Reviews

According to reports at the time, the Federal Republic of Germany (or "West Germany," as it was known then,) became somewhat of a police state in the mid-70's.

The embarrassing, massive blunder of the Munich '72 Olympics segued into the Baader-Meinhoff, and at some point the German government started using police tactics that had more to do with Orwellian practices than civil rights. This movie reflects that, and it does so while showing the arduous process experienced by its protagonist (admirably played by Bruno Ganz,) who must literally rewire his brain after the forces of the State almost kill him by mistake and then try to blame him in order to cover things up.

There must have been a measure of freedom left in W. Germany for this movie to have come out somehow. Is Ganz's recovery (from vegetable back to human being after having had his memory wiped out) an allegory of Germany itself (from Nazism to freedom and back to a police state again)? Go figure. All I know is that is movie left an indelible impression in my mind, which is saying a lot in an era when German cinematography was coming up with a gem every other month.

Seek it out.

This documentary, mostly about the Spanish war conflicts of the 1930s, acts as an exposé of the futility and failure of some of the ideologies that dominated the Western world in the mid-20th Century. Nazis, fascists, communists and anarchists, no one is free of responsibility; no one sees their ideals fulfilled.

The film is specially poignant for Spanish viewers, who will walk away with moist eyes; but it has enough moments of profound humanity to emote anyone. It is also very successful at unraveling the baffling complexity of the Spanish Civil War, where nothing was quite black or white, even though the combatants and political leaders acted as if it was. The whole world was watching but no-one acted, and those who took a stance got burned badly. A special place in my heart is reserved for those foreign volunteers who came to defend the Spanish Republic, and whose sense of loss was only alleviated by the personal bonds that they left behind with the Spanish people.

In the end, by the time one hears about the outlandish experiences of Spanish volunteers fighting with the Germans against Stalin in the Russian front, one realizes that the previous century was one big, obscene theater of the absurd, and that the Spaniards seemed to be pretty good actors in it. With a special cameo by Luis García Berlanga, the noted director of "The Executioner" and "Life Size," who fought against the Russians in order to prevent his father from being executed by Franco loyalists back home in Spain.

I suppose the fact that this movie was made during the dictatorship of General Franco, when Spain did not register on any international cultural radars, accounts for the fact that it remains relatively unknown. In my opinion, this is not only the best film ever made by a Spanish director, but one of the best European films ever, and a masterpiece of dark comedy. It is a powerful indictment of the death penalty anywhere, and the scene in which proud and retiring executioner Amadeo sticks prospective son-in-law José Luis' fingers in the lamp fixture, thereby giving him a mild electric shock, remains an all-time classic ("You think that's bad? That's only 125 volts! The Americans are worse, with their electric chairs...")

This movie is stronger, deeper and funnier than any recent comedies by the likes of Pedro Almodóvar and other Berlanga-influenced Spanish directors, due to the bleaker political reality against which it was made. There is more directorial talent involved and the performances are stronger, with the glorious José Isbert stealing the show as always.

Times have improved in Spain, and filmmakers may have more freedom, but nothing as corrosive as this has been made since.