The People Vs. Fritz Bauer (2015)

The story of the man who brought high-ranking German Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann to justice.

Director:

Lars Kraume

Writers:

Lars Kraume (screenplay), Olivier Guez (screenplay)

Stars:

Rüdiger Klink, Burghart Klaußner, Andrej Kaminsky

16 wins & 10 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Rüdiger Klink	...	Heinz Mahler
Burghart Klaußner	...	Fritz Bauer
Andrej Kaminsky	...	Polizeibeamter
Jörg Schüttauf	...	Paul Gebhardt
Carolin Stähler	...	Frau Kreidler
Sebastian Blomberg	...	Ulrich Kreidler
Michael Schenk	...	Adolf Eichmann
Stefan Gebelhoff	...	Willem Sassen
Pierre Shrady	...	Eberhard Fritsch
Götz Schubert	...	Georg August Zinn
Laura Tonke	...	Fräulein Schütt
Arndt Schwering-Sohnrey	...	Staatsanwalt Kügler
Daniel Krauss	...	Staatsanwalt Vogel
Nikolai Will	...	Staatsanwalt Warlo
Ronald Zehrfeld	...	Karl Angermann

Storyline

The story of the man who brought high-ranking German Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann to justice.

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Plot Keywords:

justice | jurist | courtroom | denazification | reference to adolf eichmann | 

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Taglines:

Hero or Traitor

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Genres:

Biography | Drama | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for some sexual content

Details

Official Sites:

decine21.com (Spanish) Official site [Germany]

Country:

Germany

Language:

German English Yiddish Spanish

Release Date:

1 October 2015 (Germany)

Also Known As:

The People Vs. Fritz Bauer

Filming Locations:

Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$33,781, 21 August 2016

Gross USA:

$288,483

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$3,083,973

Company Credits

Production Co:

Zero One Film, Terz Film, Westdeutscher Rundfunk (WDR)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

105 min

Color:

Color Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In Spain was released with limited opening in 30 theaters (16 provinces); later was a widest opening in 52 theaters (30 provinces). The film was projected in dubbed version / subtitled version.

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Goofs

Fritz Bauer is shown checking into the American colony hotel so as to meet the Mossad. In 1957, that hotel was under Jordanian rule, and totally inaccessible to Israelis.

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Soundtracks

Ich bin ein Mann
Performed by Lilith Stangenberg
Composed by Julian Maas / Christoph Kaiser(as Christoph M. Kaiser) / Ali Zuckowski
Music publishers: Oblique Music + Ediaon Songreiter (UMP)
© 2015 Colosseum Music Entertainment GmbH

User Reviews

Mostly good film, infected though with one or two gross misrepresentations

In general, the story of Eichmann is a seminal story to understanding the 20th century, and the depth of evil in the Nazi state. AS ardent noted the banality of Eichmann's evil, especially the cold bureaucratic elements the machine he helped create to murders of innocents by the millions is a truly instructive warning.

In addition to Ardent, faithful films in German and in English of the Wannsee conference, as well as Wiesenthal relentless and heroic should be read or seen by all.

This film however, just can't help but throw in Washington and the CIA on several occasions. The filmmakers just have to deploy the time worn European crutch of raising an Americans bogeyman and it ruins the film's claim to veracity. In fact, the Us with all its flaws had nothing to do with the creation and enabling of Eichmann, and in fact Eichmann was a very German and European creation.

In 2006 stories started to come out that the W. German intelligence and the CIA had known he was in Argentina. In fact subsequent to that in 2011 that claim was shown false. The claim they know he was there is like the claim FDR knew an attack would be at pearl harbor. Pearl was listed, but so were many other places. Same with Eichmann and his location., there was intelligence he was in a dozen places. In fact Guy Walters blows away this tin foil hat conspiracy theory repeated in the film back in 2001.:

blogs. telegraph.co.uk/ news/ guywalters/ 100071101/ the-west- Germans -and-the- Americans -really-did- not -know-where- eichmann-was/

(remove spaces in the URL as IMDb was rejecting it as too long)

The idea that the CIA or the US in anyway blocked the W. Germans or Israeli on Eichmann is also simply bogus. What the now largely released documentation of the period shows is the US was more focused and concerned with reducing the international isolation of Israel, and while Eichmann's abduction was utterly just, it was illegal under international law, and in fact Israel was excoriated for the abduction in the Security council. In fact the abduction of Eichmann had realty increased the influence of the nationalist, anti Semite and deeply anti American Tacuara Nationalist Movement. Raising concerns about that is not some smoking gun of US or CIA complicity.

It is a shame to see an otherwise good film touching an important part of the history of a European and German created holocaust and aftermath flawed by worn and bogus misrepresentation and blame shifting.