User Reviews

The American Soldier has a story, maybe even a plot, but that's not why Rainer Werner Fassbinder made this movie, I believe. It's more about an attack or subversion on the style of a movie, in this case the film-noir. The black and white makes the comparison a little obvious, but it's also in the attitudes of the characters, the costumes and clothing that distinguishes a character like Ricky. But it also owes as much to New-Wave tactics like Godard and Melville (Le Samourai and Alphaville come immediately to mind), and to Fassbinder's own sense of alienation with the world as well as in his own films. It's sometimes hard to watch, since his character carry the same weight of angst and dread that they barely really show to one another, but it's still an intriguing trip.

The story that is there actually reveals more about a German viewpoint than that of it being American, though I'm sure its protagonist and its background is significant just for this reason. It's about a soldier back from Vietnam who is recruited by the government, who act much in the way of a discreet crime organization, to carry out killings of people who may (or may not?) be nefarious characters, or just people whom Ricky doesn't know why he's killing. The implication is somewhat more satirical than action-movie based (though I'm reminded, sadly, of Wolverine earlier this year and movies like it that don't get the message), that a killer keeps on killing if without the right sense of moral well-being or even self-worth.

Fassbinder amps up some clichés for the film-noir aesthetic by making it a pulpy-crime story, where a prostitute falls in love with Ricky even as she shouldn't or might just get in the way. He also casts his parts very well, especially with Karl Scheydt as Ricky (makes Glenn Ford look like a wimp) and Elga Sorbas as Rosa, the attractive but uncertain prostitute who falls for Ricky (there's an engrossing scene where he calls up to ask for a girl to his apartment room, she comes and undresses, and then the two just lay in bed while a maid is in the room telling a somber story about a romance gone bad). All of the cinematography is at least interesting, and at best represents a maturity in film-making for Fassbinder after his first couple of films (Love is Colder Than Death, Katzelmacher) that were just a series of static shots.

Some have brought up criticisms of its tedious nature, or that it's just boring. It's hard to argue it since it's based on taste; the same scene that could make on bored (and, frankly, it's not a good movie to watch when tired at two in the morning) could also make a Jim Jarmusch fan gripped to the chair one's sitting at. Characters in The American Soldier don't move too realistically - it's more like in Fassbinder's own The Merchant of Four Seasons; people move and talk and look like they've come out of a shell-shock, or may still be in one. Even the cop characters, or Ricky's mom and brother, are in a slight daze as they speak, and this is deliberate. It ends up making for a more intellectually satisfying experience than an emotional one; I wasn't so much moved by the ending, where we see a character's death (one usually typical in a film-noir of the 1940s in America, as in bad-guy-gets-his by the end) in the context of a poetic mourning, but it did fascinate me.

It's sometimes tough going, and its rewards are for a real geek for black and white New-Wave inspired crime films that have such gimmicks as a rock song that repeats in lieu of a usual orchestral sound, and its not for someone looking for fast action and conventional thrills. It is, in its dimensions, arty, and fine with it.

For me the very start and the very end of this hilarious parody of gangster films were the most suspenseful parts. The start because it was the first time in a VERY long time that I had sat down to a film not knowing if it was going to be in black & white or colour (happily it turned out to be in black & white); the ending because I found myself wondering just how long Fassbinder was going to hold the incredible slow motion final shot as Kurt Raab thrashed about on the ground.

With 'Der Amerikanische Soldat' Fassbinder finally made a film that's fun to sit through. With stylish film noir photography by Dietrich Lohmann and a tremendous score by Peer Raben, its imagery and tone seems to draw more on recent pastiches by continental cineastes like 'Alphaville' and 'Le Samourai' than the Hollywood originals that Godard & Melville had drawn upon. Most of the cast look either stoned or hung over. I don't know how seriously Fassbinder and his chums were actually taking it, but I found it a blast.

Not one of Fassbinder's best, but certainly worth a look for those interested in the man's work. In mood and style, it's reminiscent of Godard's Alphaville, and my reactions to both films are similar: I am intrigued, but a bit bored. And I don't think either succeed in the end. The American Soldier concerns a haughty German-American soldier, fresh from Vietnam, who struts around killing people for reasons which are kept mostly obscure (he's some kind of gangster or hitman). The police are after him, though the police seem just as wicked. I didn't care much about what was going on – no compelling reason was ever given for me to care. However, many elements of the film impressed me. Fassbinder's idiosyncratic sense of pace and mood pervades. The performances are pretty good. Fassbinder himself appears in a small role and, as usual, he delivers a remarkable performance. He has to be the best actor/director of all time. Peer Raben never seems to write a lot of music for Fassbinder's films. Instead, he just writes one theme that is used several times throughout the given picture. They are always exceptional, and his theme (and also theme song, which is the same tune with lyrics added) is excellent here. And then there's this ending. Fassbinder has a talent for unique and notable endings, and the end of this film is one of the weirdest and most remarkable I've ever seen. 7/10.

American SOLDIER is certainly not among Fassbinder's greatest works. Fassbinder's oeuvre demands that his actors 'pose' rather than 'act'. Ordinarily, a successful dramatic performance allows the viewer to forget that an actor is 'pretending', but that one is witnessing a real depiction of emotions and reactions. However, Fassbinder strives for the converse of this process. He seems to aim for an almost militant lack of affectation, and his actors strike stylized poses which only represent authentic emotions. It's almost like German Kabuki Theater. It would seem that this form of acting technique would lend itself very well to the genre of Gangster Noir, but this film definitely missed the mark. The tale of three rogue police detectives who employ the skills of a heartless American Vietnam veteran is bogged down in an untidy avalanche of wacky details. Odd monologues, pointless car trips, enigmatic phone calls, and arguably the weirdest final scene ever brought to film, do not advance the storyline, but only confuse and perplex the viewer. Fassbinder's more successful films created surreal hyper-realities, but American SOLDIER only conveyed a feeling of disconnected opaqueness. Only for Die Hard Fassbinder Fans.

This is an early Fassbinder film, and from what I've seen, one of the best of his first 11 (which make up his first stage as a filmmaker). It's Fassbinder in gangster mode, and has been called an homage to film noir or even a parody of film noir. This isn't the case though. The movie is just film noir done by Fassbinder. There are little homages here and there, the beginning and end could be seen as being inspired by Breathless (taken to ridiculous extremes), and there are lots of filmmakers names used as characters, but Fassbinder isn't winking at the camera so much as just being himself, which back then, could be quite bizarre. In fact, this might be one of Fassbinder's most bizarre movies.

The camera stands still, characters occasionally deliver seemingly unrelated monologues, unusual plot lines are treated nonchalantly (Ricky's brother is in love with him?), people about to be killed don't seem to be worried, and the singlehandedly greatest song ever plays over and over again, crooning "so much tenderness is in my head, so much loneliness in my bed." To have this song play over scenes of a stone-cold amoral hitman (the title character) casually driving his car are perversely hilarious. Even better is when it plays in the end, in one of the greatest endings I've ever seen (you'll have to check it out).

The recent release of this film on DVD should help bring it some attention, as its now available for a pretty reasonable price from Wellspring. If you're looking for one of Fassbinder's more mature, professional, socially poignant melodramas, maybe this isn't the movie for you. If you're interested in an extremely unique unclassifiable early Fassbinder, by all means, check this out. Despite the occasional nods to past filmmakers, it's surprising how unique Fassbinder was from the start.

(for those who are Jim Jarmusch fans, it's apparent films like these must have inspired the detached humor in some of his more recent films).

"Der Amerikanische Soldat" (1970) is R.W. Fassbinder's least understood movie. Most people think - and this conviction can be found also in textbooks about Fassbinders as well as in reference works of film - that he just wanted to create a German Film Noir as a kind of reverence for his love for the respective American movies of the 50ies. Nothing can be less adequate! The American Soldier, asked by a prostitute, if he is a real Yank, answers: "First, there was Germany ... . Once there was a little boy ... He flew over the Pond ... . Scheisse!". I think the main problem with the story is that Fassbinder purposely does not portray The American Soldier as an American who has been called by the German police to abolish a bunch of criminals. Richard Murphy alias Richard Von Rezzori is a German. When Franz Walsch alias Fassbinder asks him during their car trip: "And how was it in Vietnam?" - Richard's astonishing answer is: "Loud". In this little dialog, there is all you need to understand this outstanding movie. Another crucial scene is when Richard visits his paternal house. As one sees, not only he, but also his mother and his brother are drinkers. When he rings the bell, he tries to kiss his mother, but she disgustedly turns away her head. His brother smashes a wine-glass in his hand until he bleeds. After Richard has left, he starts to cry and says: "Mama, I still love him!". So, who is the American Soldier? A German noble-man who became an American citizen in order to be legitimated to clean-up what had destroyed his soul in Germany? Vietnam as a legitimation to get rid of the burdens of his soul? But about such things one does not speak, and so it was just "loud" down there. But is there not an additional point of criticism in Fassbinder's movie? Fact is: It is the German police (represented by three moronic officers and an antique president) who hire the American Soldier in order to kill all those against which the police has too little evidence in order to arrest them. But in the end, the killer also gets killed, because otherwise the incapability of the police would become public! Can one not see in this other aspect of the story also the function of the real Americans who "liberated" Germany after World War II. and, at the same time, have been accused of intrusion and interference for what they have done? So, Fassbinders's movie is far from being mono-linear. What he copied is a little bit the Ambiente of some early gangster movies, but even the structural main feature, the play with light and shadow and the dark screens which have been so typical for Films Noirs, are completely lacking in "The American Soldier". One has rather the impression, that three clowns of police-men just have watched a bit too many gangster movies, that is all. With that, it goes together that the most unimportant persons in the movie carry the names of famous real persons, a stylistic effect that Fassbinder loved: So, the porter of the shabby hotel is "Murnau", the little girl-friend of one of the police-rowdies is "Rosa Von Praunheim". The porn-sales-girl is Magdalena "Fuller". Last but not least: Richard Von Rezzori bears the name of the German writer Gregor Von Rezzori whose wife Hanna Axmann-Rezzori was one of Fassbinder's early Maecenas and acted in "Warum Läuft Herr R. Amok" and "Rio Das Mortes". The score of this movie, by Fassbinder and Peer Raben, probably belongs to the best film music of all times.

This is the slowest moving gangster film I've ever seen. Each character in the film walks slowly, makes slow gestures, takes forever to answer the phone, and the dialog really drags. Only the slaps speed things up. It seems to be done on purpose by Fassbinder and I can't fathom why. Some of readers of IMDb comments about Fassbinder's films may have noticed that I have written critical comments about several of his films. I'm a fan of Fassbinder and do admire his "Lola", "Marriage of Maria Bran", "Ali; Fear Eats The Soul", "Merchant Of Four Seasons", The Bitter Tears Of Petra Von Kant", and "Effie Briest". But there are times when Fassbinder can turn out a dud and then he really makes a disastrous film. I suppose that is what a genius does. I just wish we could see his "Berlin Alexanderplatz" and "Lili Marleen" on DVD.

I am not really too sure what the love affection people have for Fassbinder is. He made some wildly uneven movies, Mind you, I've been wrong before on directors (especially on Bergman) so I'll keep this opinion til proved otherwise. 'The American Soldier" is Fassbiner's attempt at a Film Noir. He doesn't succeed. OK, this film is totally miscast. The 'Gangsters' don't begin to look like gangsters. They look like Germans wearing funny costumes! The story, about a killer who is assigned a series of killings by some corrupt police officers is hardly suspenseful and yes, drags for the 70 (!!) minute screening time. And finally the women are, well, German.

Oh dear, am I going to get flak for this one.

The European pseudo-noirs of the 60s and 70s reaped the benefits of being able to skip a number of steps in the writing process simply by adopting styles and themes from previous films. What was left was to add one's own spin to an existing story. Fassbinder was a genius at taking a style and making it his own, not in a superficially Tarantino-ish way, but in a way that was at once equally unique and dependent, retaining the benefits of a style and pushing it even further into his own territory.

In this sense, this film is an early experiment: a war veteran turned contract killer stoically carrying out his duties, but in a post-war German environment and with homoerotic undertones galore. But it's remarkably coherent and compelling considering how little the plot gives away explicitly. Indeed, this would become one of his trademarks.

4 out of 5 - An excellent film

I find it mind boggling how I can be so very impressed with some of Fastbinders films like "Chinese Roulette", "Warum Lauft Herr R. Amok" and the film "I only want you to love me" and see them not only as extremely polished well crafted and well conceived, but almost flawless. Like most directors, even those as mighty as Martin Scorcese, some types of movies he is extremely GOOD at making, and others, he fails miserably. In essence, Fastbinder is extremely GOOD at making mundane more or less boring films, and one thing I've learned from this movie, and his film "gotter Der pest", is that when it comes to crime dramas, he fails in almost every way when there is too much action, and simply cannot construct a movie with a coherent plot line.

I don't agree with the term "Art House" as being a true genre, but basically when you call a movie "art house" what you essentially mean to say is that events in the film make little or no rational sense which runs on similar lines to "surrealist cinema". These genres are SUPPOSED to have incoherent plots and illogical situations, which in a film utilising a standard approach, would make the film complete trash. The problem is where do you draw the line between recognizing a movie as being creative, and far out, or recognizing it as a poorly crafted movie with lousy plot development, plot holes, sub par acting, and flawed in general.

Indeed there are WAYS to pull off a good surrealist or "art house" type movie without going too far, and managing to achieve strong meaning, however films like these do not do that. It seems as though the director throws in insane off the wall moments as childish distractions to a movie being overall led by dull acting and no real point: moments such as the couple being shot while laughing hysterically. When the main character leaps up and kisses the maid who then falls into a deadpan trance. When the maid sits on the end of the bed and recants a meaningless story as the couple are making love. The moment where the main character almost french kisses his mother. The moment where he shoots blanks at a woman on the ground, and worst of all, the suicide, where a woman kills herself with one stab wound to the STOMACH, whereby she drops dead seconds later, which is more or less impossible. All of these things are pointless, having no other aim than cheap shock value, and all of them compiled into one film is simply too much to handle. The problem is that the result is, you simply cannot take anything in the film very seriously, and therefore cannot really find any meaning or poignancy to the film whatsoever, which is culminated in the ending where the man is rolling on the floor all about his dead brothers body who had just been shot. The only thing that passed through my mind was "oh.. another silly little thing to end the film on"

The general approach, riddled with these ridiculous moments aside, the plot is simply not very cohesive or well crafted. The entire film consists of the main character murdering people seemingly at random and for no reason while the police idly attempt to catch him. The film begins with the main character returning to the town, and the police suddenly become aware of him, apparently he is just that infamous which was given no background at all. Also the way he gets his tips from a random porn seller, the first person who's help he seeks is very contrived. All of this culminates with the ending, which is totally ludicrous; the most ill conceived amateurish "sting" operation ever, very badly directed and with an unrealistic finish. The worst aspect about this, is that there has been no attention to the efforts of the police who are trying to catch him. They just suddenly show up at a train station, conveniently waiting for him out of nowhere.

Fastbinder doing crime drama simply does not work, and I find it hard to believe how any scene in this half overdone half underdone film can resonate at all. The only thing to say about this film really is; there's nothing going on here.

This is a very funny attempt by the director to deal with the "klischee"( german spelling) of the american man, or at least how the proletarian german man is looking across the atlantic. All americans are good in bed? goodlooking? violent and yet cool? Why is there a need to put ketchup on a shot person's shirt? Would you really believe then that somebody was actually killed? I agree with other viewers that this not a movie that could be considered enjoyable at all times, but it beats movies like "the patriot" or "frida" any time, because it doesn't take itself serious. And that in itself is exactly the director's criticism of american culture ( what an abuse of the word culture!) and their consistant effort to tell you everything is allright and we are the good guys. Here, have another Diet coke, or would you like a Big Mac with your Whitney Houston?

Americans are stereotyped as much as we stereotype others. I concede that it isn't Fassbinder's best, thus the 9 instead of a 10. Still, it the best early film I've seen. "They" had talent, raw as it was.

Without putting in spoilers, I liked the working of the triple cross and the set-up to take the rap for the crimes of others. Some might have found it slow. I saw it methodical. For a film that clocks in at under 90 minutes, the pace is realistic, if not superior.

I have really liked some of Fassbinder's films, so I cannot be accused of being "anti-Fassbinder". BUT, I really hated this film. It was amateurish throughout--with a lousy score, indifferent acting and dopey direction. It was VERY obvious that this was one of Fassbinder's first films because it has so many obvious flaws and looks more like a home movie. Let me give a few examples:

1. When the lead shoots one lady and the man with her to death, she is very obviously breathing as he leaves the room. I could easily see this while watching it on a DVD on TV, so I'm sure on a large screen it was even more apparent. Normally, this flaw would have been spotted and the scene re-shot.

2. The end of the movie is choreographed poorly and comes off very sloppily.

3. The actors, at times, have trouble with their lines. Once again, a director would NORMALLY re-shoot the scenes.

4. The suicide scene is, perhaps, one of the most poorly acted and pointless scenes I have ever witnesses. Most high school plays have greater realism.

The film appears heavily influenced by Jean-Luc Godard and in some ways looks like a knock-off of the movie, Alphaville. This is a real shame, as Alphaville is another terrible film that has been seen, by some, as great art--while the average person would probably find the films amateurish and choppy.

FYI--this is a VERY explicit film in places, so parents beware.

Also, during one scene in the film, one of the actresses tells a story. Apart from a few changes, the story she told later was made by Fassbinder into ALI: FEAR EATS THE SOUL. A very interesting touch indeed, but not enough to save this film.

Incredibly incredible. Static (except for the long scenes shot in the convertible car, when we see the shadow of the camera). Unconvincing. Amateurish. Fake actors. Uninteresting story. Unprofessional image. As directed by a debutant (although it is Fassbinder's 6th feature) who is experimenting and does not really know what he wants.

This is the kind of film that gives ammunition to all those who say "I hate them artsy-fartsy foreign films!"

It is nothing more than a pastiche of disjointed ideas, all of which Fassbinder must have thought to be absolutely gangbusters, but a complete mystery to anyone else.

Mechanically, the movie is bad: the actors all seem to sleepwalk their way through the scenes. If they indeed planned it that way, it just doesn't work. Not even the most basic of special effects are used, when a simple one would do: a tiny ketchup splat on a shirt would at least let you know the shooter did not miss. (A quibble, maybe; but if nothing else is there to redeem the film, one tends to quibble.)

Story-wise, no one acts with any sense of logic or awareness. A woman sits on the edge of a bed while a couple makes love, and tells a pointless tale which doesn't have an end. (Oh, how significant!)

Someone commits suicide, and all you're left with is a feeling of how totally unrealistic it was. Why would she do that right then and right there? And why was it even filmed? Does it add anything to the story, the mood, the feeling of the film? No. Pointless...

The ending is horrible. It makes no sense, the people involved don't act anywhere near believably. Seeing the dead man's brother "wrestling" with him in an almost necrophilic way, drawn out in slow-motion to apparently give it some grander sense of significance or merit, you're just left with a big sense of...

"..well that was huge waste of my time."