Mitch is faster running on the roofs.
Frank slips and would die if Mitch did not grab his hand in time. Frank
points a gun at Mitch's head but can't shoot, because Mitch is holding him:
the president's life is not worth his own life. Mitch saves Frank, but kills
his partner, leaving Frank another emotional scar.
Mitch, disguised as a wealthy contributor, gets himself invited to a
fund-raising event. When the president enters the hall, Mitch begins to
prepare his gun. But Frank figures out that Mitch must be in the hall.
Frank breaks into the hall and tracks down Mitch just one second before he
can kill the president. Frank takes the bullet that was aimed at the president,
and thus saves the president's life, but Mitch takes Frank hostage in
an elevator. Wounded, Frank has a microphone and Mitch does not realize that
Lilly downstairs can hear everything they say. Lilly has the
snipers positioned to fire. When he realizes that Mitch is in the line of fire,
Frank orders to shoot, and Mitch realizes too late that Frank is talking to
the snipers. The snipers wound him, but he is still alive, and the two
wounded men fight it out inside the elevator. Mitch loses and is about to
fall. Frank offers him a hand. The positions are now inverted: Mitch can save
his life if he grabs Frank's hand. But, unlike Frank, Mitch chooses to die.
Frank is hailed a hero even by those who fired him. He returns to his apartment
with a much friendlier Lilly. The answering machine has a message from Mitch,
left before they both left for their appointment with destiny. Mitch wondered
who would win. Frank lets the machine roll and leaves the apartment for his
date with Lilly, basically ignoring the psycho as irrelevant to history.
Then came the fantapolitical disaster movie Outbreak (1995),
based on Richard Preston's nonfiction book "The Hot Zone" (1994).
The idea is copied from films of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s: scenes a` la plague in New Orleans, scenes a` la Invasion of the Body Snatchers, scenes a` la holocaust, and so on. Great suspense, rhythm, etc., but also many clichés. References to the AIDS tragedy, to the CIA's dirty wars. In short, a social and political allegory that exploits the stereotypes of adventure cinema, thrillers, and melodrama.
Cast:
Dustin Hoffman (Sam Daniels), Rene Russo (Robby Keough), Morgan Freeman (general Billy Ford), Kevin Spacey (Casey Schuler), Cuba Gooding Jr. (Major Salt), and Donald Sutherland (general Donald McClintock).
Dustin Hoffman is an army biologist who studies viruses. He is separated from his wife, whom he still loves deeply. His superior and long-time friend is a Black commander, who was involved in a 1967 incident in the Congo involving a lethal virus, to destroy which they had to bomb the infected village along with all its inhabitants. The virus spreads through contact and kills incredibly fast, causing rapid decomposition of the internal organs.
Hoffman is urgently sent to examine a case in Africa and immediately realizes that it is an extremely serious situation. With him is his crew: his loyal assistant and a young Black recruit. Having returned to the USA, he warns the commander that perhaps a general alarm should be raised. The commander denies him permission, as the chances of that virus spreading are practically zero.
Instead, the virus is traveling aboard a ship, in the form of a monkey that a Japanese sailor brought on board. Arriving in San Francisco, he sells it to a small-time smuggler, who tries to unload it onto a shopkeeper in a nearby small town. The shopkeeper rejects it, but the African monkey has managed to infect both men and another monkey in the shop. The petty thief releases the African monkey into the woods before leaving for Boston. Arriving in Boston, he is met by his girlfriend. Shortly after, he begins to feel sick and collapses to the ground.
In the meantime, it becomes clear that the military knows about the virus but wants to keep it a secret, and above all, they want to keep secret the fact that they have discovered an antibody. Perhaps, to them, that virus is a powerful weapon. The commander knows it, and his superior, the frosty Donald Sutherland, knows it too.
Hoffman has been reassigned to New Mexico so that he would stop dealing with the African case, but he managed to warn his ex-wife in time, who is also employed in a biological laboratory (though a civilian one), and who has also asked her own boss in vain to raise the alarm. As soon as news of the two Boston cases arrives, the woman immediately understands that it is the same virus. Unfortunately, the petty thief dies before he can explain where he was infected. The woman has all the passengers on the plane checked: since the virus kills within 24 hours, if none of them are sick, it means the epidemic has been contained to the two unfortunate souls. She breathes a sigh of relief.
However, the pet shop owner also managed to infect someone else in the meantime, who is infecting someone else, and so on. The hospital in that small town is filling up with dozens of victims who have the same symptoms and are beginning to die rapidly. The woman decides to rush to the scene, but first she warns Hoffman. Hoffman argues with his commander, who, insensitive to his protests, orders him to leave for New Mexico. Hoffman decides to mutiny: he disguises himself as an officer and, taking advantage of his young apprentice's piloting skills, steals a helicopter and has himself flown to California. So much so that the woman arrives when he has already taken control of operations. Panic has already spread through the town; there are hundreds of cases. In the meantime, the commander has ordered the army to surround the small town to prevent the virus from spreading. The commander has also ordered Hoffman's arrest for insubordination.
The woman manages to trace back to the pet shop and finds one of the monkeys gripped by tremors. Hoffman realizes, however, that the virus is now spreading through the air as well. This is a mutation of the original virus that killed the young men in Boston. It is still not clear how the two cases are connected. Some citizens try to force through the roadblocks to leave the town, but they are fired upon by helicopters. Hundreds of people are confined to makeshift warehouses where they are destined to die rapidly amidst excruciating suffering. Hoffman discovers that the military is unloading boxes of an experimental antibody and wonders why it hadnt been used immediately. He understands that military secrecy is covering up some foul play by the army. The commander does not have him arrested because he realizes that Hoffman is vital to overcoming the crisis.
Hoffman's assistant rips his biohazard suit while in contact with patients: the virus infects him instantly, and within a few hours, he will begin to get sick.
General Sutherland explains to Washington what is happening and explains that the only way to end the epidemic is to bomb the town immediately. He manages to convince the President of the United States, who gives the order to start the mission. Within a few hours, a bomber takes flight and departs for the town. It carries the same type of incendiary bomb that pulverized the African village.
The monkey that was released into the woods, which is the original carrier, has meanwhile befriended a little girl.
It is finally discovered how the monkey managed to leave the port and infect the shopkeeper and the petty thief. Now it is a matter of discovering how it managed to get to the USA. While rescuing the assistant who has collapsed to the ground, the woman accidentally pricks herself with a needle: she too is contaminated. At this point, Hoffman no longer just has to save the town; he also has to save the woman he loves. Warned that the village is about to be bombed, Hoffman begs the Black commander to give him time. They must find the original carrier to manufacture an antibody that works on the mutated virus that is killing people now. The troops are already leaving the town. The general orders Hoffman's arrest so that he will stop investigating.
Hoffman flees aboard a helicopter piloted by the brave recruit. He manages to track down the Japanese ship and understand where the monkey came from. He reconstructs everything that happened. He rushes into a television studio and broadcasts a photograph of the carrier monkey. The little girl's mother calls. Still in the helicopter, Hoffman rushes to her house and uses the little girl to bait the monkey. Having caught the monkey, Hoffman and his pilot must evade a ruthless chase conducted by two helicopters led by the general in person, who has decided to take personal charge of the task of stopping him. The young pilot performs miracles and finally manages to lose them. They land in the town, which is now deserted. The few survivors are locked inside their homes. The woman is hospitalized, now at the end of her strength. Meanwhile, the bomber is just minutes from the city. Hoffman calls the Black commander to say he has found the monkey and is manufacturing the antibody: it is useless to destroy the city. The general, instead, orders the mission to continue, just as the President of the USA ordered. Hoffman then takes flight again and communicates directly with the bomber pilots, trying to explain the situation to them. But they have been trained to listen to nothing but the general. At a certain point, however, the Black commander, finally seized by qualms of conscience, takes the microphone and, under the pretext of reprimanding him for his insubordination, subtly suggests to him how to make the plane change course. Hoffman does it at the very last moment, and the bomber drops the bomb into the ocean.
With the city saved, Hoffman returns to the hospital to embrace his wife, who is recovering. He himself, having taken off his helmet to kiss her one last time, receives the serum. Meanwhile, the Black commander orders the arrest of his own superior, the cruel general.
Then came:
Air Force One (1997), another fantapolitical movie,
The Perfect Storm (2000), another disaster movie,
Poseidon (2006), yet another disaster movie, an adaptation of Paul Gallico's novel "The Poseidon Adventure" (1969),
the historical epic Troy (2004), and the caper movie
Vier gegen die Bank (2016), an
adaptation of
Ralph Maloney's novel
"The Nixon Recession Caper".
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