The Good German (2006)

While in post-war Berlin to cover the Potsdam Conference, an American military journalist is drawn into a murder investigation which involves his former mistress and his driver.

Director:

Steven Soderbergh

Writers:

Paul Attanasio (screenplay), Joseph Kanon (novel)

Stars:

George Clooney, Cate Blanchett, Tobey Maguire

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 3 wins & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
George Clooney	...	Jake Geismer
Cate Blanchett	...	Lena Brandt
Tobey Maguire	...	Tully
Beau Bridges	...	Colonel Muller
Tony Curran	...	Danny
Leland Orser	...	Bernie
Jack Thompson	...	Congressman Breimer
Robin Weigert	...	Hannelore
Ravil Isyanov	...	General Sikorsky
Christian Oliver	...	Emil Brandt
Dave Power	...	Lieutenant Schaeffer
Don Pugsley	...	Gunther
Dominic Comperatore	...	Levi
John Roeder	...	General
J. Paul Boehmer	...	British Press Aide

Storyline

Berlin, July, 1945. Journalist Jake Geismer arrives to cover the Potsdam conference, issued a captain's uniform for easier passage. He also wants to find Lena, an old flame who's now a prostitute desperate to get out of Berlin. He discovers that the driver he's assigned, a cheerful down-home sadist named Corporal Tully, is Lena's keeper. When the body of a murdered man washes up in Potsdam (within the Russian sector), Jake may be the only person who wants to solve the crime: U.S. personnel are busy finding Nazis to bring to trial, the Russians and the Americans are looking for German rocket scientists, and Lena has her own secrets.

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Plot Keywords:

nazi | prostitute | head held underwater | sex shop | striptease | 

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Taglines:

Not Everyone Finds Peace After The War

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Genres:

Drama | Mystery | Romance | Thriller | War

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Certificate:

14A

Did You Know?

Trivia

Steven Soderbergh initially considered shooting on a black & white film stock, but ended up using a color stock because it was required for the bluescreen effects of the driving scenes. (Black & white stocks were also slower and grainier than he would have liked.) The film was subsequently desaturated in the digital intermediate, and released on a black & white print stock. George Clooney had gone down the same path the previous year, with his film Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005).

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Goofs

Jeeps from WW2 were all manual transmission with a long gearshift lever. Tulley is seen driving a Jeep more than once after he has his right arm broken. That would have been impossible to do.

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Quotes

Bernie Teitel: This guy? Drove one of the gas vans. They'd load the Jews in back, run the exhaust inside.
Bernie Teitel: [inhales] By the time they got where they were going, they were already dead. Very efficient. Driving to work, he killed more people than Al Capone in all his years in Chicago. But if you asked him, he isn't a murderer, he's a truck driver. And he still thinks that.

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Crazy Credits

All the logos appear in black and white, while the Warner Brothers logo appears in the forties old style

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Connections

References Casablanca (1942)

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Soundtracks

Somebody Else Is Taking My Place
Written by Bob Ellsworth, Dick Howard and Russ Morgan
Performed by William Marsh, Chris Ross, Johnny Britt and Gary Stockdale

User Reviews

Not-so-good German

A clever look: imitation vintage B-movie in black and white; Steven Soderbergh's appropriate, artful gimmick for this film set in Berlin in the immediate aftermath of WWII.

Cate Blanchett turns in an apt theatrical performance given "The Bad German's" archly retro conceit. As the film's mother/whore femme fatale, Cate is sphinx-like, world-weary and made up like a drag queen at Mardi Gras. George Clooney, meanwhile, turns in his routine performance that is altogether too modern and casual. Put him in scrubs and he's ready again for the ER. Together, they create no chemistry nor any other natural science. Toby McGuire, as a sleazy, black-marketing GI, is so painfully hammy you'll find yourself begging for him to stop.

The storyline is awkwardly developed and unnecessarily opaque, its characters cold and remote. There's really nobody to cheer for or identify with; no emotions to hook us into this world. When was the last time that international intrigue, on-screen, was so unintriguing? It's too bad we've been served such an exciting cinematic look -- an overly lit, noir-like one -- only as window dressing on a story as bleak and dreary as the blitzkrieged landscapes on view.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site [Germany] Warner Bros. [United States]

Country:

USA

Language:

English German Russian

Release Date:

19 January 2007 (USA)

Also Known As:

L'ami allemand

Filming Locations:

California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$32,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$76,817, 17 December 2006

Gross USA:

$1,308,696

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$5,914,908

Company Credits

Production Co:

Sunset Gower Studios, Warner Bros., Section Eight

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min

Sound Mix:

DTS SDDS Dolby Digital

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1