König der letzten Tage (1993– ) User Reviews

Movie of monumental class, that hollywood could learn from.

[videoflk · 10/10 · 4 October 2003]

I might be biased about rating this movie, because I was born in westfalia. Surrounded by a long family history. There are still visual artefacts of the "WIEDERTAEUFER" period left, for every visitor of the provincial capital of Muenster, to see. Specially the hanging cages, where the captured leaders of the upraising, where condemned to die in. The portrait of the violent medevil time was well captured, even when most of the scenes where not made on location. I believe they where made in the Zcheck republic. I rated this movie a 10 : The acting was superb, specially Mario Adorf's portrait of the ruling bishop, also his opponents came to live as believable religious zealots. The created atmosphere of the movie was suspenseful, the story intriguing. Some well done realistic battlescenes, describing without any cosmetics the brutality of midevil warfare. This theme was carried right to the end with an incredible detail and feel of the time period. The end of the movie was very shocking, describing the execution of the ringleader in any detail, but nevertheless realistic. Hollywood always presents us with sanitized versions of period peaces,

making them look sort of corny. This movie is not holding anything back. There is really no such thing as "the good old days!" People of this period either lived in apalling poverty, with very little sanitation, or in splendid luxury. Few artisans living in somewhere between. Those times lived in deep religious superstition, where cruel, violent, dirty, and to add one positive ,romantic. This movie has captured those moments well. This movie does not look like a "cheap " or low budget production. By hollywood standards, it would fall way beyond the $20 million limit for medium budgeted productions. Well, that was, what I felt, watching this incredible well crafted movie.

Loved it, but the end scene was weird

[anders-n-aa-larsson · 5/10 · 13 April 2020]

I really wish there were subtitles for non-German speakers to enjoy this two parts miniseries about the Münster rebellion to its full. And, of course, we can have an endless discussion about historical accuracy versus artistic licence and what not, but the ending was a bit weird.

We all know that still to this day, there are three cages hanging from the church tower in Münster, because three leaders of the rebellion were tortured and executed.

But here, only Jan Bockelson (Christoph Waltz) in the final scene dies, and suffers a much less agonizing death, where the court jester drives a knife to his heart, to end his suffering.

This is of course cinema, but here I honestly think reality surpasses poetry. For anybody who wants to know about the real, and much more exciting rebellion, there is for example, Dan Carlins excellent Hardcore History podcast episode about this, or Murray Rothbards essay on "Messianic Communism in the Protestant Reformation" at the Ludwig von Mises Institute.

Nice duo in lead roles, but the result came short

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 19 February 2015]

"König der letzten Tage" is a two-part mini-series that lasts over 3 hours and stars two of Germany's most famous actors. However, neither of the two was actually born in Germany. Mario Adorf has been a driving force for German cinema for almost 60 years now since his breakthrough in the Academy Award nominated "Nachts, wenn der Teufel kam". Christoph Waltz has won two Academy Awards in the last 5 years and may be the most successful Austrian actor of all time. Big name in Hollywood right now thanks to Tarantino and he has a Bond villain role coming up soon.

Unfortunately, this great by-the-book combo did disappoint me a bit. That was not really the fault of the actors though, but that the film was set during a time I really do not have that much interest in, the 16th century. It's all about kings and the church and these are topics I never found particularly interesting. Fittingly, Waltz also looks like a Jesus character for most of the film. If you have more interest in that and are lucky enough to get a truly hard-to-find copy of this, you will probably enjoy it much more than I did. I felt it dragged a lot and there were only a few scenes that I truly enjoyed, such as the scene in the bathtub early or also the really graphic ending. Also the pregnancy is interesting as Waltz' character still somehow lives on that way. The movie is packed with references about God and the Devil, about prophets and false prophets from start to finish. Adorf was in his early 60s when this was made, Waltz in his mid-30s. The only other actor I know from the cast is the late Michael Habeck, but I don't remember much of his character.

The film is set in the German town of Munster and was directed by Tom Toelle. Even if he died in 2006, 13 years after this film, it was one of his last projects. Writer Manfred Purzer is still alive, but this was also one of his last works. He hasn't worked for over 15 years now, is probably retired. Finally, I would only say that i recommend this film to people with lots of interest in German history and you also probably need a great deal of knowledge on the matter to get the most out of this viewing experience. Those who do not have it will probably be a bit disappointed like myself.