Chaostage (2009) User Reviews

Nothing feels authentic because nothing is authentic

[Horst_In_Translation · 2/10 · 16 September 2017]

"Chaostage" or "Chaostage - We Are Punks!" or "Warriors of Chaos" is a German 1.5-hour mix between documentary and fiction from 2009, the first of so far three films by Tarek Ehlail and they all have references to politics, revolution and also to violence I believe. Ehlail is also one of those who adapted the novel into the film. I have not read the novel this is based on, so I am not sure if the key problem is the original work or the adaptation. There are some known names in here, another Das Boot reunion, but to be honest I don't think any of these actors were really that talented at any point in their long careers, more like on the charismatic side and maybe also at the right place during the right time, but their range could be a lot better. Here and there you also get a tiny cameo by Helge Schneider for example, but his screen time is too limited to make the impact he usually makes. I found the re-enacted parts where the worst here and pretty cringeworthy to watch at times as the material was so bad really that even experienced professional actors couldn't save it. The interview parts were slightly better, but also nothing special and sometimes extremely over the top that I wondered if the entire thing was scripted from start to finish. Anyway, at not one point in this film I had the impression that they were really grasping the essence of punk or living it. It was all make-believe in my opinion and all in all this one is a failure as it basically sticks to depicting Nazis as bad guys in a way you'd expect every left-wing oriented film that has almost no substance or depth at all. How about you focus on love instead of hate and truly make an impact with the subject you are elaborating on in here. None of that was achieved here. Besides: Guess what we know that Nazis are evil. But there are more bad guys out there speaking of which I see Los Banditos being a production company here. Despicable comes in all sizes, colors and shapes. Like this film here. Don't watch.