Guardian Angel (film)
Guardian Angel is a German action - thriller from 2012. Til Schweiger wrote the screenplay and was responsible as a producer and director for the film. At the same time he plays the main role with his daughter Luna .
action
The runaway Nina witnesses the murder of her first boyfriend in a Berlin luxury hotel. The perpetrator is the arms producer and exporter Thomas Backer, whose security chief wants to make the murder look like self-defense.
Nina is accepted into the witness protection program because she wants to testify against the murderer in the trial. Hidden in a safe house, she is supposed to await the trial. But the hiding place is betrayed and attacked. In order to get a magnetic card to access the house, the bodyguard Leo is shot on the street. The attackers place an explosive charge in the house and blast their way into the apartment. In the following firefight, the bodyguards Max and Helena manage to save Nina and shoot the attackers. However, Helena is fatally hit. Max brings Nina out of the house and escapes with her into the street, where another attacker is waiting, whom Max can also overpower.
Max contacts the police chief Henri Brietner and meets with him in a subway station. Since Nina suffers from diabetes , the police chief also brings insulin with him. Henri wants to pull Max away from Nina and assign her a new team. Max, who is a highly decorated Afghanistan veteran, distrusts the police because the safe house has been betrayed. He disarms Henri, ties him up with his own handcuffs and escapes with Nina.
The prosecutor Sara Müller, whose key witness Nina is, speaks to the liberated Henri in the police station. She learns that Max was with the KSK before he became a bodyguard.
Meanwhile, Max and Nina go to his apartment to get a few things. Nina becomes aware of Max's answering machine and plays the message. The message is from a Lilly who congratulates him on his birthday and hopes he is fine. Meanwhile, a SEK team approaches Max's apartment. However, Max and Nina escape the police because the reported apartment of Max himself is empty, while he anonymously lives in the apartment above.
In the evening the two eat in a diner. After Nina goes to the toilet, a police patrol comes into the diner. While a policeman is ordering something at the counter, his colleague goes to the toilet in a state of dissolution to stop her nosebleed and to clean herself up. In the meantime, the policeman at the counter loads a wanted list onto his laptop. Max wants to pay and thereby becomes aware of the wanted report from himself and Nina. When the policeman recognizes Max, Max knocks him out. At that moment the policewoman and Nina come out of the toilet again. Since it looks to the policewoman as if Max had killed her colleague, she draws her gun. Nina and Max, who has also drawn his pistol, persuade the policewoman to put down the gun, which she then does.
Rudi, a friend of Max and an ex-soldier in his unit, picks them up and takes them out of Berlin in his trunk, where they find shelter in Rudi's remote home. On the way they are stopped by a patrol, but Rudi's persuasion and the fact that he has no legs save him from a more thorough examination of the car. Rudi lost his legs in Afghanistan when he stepped on a land mine.
The next day, Max goes back to town to get insulin for Nina. Meanwhile, some assassins disguised as police officers visit Rudi's house and search it against his will. But they can't find Nina. Instead, they discover two used plates from breakfast, whereupon Rudi shoots two of the wrong police officers. However, Rudi is fatally hit in the shootout. Shortly afterwards, Max comes back and kills the remaining assassins, but is also hit. Nina has meanwhile lost consciousness because she is close to a diabetic coma. Max carries her into the car and takes her to the nearest clinic for treatment. The doctor in the hospital notices his wound, but when he does not want to be treated, she calls the police.
The call is followed by other assassins, who then go to the hospital, where there is another violent exchange of fire. Although Max is hit again, he and Nina escape.
They rent a night in a brothel, but when Max refuses to see a doctor, Nina pretends to run away. It becomes clear that Max can no longer protect Nina in this state. Thereupon she drives him to Lilly in a stolen car, whereupon they get into a police check again. Nina then pulls a gun, threatens the police and fires shots. Finally, Max and Nina escape. With Lilly it turns out that she is Sara Müller. Sara takes care of Max's wounds and then talks to Nina. She asks when she was happiest with Max. Sara tells Nina about the month they were in Brighton together.
After Max regained his strength, the three of them visit Rudi's farm again to say goodbye to him. Max realizes that he wants a life without fighting, and there are indications that he, Sara and Nina are moving together to form a small family. Nina looks out the window as a group of heavily armed men approaches the house. Max, who is now feeling a little better, sends Sara away with Nina and faces the attackers with the weapons that he finds in Rudi's house. In the final shootout, he is hit again and it appears he will die in this house. Meanwhile, Nina and Sara's escape is successful.
Then you see Thomas Backer and his head of security getting into his car, which shortly afterwards explodes due to a car bomb.
At the end you see the public prosecutor, who was bribed by Thomas Backer to reveal the necessary information, walking through Berlin with his daughters. When he stopped in front of a television shop, he learned of the attack through the news. Shortly afterwards he receives a call from Max who suggests the deal that he will let him, the prosecutor, live if he forgets Max, Sara and Nina. The last scene shows the three happy on Brighton Pier.
production
Guardian Angel was produced by Til Schweiger's production company barefoot films and Warner Bros. Film Productions Germany with an estimated budget of 7.5 million US dollars. The film was distributed by Warner Bros. The production was supported with funds from the film subsidy, including more than 1.1 million euros from the Filmförderungsanstalt and 200,000 euros from the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg . A total of 3.2 million euros was contributed from tax funds for production and promotion.
influence
The conscientious objector Schweiger reported that he had met a soldier at the Bambi Awards who had lost his eyesight during a mission in Afghanistan when he was rescuing a comrade. He only asked that the public learn more about what German soldiers are doing for their country abroad, that they leave “souls and limbs” down there.
Locations
The film was shot in Berlin and Brighton , East Sussex , England .
Technical details
For the filming were Arri Alexa M - and Arri Alexa cameras with Zeiss lenses used. The crew used the Canon EOS 600D for collisions and the Phantom HD Gold for slow motion recordings .
publication
Schweiger only allowed a handful of selected journalists to attend the press screenings. The reason for this were bad experiences he claims to have had with other journalists in the past. This decision was critically discussed by numerous media.
The film premiered on June 24, 2012 in Afghanistan in front of German soldiers. In Germany, it was presented in Berlin on September 18, 2012, with only 25 minutes from the film being shown. The official cinema release in Germany was on September 27th. Due to a breakdown, Til Schweiger did not take part in the publication at the Zurich Film Festival on September 25, 2012 and was represented by the producer Thomas Zickler.
By the end of 2012, Guardian Angel had reached around 712,000 moviegoers in Germany and was 7th among the German films of the year.
background
The visit of the German troops in Afghanistan was paid for by the Ministry of Defense. Defense Minister Thomas de Maizière answered the question why the German Armed Forces were promoting a movie with: “It's just the other way around: We are not promoting Mr Schweiger. But Mr. Schweiger is advertising for the Bundeswehr! "
Reviews
Arno Frank criticized Schweiger in a review on Spiegel online and analyzed his “limited possibilities [...]. The holes in the plot are so big that even a fox sniffer tank could easily take cover in them, and the characters are as finely carved as a natural tree stump. The hero is 'just good' and looked 'just great in his uniform', his great love is 'just funny', the bad guy is 'a real creep' and the best friend is self-sacrificing to the death. "
The lexicon of the international film said: “Action thriller devoid of any logic and credibility, which relies on a thunderstorm of sound and images from countless, permanently tiring shooting orgies. The plot works its way through small episodes and wooden dialogues with no apparent interest in people or conflicts. The indicated political background serves only to celebrate the main character as an emphatically 'tough', unbroken functioning soldier. "
The editorial staff of the TV magazine Prisma said: “After the three successful comedies 'Keinohrhasen', 'Zweiohrküken' and 'Kokowääh', Til Schweiger apparently wanted to direct a film of the harder pace. His daughter Luna has once again taken on a leading role after 'Phantomschmerz'. Even if she does her job very well, Schweiger gets tangled up in his copy of Léon - The professional too often in unbelievable turns of phrase. At least, Schweiger can still stage pictures suitable for the cinema with top cast. "
Awards
Jupiter Award 2013
- Jupiter in the Best German Actress category for Luna Schweiger
Trivia
- Although the film is set in Germany, all sirens from emergency vehicles are synchronized with the wail signal , which is not used in Germany .
Web links
- Guardian Angel in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Guardian Angel at filmportal.de
- Page to the film
- Comparison of the cut versions Pro 7 from 12 - FSK 16 from Schutzengel at Schnittberichte.com
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Guardian Angel. (No longer available online.) Cinemaxx , archived from the original on September 27, 2012 ; Retrieved September 27, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Age rating for Guardian Angels . Youth Media Commission .
- ↑ a b c d e media, Til Schweiger & the Guardian Angel Bundeswehr. Moviepilot.de, September 27, 2012, accessed on September 27, 2012 .
- ↑ Funding commitments 2011 of the FFA ( Memento of the original from March 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 34 kB), accessed on October 28, 2012.
- ↑ Funding decisions (2nd quarter: April - June 2012) of the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed October 28, 2012.
- ↑ Bundeswehr only wants nice Bundeswehr pictures. WG Friedensforschung, October 24, 2012, accessed on November 2, 2012 .
- ↑ New film "Guardian Angel": Til Schweiger goes Afghanistan. Stern , March 22, 2012, accessed September 27, 2012 .
- ↑ Guardian Angel. critic.de, September 19, 2012, accessed on September 27, 2012 .
- ↑ Guardian Angel. (No longer available online.) Cinemaforever, September 23, 2012, archived from the original on March 22, 2014 ; Retrieved September 27, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Exhaustion Schweiger collapsed. spielfilm.de, June 26, 2012, accessed on September 27, 2012 .
- ↑ Til Schweiger breaks down & cancels the film festival. Moviepilot.de, June 26, 2012, accessed June 27, 2012 .
- ↑ Til Schweiger collapses. MovieReporter.de, September 26, 2012, accessed on September 27, 2012 .
- ↑ Film hit list: Annual list (German) 2012. ( Memento of the original from April 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Film Funding Agency , accessed on April 5, 2013.
- ^ Arno Frank: Til Schweiger film "Guardian Angel" Balla-balla in Brandenburg In: spiegel.de of September 28, 2012.
- ↑ Guardian Angel. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ Guardian Angel , prisma.de
