The Promise (2001)

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Movie
German title The promise
Original title The pledge
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2001
length 119 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
JMK 14
Rod
Director Sean Penn
script Jerzy Kromolowski ,
Mary Olson-Kromolowski
production Michael Fitzgerald ,
Sean Penn,
Elie Samaha
music Klaus Badelt ,
Hans Zimmer
camera Chris Menges
cut Jay Lash Cassidy
occupation

The Pledge (Original title: The Pledge ) is an American drama film directed by Sean Penn from 2001 . The plot is based on the novel The Promise by Friedrich Dürrenmatt .

action

Detective Jerry Black, who works in Reno , Nevada , is about to retire. During his farewell party, which his colleagues organize as a surprise for him, the murder of a little girl is reported. Since he is formally six hours on duty, Black decides to start investigating the case. At the scene of the crime, the investigators discover a cruelly disfigured corpse that suggests the act of a sex offender. Black informs the girl's parents and promises the mother to find the perpetrator.

The perpetrator is apparently quickly determined based on the testimony of a boy who was nearby with his snowmobile and observed a man fleeing. It is a deranged Indian who, after being interrogated in the sheriff's office, commits suicide with a stolen service weapon. Black doesn't believe in his guilt. He continues to investigate and is referred to a drawing in the girl's school that shows a giant giving the girl little hedgehogs. There is also a large black station wagon on it. The giant bears no resemblance to the Indian, who also drove a red-brown pickup. During further investigations, Black learns of a similar murder of a little girl who, like the last victim, was blond and wore a red dress at the time of the crime. He also reveals that a blonde girl of the same age has been missing for three years in the region in question, where the other two victims were found, and was last dressed similarly.

He informs his long-term colleagues about the results of the investigation, but they do not believe him. Instead, they advise him to take his final leave of retirement and let the matter rest, since in their opinion the Indian had already been caught as the culprit.

Black then buys a gas station in the region, believing that sooner or later the murderer will have to refuel his black station wagon with him. He befriends the waitress Lori from a nearby pub, who moves in with her little blonde daughter Chrissy after her ex-husband beats her again.

A long time goes by in which Black becomes more and more the surrogate father for the girl and the man for the waitress. By chance he came across a manufacturer of hedgehog figures in the area, whose son Gary Jackson fits the perpetrator profile: tall, driver of a dark station wagon, still unmarried at over forty, but ostentatiously religious. Jackson even contacts Chrissy, making himself even more suspicious. One day the girl tells Black that she met a magician. He gave her little hedgehogs, which taste very good. The magician wanted to meet her at the picnic area the next day, but she wasn't actually allowed to talk about her encounter with him, she had promised him that.

Black alerts his former colleagues, who for his sake lie in wait with a special unit at the picnic area. While the officers await the arrival of the man at their post in the heat of the day, an accident occurs on a serpentine road between a truck and a black Volvo station wagon, which burns with its driver.

Since nobody shows up at the picnic area, the police break off the operation against Black's will, who remains in cover at the picnic area. They inform Chrissy's mother Lori about Black's plans. On their drive back to police headquarters, the officers conclude that Black used to be a very good cop, but is now just a wreck. They believe him even less than before and drive past the scene of the accident in the black station wagon. Nobody connects to the case. It stays that way, but the viewer can see that the dead Volvo driver must be the culprit - a hedgehog figure hangs on the rearview mirror.

Lori picks up her daughter from the picnic area and blames Black for pretending to be a nice and helpful man all along, not to start a new life with her and her daughter, but to use them as bait for his investigative work. She cannot forgive him for putting her daughter in danger and leaves him with her daughter.

In the final shot, you see Black talking to himself with a bottle of schnapps in his hand in front of the completely run-down gas station. He has no way of knowing that the child murderer has long since died in the car accident, so he continues to wait for the perpetrator and has apparently lost his mind over it.

There is only one reference to the actual identity of the perpetrator in the film. One scene shows a lady from a shop in town who once helped Black with directions. She walks through her shop, calls a certain Oliver and asks where he has hidden the chocolates. In the end, she finds them herself - they are “hedgehog” pralines, as Chrissy must have been given.

background

The film is - even if it is often portrayed this way - not a remake of the film It happened in broad daylight of 1958 with Heinz Rühmann as the detective and Gert Fröbe as the murderer - at least not in the real sense. Rather, it is based directly on Friedrich Dürrenmatt's novel The Promise , which was only published after the 1958 film - but was based on the script that Dürrenmatt co-authored for it. It happened in broad daylight shows some serious differences to the novel or film The Promise , in particular in the first film the perpetrator is actually lured into the trap. However, while the novel and first filming address the perpetrator's disturbed relationship with women, this remains largely unclear in the 2001 film version, as is his identity. The novel version of the story without a happy ending was filmed for the first time in 1979, so that the 2001 film is a real remake.

Sean Penn moved the plot from German-speaking Switzerland in the 1950s to present-day Nevada. Originally the film was supposed to be shot in Minnesota . For cost reasons, however, the filming took place in British Columbia and Nevada . They started on February 14, 2000 and ended on May 2, 2000. The cost of production is estimated at $ 35 million to $ 55 million. In a lawsuit in which the Intertainment AG from Ismaning , the company Franchise Pictures sued, accusing Intertainment that the actual budget of 35 million US dollars falsely with 55 million US dollars will specify artificially to the marketing rights for the European Film Market to increase the price. In the course of the legal dispute, which u. a. also extended to Battlefield Earth , Intertainment was awarded the required damages. On the opening weekend, the film grossed US $ 5.7 million in cinemas in the US, and total US revenues of more than US $ 19.7 million were posted. Globally more than $ 29.4 million in revenue. 136,650 visitors were counted at the Swiss box office. The film celebrated its world premiere in the USA on January 9, 2001. On May 15, 2001 it was shown at the Cannes Film Festival . Further screenings at various film festivals followed. Originally, the film was also supposed to be shown at the Berlinale , but this was abandoned at short notice for legal reasons. It was shown in German and Swiss cinemas from October 11, 2001, and in Austria from the following day.

Sean Penn's mother, actress Eileen Ryan , appears in a cameo as Jerry Black's secretary.

The film is dedicated to Michael D. Haller and Jack Nitzsche , who worked as screenwriters and composers on Sean Penn's first two films, Indian Runner and Crossing Guard - It Happened on the Open Road .

Actually, a few more scenes should be shot that should show that Gary Jackson is not the killer. After the budget problems in the production of Battlefield Earth - Battle for the Earth , it was decided to forego these scenes in order to meet the budget requirements.

Reviews

Kenneth Turan wrote in the Los Angeles Times on January 19, 2001 that Sean Penn was a "talented" film writer who could work very well ("extremely well") with "top actors". He particularly praised the portrayals of Jack Nicholson and Robin Wright Penn.

Michael Wilmington praised Jack Nicholson in the Chicago Tribune . The film is similar to a tragedy.

"In the main role, excellently played, above all beyond the conventional criminal act, intensely and multilayered staged guilt-and-atonement story about a man who breaks under the burden of an irrevocable promise."

- Lexicon of international film

Awards

Sean Penn was nominated in 2001 for the Palme d'Or and in 2002 for the Danish Bodil . Benicio Del Toro received an ALMA Award nomination in 2002 . Brittany Tiplady was nominated for the Young Artist Award in 2002.

Hans Zimmer was nominated for the World Soundtrack Award in 2001.

literature

  • Friedrich Dürrenmatt : The promise . Requiem for the detective novel . In: Three detective novels: The judge and his executioner. The suspicion. The promise. Diogenes Verlag, Zurich 2004, 537 pages, ISBN 3-257-05702-4 or ISBN 978-3-257-05702-7
  • Florian Schwarz: The novel “The Promise” by Friedrich Dürrenmatt and the films “It happened am hellichten Tag” (1958) and “The Pledge” (2001) . Lit Verlag Hopf, Münster 2006, ISBN 3-8258-9299-9
  • Oliver Möbert: Intertextuality and Variation in Friedrich Dürrenmatt's Work. On the genesis of the text of the crime novel “The Promise” (1957/58) with special consideration of the feature film “It happened am hellichten Tag” (CH / D / E, 1958) . Peter Lang Verlag, Frankfurt 2011, ISBN 978-3-631-61123-4

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Age rating for The Promise . Youth Media Commission .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Background information according to the Internet Movie Database
  3. ↑ Locations according to the Internet Movie Database
  4. ↑ a b c d e budget and box office results according to the Internet Movie Database
  5. ↑ a b c d Start dates according to the Internet Movie Database
  6. ↑ a b c d e nominations and awards according to the Internet Movie Database
  7. ^ Film Review , Los Angeles Times , Kenneth Turan, Jan. 19, 2001
  8. ^ Film review , Chicago Tribune , Michael Wilmington
  9. ↑ The promise. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed October 20, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used