The Good German (2006)

Director:

Steven Soderbergh

Writers (WGA):

Paul Attanasio (screenplay)
Joseph Kanon (novel)

Release Date:

14 February 2007 (France)

Genre:

Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

If war is hell then what comes after?

Plot:

While in post-war Berlin to cover the Potsdam Conference, an American military journalist is drawn into a murder investigation which involves his former mistress and his driver.

Plot Keywords:

Berlin Germany | Hospital | Double Cross | Flashback Sequence | General

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 2 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Jack Thompson	...	Congressman Breimer
John Roeder	...	General
George Clooney	...	Jake Geismer
Tobey Maguire	...	Tully
Cate Blanchett	...	Lena Brandt
Dominic Comperatore	...	Levi
Dave Power	...	Lieutenant Schaeffer
Tony Curran	...	Danny
Ravil Isyanov	...	General Sikorsky
J. Paul Boehmer	...	British Press Aide
Igor Korosec	...	Russian Soldier
Boris Kievsky	...	Russian Soldier
Vladimir Kulikov	...	Russian Soldier
Yevgeniy Narovlyanskiy	...	Russian Soldier
Aleksandr Sountsov	...	Russian Soldier

MPAA:

Rated R for language, violence and some sexual content.

Runtime:

105 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | German | Russian

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

SDDS | DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Argentina:13 | USA:R (certificate #42615) | UK:15 | Sweden:11 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | Ireland:15A | Australia:MA | Singapore:NC-16 | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Portugal:M/12 (Qualidade) | Germany:12 | Brazil:16 | Netherlands:12 | Finland:K-15

Filming Locations:

Backlot, Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA

Company:

Sunset Gower Studios

Trivia:

Steven Soderbergh, wishing to shoot this film the old Hollywood way, banned the use of sophisticated zoom lenses used by today's cinematographers, returning to the fixed focal-length lenses used in the past. Furthermore, only incandescent lights were used which provided harsh, unnatural lighting. There were also no wireless body microphones, which would allow the faintest whispers to be heard, on set. Sound was recorded the old-fashioned way, with a hand-operated boom mike held above the actors head, which consequently forced the actors to speak in loud, crisp English.

Goofs:

Factual errors: Jeeps from WW2 were all manual transmission with a long gearshift lever. Tulley is seen driving a Jeep more than once after he has his right arm broken. That would have been impossible to do.

Quotes:

Bernie Teitel: This guy? Drove one of the gas vans. They'd load the Jews in back, run the exhaust inside.
Bernie Teitel: [inhales] By the time they got where they were going, they were already dead. Very efficient. Driving to work, he killed more people than Al Capone in all his years in Chicago. But if you asked him, he isn't a murderer, he's a truck driver. And he still thinks that.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The 79th Annual Academy Awards (2007) (TV)

Soundtrack:

You're Some Pretty Doll

Not-so-good German

A clever look: imitation vintage B-movie in black and white; Steven Soderbergh's appropriate, artful gimmick for this film set in Berlin in the immediate aftermath of WWII.

Cate Blanchett turns in an apt theatrical performance given "The Bad German's" archly retro conceit. As the film's mother/whore femme fatale, Cate is sphinx-like, world-weary and made up like a drag queen at Mardi Gras. George Clooney, meanwhile, turns in his routine performance that is altogether too modern and casual. Put him in scrubs and he's ready again for the ER. Together, they create no chemistry nor any other natural science. Toby McGuire, as a sleazy, black-marketing GI, is so painfully hammy you'll find yourself begging for him to stop.

The storyline is awkwardly developed and unnecessarily opaque, its characters cold and remote. There's really nobody to cheer for or identify with; no emotions to hook us into this world. When was the last time that international intrigue, on-screen, was so unintriguing? It's too bad we've been served such an exciting cinematic look -- an overly lit, noir-like one -- only as window dressing on a story as bleak and dreary as the blitzkrieged landscapes on view.