The Captain

Outstanding film in every way. Based on true story and brilliantly acted. It's brutal and savage at times but then so were the real events around Willi Herold. Never heard of him before seeing this film but researched him and film is very accurate. Weird when you rent it looks like its almost 4 hours long. In fact first part is all black and white and second is in colour. Same film ..... I watched the black and white version. Recommended but as stated some brutal scenes .....

Portrait of depravity, or a moral study in the corrupting power of ideology. It’s also a survival story, as all war stories are, showing the lengths to which some soldiers will go to escape the madness of the conflict with their lives still intact.Willi Herold is a lowly corporal in the German army, a deserter on the run from the military police. It’s late April 1945 somewhere in the forested hinterlands of Germany and the pointless war is lost. But the tragic bloody-minded routine of war carries on as if it knows no better: the aggression and brutality, the hatred and contempt.Willi is young, only 19 or 20. He’s physically fit and and outruns the police who fire at him from a moving vehicle. Darting into a nearby wood, he hides in the hollow of a fallen tree, curled up in it like a foetus. This posture is probably meant to be symbolic because he’s about to emerge from it and be reborn.The police give up, wander away. Willi is alone again, his teeth chattering, his body shaking and shivering in the cold. It’s April, as stated, yet there’s still snow on the ground. The sky is grey and oppressive. The soldier is cold, hungry, weary, frightened. We feel for him, as we would for anyone in terrible distress. Yet the compassion will be ironic and short-lived because the young man fleeing for his life is about to be transformed into a monster when he finds in an abandoned vehicle a trunk whose contents include a Luftwaffe captain’s uniform (with all the insignia still intact), a greatcoat, boots, gloves and officer’s hat. Initially he puts on the clothing for warmth, but the longer he stays in it the better he feels, and not just warm. It gives him ideas, fantasies. He struts around in the uniform, barks out imaginary orders. His eyes look cold, his face impassive, implacable. Rank and elegance give him the illusion of authority, and with this a sense of impunity. He likes what he feels, empowered by it, and in due course he will put this power to use. So the hunted in this tale will not exactly become the hunter. He will become an executioner, god-like in his power of life and death over his fellow man.As stated, a pathetic portrait of a man in moral descent, but also a study in the will to survive in a chaos not of his own making, which of course is one definition of war. So he’s both victim and victimiser, persecuted and a persecutor, and, as it turns out, a sadistic and effective one. To be real the playacting has to look real, so he’ll be forced to make drastic commands that even fellow Nazi officers find extreme and revolting (though some will celebrate him for his coldheartedness and nerves of steel).The story is a true one. If you do an internet search for The Executioner of Emsland, information about this war criminal will come up. He survived the war but not its consequences, thanks to the British. As a salutary lesson he’s an example of how ideology can pervert and corrupt a person, no different than in our world today where neo-Nazis and other right-wing thugs conspire in the cesspit of social media to harm those whom they hate. The danger of this madness was historical but remains contemporary. We need leaders and governments and laws that deal properly with this danger, isolating and quarantining it as a harmful meme that can spread like a virus.The film isn’t much fun, as you can imagine. It’s harsh and bleak and depressing. The only humour in it isn’t funny — a racist sketch of the Jews put on by some German soldiers in detention for the fun and sport of Nazi officers and others in attendance in a camp mess hall. They drink, laugh, hoot and cavort. The caricature and cliché of Jews as tightfisted and distrustful is trotted out for the tawdry amusement of these coarse and bestial fools. They’ve all been suckered by a myth, but myths, as this strange, fine film shows, can be very powerful indeed.Highly recommended, though it makes for squeamish and disheartening viewing. Not every film needs to be entertaining to be good. It took courage to show the psychology behind such depravity, so hats off to the German director of the film. The Germany that was is not now, a fact we should all feel grateful for (and even try emulating).

Director Robert Schwentke has made a superb Anti-War film, showing known events that took place in the final weeks of the war in Germany during World War Two. Brutal and unrelenting, “The Captain” (original title “Der Hauptmann”) is a superbly crafted film – if perhaps not without the odd factual error (mainly where some scenery is depicted), the cinematography looks (to me) very convincing. Robert Schwentke intended that the film be shown in monochrome, and there is an option on the DVD on the initial Menu that says “Choose a Version”. That option then gives a choice of “Play Colour Version” or “Play Black & White Version”. I watched the Black and White version of the film and I'd say that the film presented in that way did work very well. After I'd watched the film, I looked at some of “The Captain” from the Colour Version and noticed that the colour was somewhat subdued, (bright and garish would definitely not have worked well).The story is an incredible one, it is an horendous one, it is an unbelievable one, but it is one that is, in reality, actually a true one. We are shown what happened and, where military politics is concerned, again we are “shown” but not “told”. Everything is not necessarily clear if (like me) you are not au fait with German military procedure and German Nazi protocol during WWII, but it can be seen how the protocols of that regime were a contributory factor in what took place.The cast is superb. Lead actor Max Hubacher plays Willi Herold – the film's central character who in turn becomes an imposter. Hubacher's portrayal of Herold (the imposter) is a mesmerizing performance. The supporting cast is also amazing, especially Milan Peschel in the role of Freytag – one of the Captain's early recruits. The cinematography is appropriately stark which heightens the tension of the film. Occasional statements emphasise that what is being watched did happen.I would recommend that the film be watched to the very end (including watching the End Credits). After a statement of facts is given towards the end of the film, the end credits then roll. Ironic imagery is shown on screen and bizarre as it might look it makes a very good point.On the DVD (ASIN: B07FNNRHZD ) you get:“The Captain” (1 hour 55 minutes)Scene SelectionSet Up: 5.1 Surround Sound, 2.0 StereoChoose a Version: Play Colour Version or Play Black & White VersionEnglish Subtitles included, they are are embedded and are not optional.

Grisly, and hard to watch at times, but very worthy on the basis of what you are watching at worst actually happened.Some mention humour, although if it is there it is purely ironic, gutteral and blunt in nature.Someone here awarded it 2 stars purely on the basis of historical innacuracy, although it might be argued there would be precious few worthwhile historical dramas was accuracy a prerequisite.What you get here is a cold cinematic approach to something that happened down to the conditions prevalent as German forces became pushed against the ropes at the end of the second war.It deserves praise in that it unwaveringly depicts a horrific and extraordinary event at an extraordinary time.Far from a classic, it still has the power to hold onto the viewer and resonate for some time.I wondered at the film being so long at 4 hours... ? You realise after 2 hours that there are two same versions side by side... The first in black and white, and the second in colour... Clever...I have only watched the first black and white version, and am glad that monochrome was presented first as I suspect it has the greater power to compound the reality more.