The killer brigade

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Movie
German title The killer brigade
Original title The Package
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1989
length 103 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Andrew Davis
script John Bishop
production Beverly J. Camhe ,
Tobie Haggerty
music James Newton Howard
camera Frank Tidy
cut Billy Weber ,
Don Zimmerman
occupation

The Killer Brigade (Original title: The Package ) is an American thriller from 1989 . The Director led Andrew Davis , the writer wrote John Bishop . The main roles were played by Gene Hackman , Joanna Cassidy and Tommy Lee Jones .

action

The film begins with shots of a changing of the guard of the Soviet Army Guard in front of the Soviet Memorial in the Tiergarten in West Berlin .

The experienced Master Sergeant Johnny Gallagher of the US Army belongs to the Berlin Brigade in 1988/89 and is deployed with a team to secure the site during a meeting between the US and Soviet military in a castle in Berlin. A couple dressed up as tourists attack a US military vehicle, killing three people. Gallagher's squad then gets into a firefight in which another US soldier is killed. The group had previously checked the two tourists without searching their backpacks, as the (fake) West Berlin police arrested both of them. Gallagher reports on the incident to Colonel Whitacre, who considers him unreliable and refers to his involvement in the failure of an earlier mission during Operation Eagle Claw in Iran in 1980 . Colonel Whitacre is said to have been stationed in Tehran as an intelligence officer . Gallagher is ordered back to the USA and is supposed to accompany and guard Sergeant "Walter Henke" of the 82nd US Airborne Division, who was arrested for a disciplinary offense. This is the package ( The Package ) during the flight from Berlin-Tempelhof via Frankfurt am Main to the USA. There he is to be handed over to the Marshal of the Military Police in Fort Belvoir . During the flight, “Henke” tells the patriotic Gallagher about the power of the military-industrial complexes of the USA and the Soviet Union .

Gallagher is attacked in the airport toilet in the US and the prisoner is freed by accomplices. Gallagher visits Walter Henke's wife in Arlington and discovers that the package is a different person than is visible in a family photo. Then he turns to his ex-wife Lieutenant Colonel Eileen Gallagher. Eileen, who has partial access to the military personnel files in the data center, helps with Lieutenant Ruth Butler to find out that the fugitive prisoner "Walter Henke" is actually called Thomas James Boyette. Boyette is a highly decorated soldier with experience in Vietnam , Thailand and Guatemala and, according to a report , was demoted 10 years ago as a Special Forces Advisor in El Salvador because of a brawl and absenteeism ( AWOL ) due to a military court case . The wife of the real Walter Henke is murdered by two men. Sergeant Walter Henke was meanwhile after his arrest in East Berlin secretly ordered by Colonel Whitacre to Chicago , where he is under a pretext to join a neo-Nazi group that the Soviet foreign intelligence service has infiltrated. Henke looks naive and carries out his job as ordered. Among other things, he takes part in anti- communism demonstrations. Johnny Gallagher is arrested and placed under house arrest at a base . A friend from earlier military service helps him escape. The sergeant saves his ex-wife at the last moment, who should also be killed. Lieutenant Ruth Butler, who has found out more sensitive information about Boyette, is deliberately run over by four men in a car.

The other trail leads Gallagher to Chicago. There Johnny and Eileen go into hiding with the detective Lieutenant Milan Delich, who once served with Johnny in the Vietnam War. Gallagher finds out that Henke and Karl Richards (liaison with the conspirators) of the neo-Nazi movement are in St. Stefanski's Bingo Hall on Milwaukee Street. During further research, they discover that Boyette is supposed to shoot the US President and the Soviet General Secretary Gorbachev on a state visit to Chicago. The two heads of state are on the verge of signing a crucial disarmament agreement on nuclear weapons . The hardliners on both the US and Soviet sides are involved in the plot. In pursuit of one of the conspirators, Delich is shot and Gallagher stays with him. Thereupon he is captured by (fake) military policemen and taken to the hiding place of the conspirators. Before his planned murder, however, he was able to free himself and flee. Together with Delich, who has meanwhile been restored to the hospital, he finds the real Walter Henke shot dead in an office. This was placed so that he should be discovered as a later assassin on the heads of state. Gallagher is able to prevent Boyette's assassination attempt on General Secretary Gorbachev at the last minute. Colonel Whitacre is later shot dead in a car by an accomplice.

Reviews

The film received a mixed reception from the critics and achieved a rating of 64 percent on Rotten Tomatoes , based on 14 reviews, and received an average rating of 5.3 of the possible 10 points.

Roger Ebert wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times on August 25, 1989 that the film was smarter than most contemporary thrillers. He praised the plot and the portrayal of Gene Hackman, who was a bit too old for his role. Tommy Lee Jones plays his role with irony .

backgrounds

Filming took place in Berlin and Chicago as well as in Dolton and Lake Forest (both in the US state of Illinois ). The film grossed around $ 10.65 million in US cinemas . In Germany the film was released on January 18, 1990, and the video premiere followed on September 11, 1990.

Retired US Rear Admiral Eugene J. Carroll Jr. (1923-2003), former deputy director of the Center for Defense Information (CDI) and an advocate for the elimination of nuclear weapons and the reduction of military spending, served as technical advisor to the film .

The music used in the film is I Don't Know by Richard Davis and the traditional Christmas carol God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Certificate of Release for The Killer Brigade . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , October 2004 (PDF; test number: 63 072 V / DVD).
  2. ^ The Package. In: Rotten Tomatoes . Retrieved December 15, 2018 .
  3. ^ Film review by Roger Ebert
  4. ^ The Package (1989) - Box Office. In: boxofficemojo.com. Retrieved December 15, 2018 .