Good (2008)

Director:

Vicente Amorim

Writers:

C.P. Taylor (play)
John Wrathall (screenplay)

Release Date:

11 December 2008 (Hungary)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Anything that makes people happy can't be bad, can it?

Plot:

The rise of national socialism in Germany should not be regarded as a conspiracy of madmen. Millions of "good" people found themselves in a society spiralling into terrible chaos. A film about then, which illuminates the terrors of now.

Plot Keywords:

Dementia | Novel | Professor | Germany | Neurotic

Cast

Viggo Mortensen	...	John Halder
Jason Isaacs	...	Maurice
Jodie Whittaker	...	Anne
Steven Mackintosh	...	Freddie
Mark Strong	...	Bouhler
Gemma Jones	...	Mother
Anastasia Hille	...	Helen
Ruth Gemmell	...	Elizabeth
Ralph Riach	...	Brunau
Steven Elder	...	Eichmann
Kevin Doyle	...	Commandant
David de Keyser	...	Mandelstam
Guy Henry	...	Doctor
Adrian Schiller	...	Goebbels
Rick Warden	...	Brownshirt

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

UK | Germany

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital EX

Certification:

Australia:M | Brazil:12 | Ireland:15A | UK:15 | Netherlands:12

Filming Locations:

Budapest, Hungary

Company:

Good Films

Trivia:

The music played at the end by the Jewish prisoners is Gustav Mahler's first symphony, third movement. This movement uses as one of it's themes a parody of the popular children song "Frère Jacques", and the whole symphony borrows heavily from one of Mahler's song cycles, Lieder eines Fahrenden Gesellen. The last song, "Die zwei blauen Augen" (The two blue eyes) can be heard sometimes during the movie, as in the end of the movie shoot and as part of the symphony's movement being played.

Goofs:

Errors in geography: In the scene, when Halder takes a walk with his ex-wife in the cemetery, which is supposed to be in Berlin, Germany, Hungarian names are clearly visible on the gravestones.

Normal

Watching this movie has been a fascinating experience, and at the same time I understand why so many people seem to hate it. It has little to no action, an ensemble of seemingly boring characters, and after all, what haven't we seen several times before? Yet I believe that the movie's story is the important factor here. Yes, all the different elements have been here before, but never assembled like this.

What it gives is, in essence, one possible answer to the haunting question - how could it happen? How could normal, civilized, educated people allow and even support what culminated into a world war and the Holocaust? Here you have it - an ordinary, intelligent person, who considers himself to be a good man (and indeed actually might be), with normal problems that plague us all in life. Yet all it takes is a bit of ignorance, or perhaps rather denial, because seemingly everything is just going so well... Suddenly he looks around and discovers that he has become the very symbol of pure evil (very obvious to us today with the black uniform and scull and bones symbols, but oh so mystical, alluring and elite then), who has essentially through inaction allowed his best friend to be sent to death and actually even aided something that stands against everything he believes in.

One cannot help to wonder what would happen next...

Good script, very well filmed and excellent acting, in my opinion.