The Brutalization of Franz Blum (1974) User Reviews

Good performances make this a solid watch

[Horst_In_Translation · 6/10 · 17 June 2015]

The title of this 100-minute movie actually sounds like a Rainer Werner Fassbinder movie and even if the time fits, he was not actively working on this project. It's actually a Reinhard Hauff movie and the script comes from Burkhard Driest. Driest worked with Fassbinder (and Herzog), so this was certainly inspired. He also plays the main antagonist Kuul (is he really that one?) in this film and was a prolific actor himself. Our anti-hero is played by Jürgen Prochnow (in his early 20s), who you may know from "Das Boot". Eberhard Junkersdorf produced here and he was one of the most known German filmmakers at that time. The whole thing runs for 100 minutes and basically only plays in a prison. The protagonist gets in it right at the start for driving a vehicle in a robbery. The film ends with him being release after 4 years. Other known German actors in here include Tilo Prückner, Fassbinder regular Kurt Raab, Gert Haucke and Charles Brauer.

The story can be summarized pretty easily with the film's title. Blum is an almost harmless good guy at the beginning, but life in prison drastically roughens him up and he becomes one of the most feared and influential people inside. His intelligence helps a lot and it's his great advantage compared to Kuul. This way Blum makes up for his physical weaknesses. But still, he also acts violently, the first time around minute 40 after he gets beaten up by Kuul. Prochnow occasionally looked a bit like the young Clint Eastwood here in my opinion. It's a good film from start to finish, not really great on any occasion and there are some expected events, like the death of the inmate with the heart disease, but it doesn't really hurt the overall perception of the film. The ending is truly ironic when one of the warden's tells Blum that he became an entirely different human being in these 4 years. Maybe this comment that closes the film will give you goosebumps, but it's a nice example of smart dialog writing. Good watch and I recommend it.

Good film with a stellar performance by Jürgen Prochnow

[Rodrigo_Amaro · 6/10 · 7 October 2023]

I was little torn apart with "The Brutalization of Franz Blum". It had an interesting subject to tackle which is the issue about human rehabilitation of a criminal, if it's possible or not to make them repent for their crimes, learn new things through hard work and then get sent back to society as functional members of it.

The time to face the law and pay for his mistakes comes to Blum (Jürgen Prochnow), a young petty criminal that comes from a family of means who is sent to jail after a robbery gone wrong where he was the only member of the gang to get arrested. Completely unfamiliar with the system and how prisoners deal with themselves, with guards and the warden, Blum is tossed around here and there, at times being very obedient to the guards and the warden rules to the point of clashing with other inmates by reporting their schemes and fights, and other times being part of the bargain schemes trading products and sharing working duties, to the point of becoming a cell block leader who competes with the veteran and violent leader Kuul (Burkhard Driest).

Reinhard Hauff's film truly believes that the prison system changes the man, but not in the rehabilitation sense and obvious that it's about that the change comes from what prisoners can make to improve their crimes when they get out or at least learn ways to survive any prison system possible if they ever come back. Blum goes from a wimp snitch who has only one friend, a man suffering with a sick heart who helped him early on, to a man who has comrades working under him and against their former boss; a man who initially worked along with the guards that later on managed to blackmail one of them when needed.

When the movie works through such ideas we have a most fascinating and gripping story to see. But on the other hand, and maybe that's just me, for the most of what we were shown in this German prison things aren't so tough and it feels like a summer camp those men are forced to stay in. Instead of the usual violence (which is rarely presented) most of the time the prisoners keep swaping cigarettes, schnapps, medicine and coffee, and there's a weird hierarchy where group leaders don't need to perform the hard labor on the outside, they just keep watching the others and they guards allow it.

Unlike the Hollywood cliche of groups divided by race fighting against each other, here the division and the shift of power comes from either the toughest guy or the most intelligent, and those below in the hierarchy can switch from leader whatever they want - except for one guy who's in love with Kuul, he's faithful all the way even though he's always mistreated. Yet they all bicker with each other for small things, some prank that wasn't well received or just test of force against each other.

It's a fine movie, made it a somewhat positive experience due to Prochnow's masterful performance. His early films as a lead in Germany rather than the typecast villains he played in Hollywood flicks are all something special - most notably "The Consequence" where he also plays a prisoner; and the mega hit "Das Boot" both directed by Wolfgang Petersen. Check them all out if you can. 6/10.

A deeply ironic film about what one man learns from his time in prison

[maralex · 10/10 · 17 August 2001]

Roughly translated the English title for this is The Brutalization of Franz Blum and that's exactly what the story is about. Franz Blum (Jurgen Prochnow) goes to prison for his part in a bank robbery. He previously worked in a bank, came from a good family and has never been in trouble before. An intelligent, caring man he quickly comes to realise that he has to survive in a world he can scarcely comprehend, where brute force and ignorance are more important than anything else. Slowly Franz Blum learns how to fight back from the insults and beatings that his fellow inmates inflict on him, until he starts to become one of the most influential of the prisoners with his own 'gang'. His survival comes at a price, as he discards his moral principles and begins to manipulate the inmates as much, if not more, than the wardens and the previous gang leaders. The ending is deeply ironic and rings horribly true. Although well acted by everyone, it is Prochnow who makes this movie so outstanding and is one of his best performances apart from Das Boot and Die Konsequenz.