3/17/2019 0 Comments Analysis VII: The Good GermanTrust no one in the 2006 film, The Good German by Steven Soderbergh starring George Clooney (Jake Geismar), Cate Blanchett (Lena Brandt), and Tobey Maguire (Tully) in a noir-style mystery set in post-WWII Germany. The film opens to follow Jake as he arrives in Berlin during the Allied conference in Nuremberg. Tully is initially assigned to be Jake's driver (but is running a side-business dabbling with illegal trading on the side). Conflict arose when Jake discovers that Tully is dating his old flame, a German woman named Lena. Eventually, Tully and Jake get into a fight when Jake comes to see Lena again and she and Tully leave. Later, Tully shows up dead and Jake suspects that something is amiss. He conducts some research and discovers that Tully's death is somehow linked to an Allied-investigation into a missing Nazi scientist known as Emil Brandt, Lena's husband. While some claim that Emil is dead and others claim he is missing, Jake discovers that Emil was alive all along and hiding out. In an attempt to set the record clear, Jake attempts to bring Emil to the Allies but he is killed by conspirators wishing to cover the whole incident up. In the end, Jake finds out that Lena was instrumental in rounding up Jews in Berlin before the Allied invasion right before she departs the country for good. This analysis will be focused on aesthetic, character motivation, as well as a compare-and-contrast with movies that this film attempts to emulate. The aesthetic of this film, much like The Third Man by Carol Reed, is heavily gothic, archaic, and comprised of ruins. The setting of the movie really helps the believability of the film. The audience does not struggle to understand that Berlin is a ruined place where things often slip through the cracks as the Allies are trying to clean the mess up-both physically and ideologically. Thus, the mystery is enhanced by the setting rather than hindered by it. While the characters do visit and revisit certain locations in the movie from time-to-time, the setting of the film never feels overused or lacking. Alot of detail went into making the setting look and feel authentic aswell and the film deserves praise for this. The look of a city that was recently besieged is complete. Not only does this unsettle the characters, particularly Lena, feeling as though it is dangerous with evidence to match, but it also disturbs the viewer to some degree. The scenery perfectly encapsulates how easy an entire civilization can collapse, and what happens in the aftermath. The second factor to analyze is character motivation. The characters in this film are fairly one-note, which hurts the overall effect of the film. However, each character is given atleast one primary motivation. Lena wants to escape Berlin, Tully wants to maintain his status quo, and Jake wants to rekindle a romance with Lena. Truly, the weak characterization present in this film is a detriment to the effect the director intended. The audience cannot really relate to any of the characters, who are so staggeringly undeveloped and all evil in one regard or another. They are flawed true, like anyone, but they lack any redeeming characteristics that would cause the audience to 'cheer them on'. Ultimately, the film is ineffective in its use of characters, although the actors do a fine job, setting their standards far above the squalid performance of The Third Man's main cast. Alas, how can this film be compared and contrasted to movies it clearly emulates? Many shots in the film, the premise, and indeed the setting are all meant to pay homage to Casablanca and The Third Man (the airport scene alone is evident of that). Yet the contrasts are perhaps best illustrated by Dominic Griffin in his blog when he states, "There’s a romanticism in films like Casablanca that is utterly perverted here (The Good German), if not outright mocked. Blanchett’s Lena is like the darkest timeline Ilsa, a woman so tortured by her regret and shame that she’s a crystalline statuette of self-hatred. Throughout the film, various characters tease Jake that he doesn’t know just how much Lena has changed or what she’s done, but he’s blinded by his pristine image of the time they shared before all this madness enveloped the world". This fact however, seems unintentional in an attempt to achieve more originality. Sadly, The Good German fails to live up to the likes of Casablanca but draws in the audience far more than The Third Man, as most characters in this film are atleast characterized in a way that gives them potential to be sympathized with. Overall, The Good German is a film that attempts to analyze both a great, and a not-so-great film from the past that belong in the same genre. This film curiously crosses the line between admiration and mimicry however, as scenes like the conclusion are meant to be an homage but come across as unimaginative plagiarism. The Good German rehashes elements of films done more effectively before, and leaves little creative behind. Everything is more morally black-and-white than say, Casablanca, but there's more black than anything. Sadly, this film offers few redeeming qualities, it is not a pioneer nor is it an effective emulation. It's most vital contribution is that it shows that noir as a genre is capable of standing the test of time. The Good German is misguided in its execution true, but its desire to appreciate film noir and show that it can still be relevant and popular in the modern day is admirable. Perhaps if the film choose to flaunt its own originality rather than recreate popular scenes from the past, it would be a far more important and better recognized film today. For future analysts, they are better off studying the actual Casablanca and The Third Man than a film cramming in the same content with little of the substance.
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