The Good German
by Steven Soderbergh
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Cate Blanchett, George Clooney, Jack Thompson, John Roeder, Tobey MaguireDirector: Steven Soderbergh
Brand: CLOONEY,GEORGE
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; German (Original Language); Russian (Original Language); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: AC-3, Black & White, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 108 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-05-22
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Warner Home Video
Movie Reviews of The Good German
Movie Review: Messy and dull
Summary: 2 Stars
The Good German takes place in sort of post world war II Berlin. Japan has not been bombed yet and a army journalist(Clooney) arrives in Berlin for, in my understanding, a conference. He is not a stranger to Berlin. He lived there before the war and was in some sort of relationship with Cate Blanchett's character. Upon arrival, he is issued a driver, played to the point of annoyance by Tobey Maguire. Surprise suprise, Tobey's character is now involved with Cate's character and then we find out that Cate's husband, who everyone, including her assumes died in the war-but maybe not? Yea... it can get a tad confusing.
This murder mystery does not have a good handle of things from the onset. There are many problems with this film, most deriving from the script and characters. Tobey Maguire sticks out like a sore thumb in this-just badly miscast any way you look at it. George Clooney plays the same character in every film-no surprise. Cate B. is extraodinary as usual, so versatile you would never believe she WASN'T German. But even she can't save this convoluted mess of a film.
There is murder, and mystery and a boring romantic subplot that goes nowhere, and characters you can't even begin to care for for various reasons. I can see why this bombed in theaters. The one thing this film has going for it, is its authentic look. Shot entirely in black and white, it comes so very close to the old films we all know that it's just a shame the actual plot can't be any better.
I'm always amazed by the five star reviews of certain films. I know everyone has a right to their opinion, but if you rank this 5 stars, what are you comparing this to? I mean, the rating can't get any higher, not on Amazon. So really, is this truly one of the best films you've ever seen?
Summary of The Good German
Who knows what American journalist Jake Geismer (George Clooney) expected to find in postwar Berlin? Peace, maybe. Or at least a story. But certainly not Lena (Cate Blanchett), his beautiful, embittered one-time love. And not the trail of secrecy and deception that leads from Lena to the scheming young corporal (Tobey Maguire) who's her new lover...and to a murder no one seems interested in solving. Except Jake. Steven Soderbergh directs three of today's top talents in this zigzag thriller that's both an atmospheric homage to 1940s filmmaking and a deft modern film noir. The Good German is "haunting and hypnotic, it's pure moviegoing bliss" (Peter Travers, Rolling Stone).Despite its flaws, The Good German is a welcome gift for every film lover who laments that "they don't make 'em like they used to." Steven Soderbergh's affectionate, knowing tribute to the black-and-white melodramas of Hollywood's golden age may lack the emotional depth and romantic passion of Michael Curtiz's Casablanca--the 1946 classic it intentionally emulates--but as Soderbergh approximates Curtiz's studio style, he delivers a shimmering, shadowy reminder that movies can be enjoyed for the sheer pleasure of their craftsmanship. Once again serving as his own cinematographer (credited as "Peter Andrews"), Soderbergh went to great lengths to technically and aesthetically re-create the look and feel of a Curtiz production, and Joseph Kanon's source novel (adapted by Quiz Show screenwriter Paul Attanasio) provides a twisting plot set around the historical Potsdam conference in post-World War II Germany. An American military journalist, Capt. Jake Geismer (George Clooney) is in rubble-strewn Berlin to cover the event, and is quickly drawn into a murder plot involving his appointed driver (Tobey Maguire), an old flame-turned-wartime prostitute (Cate Blanchett) and her missing husband, a scientist who possesses pivotal secrets coveted by Americans and Russians in a pre-Cold War bid for power.
Violence, sexual content, and salty dialogue make it clear that this R-rated drama is a brashly contemporary homage to films of a bygone era, and not a slavish attempt to copy the past. This yields mixed results in terms of the film's overall appeal; it's gorgeous to look at, but the plot and performances exist in a vacuum, and the entire film feels oddly disengaged from any sense of genuine human emotion. It's probably fair to say that Soderbergh had more fun making the film than most people will have watching it. And yet, as Clooney's character is repeatedly beaten and deceived on his path to cynical enlightenment, The Good German has many qualities that make it recommendable, not the least being the pleasure of following a talented director as he indulges his penchant for bold experimentation. --Jeff Shannon
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