"Der Kapitän" or "The Captain" is a West German 90-minute film from 1971, which means it had its 45th anniversary last year. The three men who worked on this one essentially were really successful back in the day and this applies to director Kurt Hoffmann, writer Franz Seitz and of course lead actor Heinz Rühmann. However, for the trio this film is far from their most known achievements, but their involvement I guess kept this film from becoming totally forgotten. Especially Rühmann is still a household name here in Germany and he was in his late 60s when he starred in here already, but still far from the end of his career. There also exists an English(-language) version of this movie based on Richard Gordon's novel and at that point in Rühmann's career it was nothing uncommon at all really for him as he appeared in more German adaptations of English films back then.
The story here is as the title already suggests about a ship captain. However, he gets transferred right at the very beginning and this initial scene at his boss' office already makes clear that Rühmann initially is a good character, a good human being pretty much as he does not accept causing harm to humans (emotional/physical) for financial reasons. But there is also a bit wrong with his character in terms of lifestyle and happiness and especially the 100% seriousness he shows in his profession. So the film is a journey for his character, a journey to himself and his own happiness in his ways of becoming a lighter, not always stone-cold person that is perhaps respected by his peers and colleagues and crew, but not liked. Shame they did not come up with a better explanation really than turning the central character into a drunkard. But this is just one of many weaknesses this film has. Ultimately the script as well as the performances (including Rühmann sadly too) were not exactly inspiring or memorable. I have not read the book this is based on, so I am not sure if the literary work is the problem or the adaptation here, but this film ultimately falls into the category of many many German 1970s movies that end up forgettable and I don#t recommend seeing it. Thumbs down.
The story here is as the title already suggests about a ship captain. However, he gets transferred right at the very beginning and this initial scene at his boss' office already makes clear that Rühmann initially is a good character, a good human being pretty much as he does not accept causing harm to humans (emotional/physical) for financial reasons. But there is also a bit wrong with his character in terms of lifestyle and happiness and especially the 100% seriousness he shows in his profession. So the film is a journey for his character, a journey to himself and his own happiness in his ways of becoming a lighter, not always stone-cold person that is perhaps respected by his peers and colleagues and crew, but not liked. Shame they did not come up with a better explanation really than turning the central character into a drunkard. But this is just one of many weaknesses this film has. Ultimately the script as well as the performances (including Rühmann sadly too) were not exactly inspiring or memorable. I have not read the book this is based on, so I am not sure if the literary work is the problem or the adaptation here, but this film ultimately falls into the category of many many German 1970s movies that end up forgettable and I don#t recommend seeing it. Thumbs down.
