The Edukators
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Movie Reviews of The Edukators
Movie Review: The Idealism of Youth and the Realism of Adulthood: Tempering the Blazes
Summary: 5 Stars
'Die Fetten Jahre sind vorbei' or THE EDUKATORS has a message, a message that deals with the 'education' of the captains of industry by the idealistic socially conscious rebels among the youth AND the 'education' of those rebellious youths by the world wise/weary hoarders of wealth whose life change resulted from being the rebellious youth of yesteryear. The dichotomy of opinions makes for a thoughtful and thought-provoking diatribe that lifts this film from an action movie into the realm of a psychological 'thriller' of sorts.
Peter (Stipe Erceg) and Jan (Daniel Brühl) have been close friends for fifteen years, share a flat, and spend their time attacking the corrupt society in which they resentfully find themselves by breaking in to wealthy peoples homes while the owners are away, rearranging all the furniture and leaving notes that inform them their days of lifestyle are doomed. They do not steal or damage: their acts are political and philosophical statements. Jan is the more idealistic of the two and also the more reclusive. Peter is gregarious and finds a live-in girlfriend Jule (Julia Jentsch) who slowly becomes attracted to Jan, more for bonding than for Peter's physical emphasis. Jule confesses to Jan that the reason she cannot accompany the good-hearted Peter on a trip to Spain is that she is deeply in debt, the result of an accident in her old car with a new Mercedes belonging to an older wealthy man Hardenburg (Burghart Klaußner) who is making Jule pay him the 100,000 Euros the car cost him. Jule is complying but is resentful that a man of wealth is so money conscious that he has overlooked the fact that his demands have made her life intolerable. When Jule is informed of Peter's and Jan's night capers, she suggests the trio make Hardenburg's home their next ploy. The result of a bluster, the trio is discovered by Hardenburg and they opt to kidnap him to prevent their going to jail.
Retreating to a country cabin the now 'quartet' slowly come to understand each other, with Hardenburg confessing that in his youth he too was a hippie and a member of a similarly socially conscious gang. He reminisces and gains the trio's respect, is instrumental in revealing the fact the what he believes is a ménage a trois is in reality a changing of partners for Jule, preferring Jan to Peter. How this new information alters the plans of the kidnapping and its resolution is the climax of the film and accompanies some surprises best left to the individual viewer's enjoyment.
The actors are uniformly excellent: Daniel Brühl is rapidly growing into a very fine actor and Julia Jentsch is most assuredly a new actor to watch. The film gets a bit long in the tooth for the static situation of the final half, but the impact of the ending rescues the story from any flaws it may have had. Director Hans Weingartner understands the fine line between message films and entertaining movies and succeeds briskly with this one. THE EDUKATORS leaves us with food for thought no matter the age group - current rebels or aged rebels! Highly recommended. Grady Harp, December 05
Movie Review: compelling characters
Summary: 5 Stars
Peter (Stipe Erceg) and Jan (Daniel Brühl) are friends with a mission: they break into the homes of the ridiculously wealthy, not to steal, but to rearrange the furniture and leave a message saying "your days of plenty are numbered," (die fetten Jahre sind vorbei) signed "The Edukators."
Peter's girlfriend Jule (Julia Jentsch) has her own reasons for being angry with the ridiculously wealthy: she's perpetually broke, slowly paying a man named Hardenberg (Burghart Klaußner) the cost of a high-end Mercedes from an accident when she didn't have insurance. At her low-wage job, it'll be years before she pays it off.
When Peter's out of town, she and Jan spend time together, getting closer, and Jan tells her about The Edukators. Jule convinces Jan that her nemesis is the perfect subject for the scheme. However, while they're rearranging his house, Hardenberg returns home, catches them, and recognizes Jule.
Panicking, they take him hostage, and then call Peter to come rescue them, and they all end up in a secluded cabin in the mountains while they think about their options.
I wasn't sure I was going to like this movie that seemed to promise to be a sociopolitical drama, but after the first 20 minutes or so, I was hooked. It did make me think--a lot--about social problems, but it was the characters that grabbed me.
The young trio were very realistically frustrated, both with the injustices they saw and with their inability to effect change. And yet, they're just playing at being revolutionaries--their big statements are a cross between a prank and performance art. The romantic triangle was also very well done, and played into their motivations--specifically, the different relationships between Jan and Jule and Peter and Jule, and between Jan and Peter were distinct and the events in the film changed those relationships.
Hardenberg was even more thought-provoking, as he reveals his history as a 60s radical himself, and his journey into becoming one of the ultra-rich.
Probably not coincidentally, it was also around the 20-minute mark that I started ignoring the subtitles and just listening to the dialogue in German. There's a huge difference for me in being able to understand a movie when it's originally in German as opposed to being dubbed. Lots more syllables in German than in English, so the actors in dubbed movies talk really fast--not so good for the less-than-fluent.
Movie Review: Get Edukated!
Summary: 5 Stars
Since I entered this film with no expectations, The Edukators hit me like a combination of a spiked punch and a sucker punch - it left me surprisingly shaken yet somehow also refreshingly, intoxicatingly awakened.
The Edukators takes us on a journey with three would-be revolutionaries: Jan, a passionate iconoclast who rails against the commodification of dissent ("What used to be revolutionary, you can buy in stores today. Che Guevara t-shirts and anarchy stickers."); Jule (played by Julia Jentsch, the dazzling young actress from "Sophie Scholl"), a directionless and searching soul who, as Jan says, goes to so many protests against exploitation and oppression but is still oppressed and exploited herself; and Peter, an somewhat naïve idealist who early on tells Jule to "always go for the brightest colors" when choosing an ice cream flavor.
Apparently, writer/director Hans Weingartner took these latter words to heart in the making of this movie; it's been ages since I've seen such vivid, vibrant hues in a film - from the chaotic neon of the boisterous Berlin cityscape to the pastoral calm of the countryside, this movie is awash in breathtaking color.
The same could also be said about its characters - though they may start of as seemingly one-dimensional archetypes, many shades of light and dark emerge from each well-acted portrait. And when complications arise in the young revolutionaries' activities (as they always do, when one puts one's dreams into action), they end up on opposite sides of a standoff in which some remarkable similarities are discovered.
The Edukators deftly mixes politics of the mind with politics of the heart and whips it all into a heady and suspenseful stew. (And no small amount of suspense was created by my own worries, as the film neared its conclusion, that there was no way to end it in a satisfactory way - happily, I was wrong!).
And while the DVD lacks any real extras, with 2 hours and 10 minutes of such satisfying and sumptuous cinematic goodness, can you really bite off any more when you're already so full?!
Movie Review: Great movie about the present state of hopelessness amongst German youth
Summary: 5 Stars
On the back of the DVD cover it says that it was one of the funniest movies that person had seen all year. That I would disagree with, because I found it anything but funny. However it is a great movie. It really captures this feeling of powerlessness and of hopelessness that one finds in German youth and young adults. Although I am sure the same goes for Americans. All three main characters work, because they have to, but aren't exactly sure where it will ever get them. They start breaking into houses-huge, rich villas-, not to steal anything, but to rearrange furniture and take away that feeling of security from the rich. The feeling of security is something they haven't experienced yet in their adult lives. Jule owes a lot of money to a filthy rich guy, because she hit his mercedes and was uninsured. All she works for, is to pay him back. On her insistance they break into his house and end up getting caught by him. In a rush moment they abduct him and go to this hut in the mountains. There begins a conversation between the three and the captured. He, although now wealthy, claims to have been quite active in the 60s and 70s and that he understands what's going on him them. It becames an interesting dialogue, but it's not idealized, because Jule's and Peter's position is brought into question as well, because violence doesn't solve anything. The movie never really gives an answer to what the solution for the future is, but it discribes this present state of mind perfectly and states that something has to change, better sooner than later. All three actors do an terrific job.Movie Review: Worth Watching
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this movie to study everyday German.I wasn't necessarily looking for quality, but it was evident. This movie will appeal to the idealistic progressive without a doubt. I'm imagining teary eyes as the protest vet' recalls past moments of anti-establishment glory. All that aside, this is just a good movie. There are no moments of extreme action, no cliffhangers. This movie hits you in a very subtle way, and you don't know what you think about it until the very end. In fairness, the movie also gives the progressive some things to chew on. The way the film dealt with the age old conflict between what we as humans know to be the responsible thing to do, and what we as humans know about the need to keep our hearts alive through our hopes and dreams is admirable. In conclusion, this movie makes you think about stuff! Teenagers beware.