The American Soldier (1970) Der amerikanische Soldat (original title)

Director:

Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Writer:

Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Release Date:

30 May 1975 (Denmark)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Ricky is a cold-blooded German-American contract killer. After serving in Vietnam he returns to his...

Plot Keywords:

Suicide | Hired Killer | Female Nudity | Nudity

Cast

Karl Scheydt	...	Ricky
Elga Sorbas	...	Rosa von Praunheim
Jan George	...	Jan
Hark Bohm	...	Doc
Marius Aicher	...	Polizist
Margarethe von Trotta	...	Zimmermädchen
Ulli Lommel	...	Zigeuner
Katrin Schaake	...	Magdalena Fuller
Ingrid Caven	...	Sängerin
Eva Ingeborg Scholz	...	Rickys Mutter
Kurt Raab	...	Rickys Bruder
Irm Hermann	...	Hure
Gustl Datz	...	Polizeipräsident
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Marquard Bohm	...	Privatdetektiv (uncredited)
Rainer Werner Fassbinder	...	Franz Walsch (uncredited)
Peer Raben	...	Hotel Receptionist (uncredited)

Directed by
Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Produced by
Peer Raben	....	producer
Rainer Werner Fassbinder	....	producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Peer Raben

Cinematography by
Dietrich Lohmann

Film Editing by
Thea Eymèsz

Production Design by
Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Kurt Raab

Makeup Department
Sybille Danzer	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Christian Hohoff	....	production manager
Peer Raben	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Kurt Raab	....	assistant director

Camera and Electrical Department
Ekkehard Heinrich	....	lighting designer
Herbert Paetzold	....	assistant camera

Other crew
Kurt Raab	....	production assistant

Production Companies

• Antiteater

Distributors

• e-m-s the DVD-Company (2002) (Germany) (DVD) (special edition)
• New Yorker Films (1976) (USA) (subtitled)

Also Known As:

"Der amerikanische Soldat" - West Germany (original title)

Runtime:

80 min

Country:

West Germany

Language:

German

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Singapore:R21 (cut) | UK:15 (original rating) | UK:18 (re-rating) (2007) | Finland:K-16 | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Munich, Bavaria, Germany

Company:

Antiteater

Quotes:

Ricky:W as in war, A as in Alamo, L as in Lenin, S as in science fiction, C as in crime, and H as in Hell.

Movie Connections:

Spin off Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974)

Soundtrack:

With My Tears

an experiment in style and the mood of character, more than a plot-driven movie

The American Soldier has a story, maybe even a plot, but that's not why Rainer Werner Fassbinder made this movie, I believe. It's more about an attack or subversion on the style of a movie, in this case the film-noir. The black and white makes the comparison a little obvious, but it's also in the attitudes of the characters, the costumes and clothing that distinguishes a character like Ricky. But it also owes as much to New-Wave tactics like Godard and Melville (Le Samourai and Alphaville come immediately to mind), and to Fassbinder's own sense of alienation with the world as well as in his own films. It's sometimes hard to watch, since his character carry the same weight of angst and dread that they barely really show to one another, but it's still an intriguing trip.

The story that is there actually reveals more about a German viewpoint than that of it being American, though I'm sure its protagonist and its background is significant just for this reason. It's about a soldier back from Vietnam who is recruited by the government, who act much in the way of a discreet crime organization, to carry out killings of people who may (or may not?) be nefarious characters, or just people whom Ricky doesn't know why he's killing. The implication is somewhat more satirical than action-movie based (though I'm reminded, sadly, of Wolverine earlier this year and movies like it that don't get the message), that a killer keeps on killing if without the right sense of moral well-being or even self-worth.

Fassbinder amps up some clichés for the film-noir aesthetic by making it a pulpy-crime story, where a prostitute falls in love with Ricky even as she shouldn't or might just get in the way. He also casts his parts very well, especially with Karl Scheydt as Ricky (makes Glenn Ford look like a wimp) and Elga Sorbas as Rosa, the attractive but uncertain prostitute who falls for Ricky (there's an engrossing scene where he calls up to ask for a girl to his apartment room, she comes and undresses, and then the two just lay in bed while a maid is in the room telling a somber story about a romance gone bad). All of the cinematography is at least interesting, and at best represents a maturity in film-making for Fassbinder after his first couple of films (Love is Colder Than Death, Katzelmacher) that were just a series of static shots.

Some have brought up criticisms of its tedious nature, or that it's just boring. It's hard to argue it since it's based on taste; the same scene that could make on bored (and, frankly, it's not a good movie to watch when tired at two in the morning) could also make a Jim Jarmusch fan gripped to the chair one's sitting at. Characters in The American Soldier don't move too realistically - it's more like in Fassbinder's own The Merchant of Four Seasons; people move and talk and look like they've come out of a shell-shock, or may still be in one. Even the cop characters, or Ricky's mom and brother, are in a slight daze as they speak, and this is deliberate. It ends up making for a more intellectually satisfying experience than an emotional one; I wasn't so much moved by the ending, where we see a character's death (one usually typical in a film-noir of the 1940s in America, as in bad-guy-gets-his by the end) in the context of a poetic mourning, but it did fascinate me.

It's sometimes tough going, and its rewards are for a real geek for black and white New-Wave inspired crime films that have such gimmicks as a rock song that repeats in lieu of a usual orchestral sound, and its not for someone looking for fast action and conventional thrills. It is, in its dimensions, arty, and fine with it.