Big thing
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Big thing |
| Country of production | Germany |
| original language | German |
| Publishing year | 1999 |
| length | two times 90 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Bernd Schadewald |
| script | Bernd Schadewald |
| production | Gerhard Schmidt |
| music |
Frank Wulff Stefan Wulff |
| camera |
Diethard Prengel Carl Finkbeiner |
| cut | Hedy Altschiller |
| occupation | |
| |
A big thing is a German two-part feature film made in 1999, the content of which is based on Gladbeck's hostage drama .
action
First part
Hans-Georg Pauler has served his prison sentence for multiple robberies and is released. First he seeks out his ex-wife, but there he is kicked out by her new lover. Pauler's brutality and aggressiveness are already evident in these opening scenes. The unkempt man then goes to his sister and his friend Ulrich Raffcyk is also present. These are the only people who still have an influence on Pauler and whom he trusts halfway. It quickly becomes clear that Pauler is not afraid of new crimes that could bring him money. Pauler decides to do a big thing. To do this, he tries to win an old friend (taxi driver). However, he refuses for fear of prison. Pauler can steal his pistol from him. On the same evening, the manager of a drugstore is attacked by him and Raffcyk. The booty is ridiculous. So the big thing can go up. The very next day, Pauler and Raffcyk, disguised with masks, attacked a bank branch in the neighborhood. The two employees Anna Klages and Kirstin Bauer are victims of the robbery. Your boss, the branch manager Lengsfeld, was a few minutes late that day and became suspicious when he saw the handbag of one of his employees through the locked door. He calls the police, who come with a huge number. SEK, patrol car, operations management. Dozens of police cars are now in front of the branch. Pauler and Raffcyk panic. In addition, the key to the bank vault is still in the possession of the branch manager. A considerable number of media representatives and onlookers is slowly gathering. The police are struggling to hold them all back. At the same time, Raffcyk began to have doubts about the action, but Pauler was always able to convince him to do the "thing". The branch is now besieged by SEK riflemen and all residents have been evacuated. But the head of operations, Josef Karras, shies away from access. Boredom grows in the branch, which is why a television is switched on. Special programs about the "Harburg hostage drama" are broadcast on all channels. The media interest is unexpectedly high. Apparently snipers managed to take photos of the hostage taker, but they are still protected by a mask. Info hotlines are set up and the hostage-takers also dial into one. You speak to the press. For the police, who have now decided to comply with the criminals' demands for a car, the money, the safe key and free withdrawal, it is the chance to identify the perpetrator via voice recognition. First, Pauler is recognized by his ex-wife and sister. A little later Raffcyk too. That doesn't change anything for Pauler. He is waiting for the police to comply with his demands and when the car is made available, they wait until dark because it is then easier to escape. No sooner said than done: when the car is made available, there is a party atmosphere in the branch. There is dancing and hits are heard. When night falls, the hostages and their hostages start to flee. You have to make your way through the crowds. Raffcyk then shoots the chasing cars on the open road to get them behind. This seems to be working.
Second part
The four occupants of the car end up in Münster, where, after stealing a new car (bugged by the police), they settle on the roof of a parking garage. Pauler and the clerk of Klages go to downtown Münster to organize something to eat. They discover newspapers with their pictures in them, but nobody recognizes them in the street. Klages is allowed to call her family. She promises her son to come back the same day. Meanwhile, the rough Raffcyk and the no longer terrified employee Bauer talk about private matters. The four of them leave for the city center without a car, while the car is discovered by police helicopters on the roof of the parking garage.
They then try to find accommodation with Raffcyk's brother, who lives in Münster. While they are in his apartment, the police surround it. The brother does not want to have anything to do with the matter, and the four of them are able to flee the apartment and are followed by several police cars. In the city center of Münster, Pauler discovers a bus that they use as another means of escape. They take all inmates hostage. But they can't just drive off. The media representatives are on site quickly and there is no shortage of police. A reporter offers his BMW as an escape vehicle. Raffcyk and Pauler almost accepted the offer, but the car is bugged while they are thinking about it. You can't avoid starting an odyssey through Münster - by bus. As it slowly gets dark, they drive to a motorway filling station, where they look for food and sanitary facilities. The media recognize the opportunity and ask to be admitted to the bus. Pauler allows this and interviews with the hostages are conducted. The employee Klages vomits and Pauler then goes to the toilet with her. There the police tried to arrest Pauler, which they succeeded. However, Klages is shot in the leg by Pauler during arrest. Raffcyk is now alone on the bus and counts down five minutes until Pauler is about to be released. Otherwise he threatens to shoot a hostage. The police must respond to the request. When Raffcyk counts down the last ten seconds, Pauler is released, but doesn't make it to the bus in time. Raffcyk shoots the bus driver. Pauler then decides that the further escape will be continued with the BMW already offered by a press representative in Münster city center. The hostages are left on the bus, only Bauer and Klages accompany the hostage-takers.
The four people go to a restaurant that is about to close. There Raffcyk starts a game of billiards to distract himself, which Pauler joins while the two women remain seated at the table. After a short time, the two gangsters discover that the women who have seized the opportunity to flee have disappeared. You come to a busy country road, but none of the passing cars stop. When one finally stops after a while, the two hostage-takers are sitting in the car. Pauler decides, while he tends to the gunshot wound of Anna Klages, to drive to Holland in order to escape the chase by the police. He calls his sister on the way because he really wants to take her with him. That's why he wants to go to Hamburg first. There the police can pick up the trail again.
In Hamburg, Pauler wants to meet his sister in a pedestrian zone. The sister shows up for an appointment, but doesn't want to go to Holland. Meanwhile, the car parked in the pedestrian zone attracts attention. The onlookers gather and a short time later the media representatives appear in the pedestrian zone and move the car. Anna Klages is treated by a doctor who has been called and then the car starts moving again when Anna Klages' husband appears after a short time. But the hostage-takers do not release his wife, instead they continue to flee - pursued, of course, by numerous press representatives.
Karras, the head of operations, wants access to the city area. Several civilian police vehicles block the media representatives from continuing their journey on the autobahn, so that the escape vehicle is completely alone. The hostage-takers feel safe, but are followed by five police vehicles. The hostages are told that they will be released shortly and the atmosphere in the getaway vehicle is high.
But before the hostages are released, the police detonate a stun grenade, whereupon the escape vehicle comes to a standstill and a shootout develops, in the course of which the hostage Bauer is able to escape. Pauler fires at the police through the open window of the rear door on the driver's side when Anna Klages opens this door and is shot in the back by Pauler. Pauler and Raffcyk are arrested.
criticism
"Two-part crime film about two overwhelmed gangsters, very shaped by the excellent, admittedly sometimes even to the point of parody-going leading actors."
Relation to the hostage drama of Gladbeck
Much of the content has been taken over from the real events. Here is a list of the most important differences:
- Names: All names have been changed.
- Locations: All locations have been changed.
- Time: The film was transferred to the shooting time.
- Dead: Two hostages actually died. In the bus, however, a boy of Italian descent and not the bus driver was murdered. A female hostage died, similar to the one shown in the film, while accessing the motorway.
- People: A lot of people were invented to make the film more cinematic. For example Mr and Son Klages, the branch manager or the used car dealer, the landlord or Pauler's ex-wife.
But it is precisely the unimaginable things that do not come from the creativity of the filmmaker. For example, the fact that an entire bus was taken hostage or that interviews with hostages and hostage-takers took place during the crime.
The real hostage drama in Gladbeck happened in 1988. It began in Gladbeck and led through several federal states of the then Federal Republic and temporarily to the Netherlands, for example to Bremen-Huckelriede, where the bus was occupied, to Cologne. In reality, another person got into the car at the beginning of the crime. It was the friend of the criminal mastermind. She was also convicted in the later trial and released in 1994.
Web links
- A big thing in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ A big thing. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .