The Winners (1994)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | The winners |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1994 |
| length | Theatrical Version: 137 minutes Director's Cut: 146 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Dominik Graf |
| script |
Günter Schütter Bernd Schwamm Klaus Maas Peter Hollweg |
| production |
Michael Hild Günter Rohrbach |
| music |
Dominik Graf Helmut Spanner Loy Wesselburg |
| camera | Diethard Prengel |
| cut | Christel Suckow |
| occupation | |
| |
Die Sieger is a German fiction film by Dominik Graf from 1994. Günter Schütter wrote the screenplay , based on ideas and templates from Bernd Schwamm, Klaus Maas and Peter Hollweg.
action
Chief Police Officer Karl Simon and his people from the Special Operations Command of the Düsseldorf Police are a well-rehearsed and experienced team. An in itself harmless assignment leads them to a hotel where several members of a gangster syndicate meet. But the access goes wrong: Of the mafiatrio present, only one can be arrested, one is shot, the third escapes.
Karl Simon believes that he recognized his former colleague and friend Heinz Schaefer in the man who had fled. However, he is said to have committed suicide four years ago after killing his severely disabled newborn child and then throwing himself into the Rhine . His body was allegedly found at the time, but the head was missing and thus definitive proof of the dead person's identity.
Simon investigates on his own, including with Sunny, Schaefer's unstable young widow. This takes revenge, because the shepherd believed dead is actually still alive and now massively threatens Simon and his family. Simon brings his wife and children to safety and involves his team in the investigation. It turns out that State Secretary Holger Dessaul is supposed to head a committee of inquiry that deals with a corruption affair involving high-ranking politicians who are allegedly involved in money laundering with the mafia . It is clear that Schaefer's death was faked so that it covers the undercover agent was in the Mafia, but actually secretly as a handyman and money courier for the venal politicians work.
During another mission, Dessaul is kidnapped, while Simon's colleague dies and the SEK man Grigull apparently suffers a bang. The responsibility for the unsuccessful mission is assigned to Simon, especially since he himself - also through Schaefer's influence - is suspected of being corruptible. His team is suspended, but continues to investigate unnoticed. The men discover that the injured colleague Grigull is in cahoots with Schaefer, Dessaul's kidnapper.
Meanwhile, the politicians for sale come to an agreement with Schaefer, who has taken Dessaul hostage so that he can finally disappear: he should collect the ransom demanded and kill Dessaul anyway. Dessaul's wife Melba is to deliver the large sum of money. Simon, who has started a relationship with Melba Dessaul, follows her and leads his team for an access. The handover is to take place in the Alps near Mittenwald . The local special forces are cleverly outmaneuvered by Schaefer, while the Simon team stays with Melba. But Simon's people are also discovered by Schaefer and Grigull. There is a showdown at a mountain station. Dessaul can be freed, but Schaefer, pursued by Simon, sets off with the millions. Simon cannot prevent Schaefer from setting the cable car gondola with the Dessaul couple and his colleagues on fire, but in the end he shoots Schaefer. Simon's colleagues abseil down with Melba before the gondola with the traitor Grigull explodes. However, Dessaul dies as a result of being shot in the head.
The film ends with Simon, who quits the police service and announces that he - now released from his duty of confidentiality under civil service law - will testify before the investigative committee.
Reviews
“A largely exciting, convincingly staged thriller. In the description of his man's world, quite believable, some of the dialogues do not get beyond the paper form and cause stumbling blocks in the otherwise atmospherically dense plot. "
“The fact that Graf knows how to stage complex interpersonal relationships can be seen in Tiger, Lion, Panther . In his new film, this light hand in leading people is completely absent. The constant tension, from which the film does not benefit, but from which it suffers, is not staged here, but rather obviously triggered by the actors when shooting: a fatal misunderstanding for creativity. Nevertheless, Die Sieger is a work that is above average among German films, in its claim to realism, complexity, tension and criticism, which is achieved to varying degrees. "
Awards
Herbert Knaup and Meret Becker won the Bavarian Film Prize for their roles and were nominated for the German Film Prize. The film and director Dominik Graf was also nominated for the German Film Prize. The German film and media rating awarded the film the rating "particularly valuable".
Balance sheet
The film was an attempt on a high budget to force American action-strip-style success. However, it became a commercial flop despite the press reports that it cost 12 million marks in production. At the time, critics criticized the fact that one does not see the high cost of the film. Graf's career, up to then the bearer of hope in German cinema, experienced a significant kink. The TV magazine prisma judged relentlessly: "At the box office (...) these winners were a smooth loser troop, because the audience avoided the flick like a contagious disease. The reasons for this are obvious: When trying to get away from American Taking off dozen items, Dominik Graf shot over the target, delayed the plot unnecessarily, frayed the action scenes with well-mannered cuts and let his heroes talk, talk, and talk too much. In addition, you can still hear the typewriter rattling in the background during the mostly artificial dialogues partly good reviews and the star lineup didn't help either. "
Today the director distances himself from his film and describes it as "failed". Quote from D. Graf: “Günter Schütter's first and strongest script version (two years before shooting began) differed in many ways from today's final product. […] In the end, after years of financing work and script discussion, we had far too little money and the script had become a laboriously shortened patchwork quilt. All the passionate characteristics of Schütter's universe were still there, but the book was totally out of whack due to the reductions made according to financial criteria. And in retrospect you can probably say that the director is now too. "
25 years after its cinema release, director Dominik Graf presented a longer and digitally restored Director's Cut at the 2019 Berlinale .
literature
- Dominik Graf, Stefan Stosch, Peter Körte: Disturbance in the cinema. The director of “Die Sieger” in conversation with Stefan Stosch about working on the film. Wehrhahn Verlag , Hanover 1998, ISBN 3-932324-51-X .
- Michael Ulmer: The winners. The novel for the new film by Dominik Graf. Bastei-Lübbe-Taschenbuch vol. 13641 (general series), Bastei Lübbe, Bergisch Gladbach 1994, ISBN 3-404-13641-1 .
Web links
- The winners in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The winners at filmportal.de
- The winners at crew united
Individual evidence
- ↑ Release certificate for Die Sieger . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry (PDF; test number: 71877 / V).
- ↑ The winner. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ Die Sieger , epd Film, No. 10, October 1994
- ↑ http://www.fbw-filmbeval.com/film/die_sieger
- ↑ The winners - trailer, review, pictures and information about the film. In: prisma. Retrieved October 11, 2019 .
- ↑ The final whistle at the home game . Heimspiel Filmfest , November 17, 2010
- ↑ Jochen Brunow (ed.): Scenario 5. Film and Script Almanac , Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-86505-209-4 .
- ↑ The Winner (Director's Cut). In: Catalog of the Berlin International Film Festival 2019. Retrieved on July 9, 2019 .