The Rock - the rock of decision

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title The Rock - the rock of decision
Original title The Rock
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1996
length 136 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Michael Bay
script David Weisberg (& Story),
Douglas Cook (& Story),
Mark Rosner
production Jerry Bruckheimer
Don Simpson
music Nick Glennie-Smith
Hans Zimmer
Harry Gregson-Williams
camera John Schwartzman
cut Richard Francis-Bruce
Mark Goldblatt
Glen Scantlebury
occupation
synchronization

The Rock - Rock of the decision is an American action thriller by Michael Bay from the year 1996 , produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and Don Simpson . The Rock alludes to the nickname of Alcatraz Island , the main location of the plot.

action

The British spy John Patrick Mason stole a microfilm with government secrets of the Americans while J. Edgar Hoovers (former director of the FBI ) was still alive . The detailed information, such as the truth about the Kennedy assassination , is highly explosive.

To date, Mason has been held in maximum security prisons for hiding the films and not wanting to reveal where they are. Its existence is denied by both the American and British governments.

Mason is the only inmate who ever escaped from Alcatraz - just a year after his imprisonment. He succeeded in doing this because of his excellent SAS training.

Brigadier General Francis X. Hummel is the film's multi-layered "villain". During a fictitious inspection of an ammunition depot for chemical warfare agents, he brought 15 rockets armed with VX gas under his control. With a Marine Force Reconnaissance command, he holed up with 81 tourists as hostages in Alcatraz and threatened to fire the rockets he had brought with him at San Francisco. His demand: a ransom of $ 100 million from a secret US government account. This revenue comes from illegal arms sales in the United States. Hummel wants to use the money to compensate the families of the soldiers who died under his command in unofficial operations (for example in the People's Republic of China and Laos during the Vietnam War ). Due to the secret nature of these missions, the soldiers were neither honored nor buried militarily. During his career, Hummel had tried again and again to legally clarify this position that was untenable for him. After his wife's death, he is now ready to seek justice through hostage-taking and blackmail .

The US government does not have many options open to the threat of San Francisco by a gas attack to respond. The only warfare agent " Thermit- Plasma" that is useful for combating VX gas is still being tested. That's why those responsible decide to send a task force of the US Navy Seals (a special command of the United States Navy ) to the island to surprise General Hummel and his men and get the missiles under control again.

Chemical weapons specialist Stanley Goodspeed is called in to defuse the missiles. He completed two weeks of basic training with the FBI, but otherwise has no combat experience. Mason accompanies the SEALs squad to lead them through the tunnel system under "The Rock". But through an early warning system of the occupiers and the gunmania of the mercenaries, the troop is captured and killed. Only Mason and Goodspeed survive. Mason wants to flee the island. However, when he learns from Goodspeed about the effects of the VX gas and the threat to San Francisco, he decides to stay and help defuse the missiles, as his own daughter is in town, among other things. In addition, he has to admit self-deprecatingly that he is too old to swim across the bay to the other bank.

Little by little, the two of them can defuse the missiles except for two. When one is then fired and Hummel deliberately lets it fall into the water, a mutiny breaks out. Hummel makes it clear that he is not a crazy murderer and that the mission has failed because it was based solely on the threat of violence. Then the mercenaries shoot Hummel and his followers and want to fire the last remaining rocket. Mason and Goodspeed can prevent this, but Goodspeed comes into contact with VX in the fight against a soldier and has to inject atropine into his heart. As a result, he can only prevent the entire island from being destroyed by a bombardment with thermite plasma at the last moment by igniting signal flares. However, an explosive device has already been dropped that has damaged a cell block that does not contain any hostages.

Goodspeed claims that Mason was killed in the explosive device that was dropped, giving him the chance to live a life of freedom. In return, Mason reveals to Goodspeed where the microfilm containing the secret documents that Mason once stole is. The film ends with Goodspeed on honeymoon taking the microfilm hidden in a remote church and asking his wife the first time if she wanted to know who really murdered Kennedy .

Alcatraz

synchronization

The film was set to music at Berliner Synchron . Michael Nowka wrote the dialogue book and directed the dialogue.

role
actor
Voice actor
Stanley Goodspeed Nicolas Cage Martin Keßler
John Patrick Mason Sean Connery Manfred Wagner
Brig. General Francis X. Hummel Ed Harris Wolfgang Condrus
FBI director Womack John Spencer Joachim Nottke
Major Tom Baxter David Morse Gunnar Helm
Comdr. Anderson Michael Biehn Ingo Albrecht
Special Agent Ernest Paxton William Forsythe Joachim Pukass
Carla Pestalozzi Vanessa Marcil Ulrike Stürzbecher
Chief Justice Philip Baker Hall Alexander Duke
Chief of Staff Hayden Sinclair David Marshall Grant Klaus-Peter Grap
Cpt. Darrow Tony Todd Marlin Wick
Cpt. Frye Gregory Sporleder Jan Spitzer
Cpt. Hendrix John McGinley Till Hagen
Dr. Ling David Bowe Peter Reinhardt
General Al Kramer Stuart Wilson Joachim Kerzel
General Peterson John Laughlin Lutz Riedel
Jade Angelou Claire Forlani Diana Borgwardt

reception

success

The film premiered in the United States on June 7, 1996 Premiere . In Germany it came to the cinema on July 11, 1996. The film had a budget of $ 75 million and grossed approximately $ 335 million worldwide.

criticism

“With Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage as effective and funny heroes against their will, the action usual in the genre occasionally gains attraction, which is, however, covered over and over again by overactive hectic and uniform material battles. Another example of the occupation of the action film through the calculating video clip aesthetic. "

- Lexicon of international film

“The Rock is clearly part of a tradition that co-founded the drive-in cinema of the 50s and 60s. A lurid, sensationalistic story based on the most vulgar scientific blasphemy possible, figures that remain somewhat trapped in the two-dimensional and a clear focus on the structural fairground attraction of corresponding islands of sensation within the narrative structure, which itself only provides the most flexible framework possible for such a purpose.

- Thomas Groh: filmzentrale.com

Awards

Nicolas Cage won the 1997 Blockbuster Entertainment Award for Best Actor in the Action / Adventure category . Sean Connery won the Best Supporting Role Award in the same category .

The ASCAP recorded in 1997, the film in the category Top Box Office movie from.

Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage received the MTV Movie Awards for Best Film Duo in 1997 . The film itself was nominated for Best Action Sequence and Best Picture , but received no awards.

At the 1997 Academy Awards , the film was nominated for Best Sound , but did not receive the award.

The film was nominated for the 1997 Saturn Award in the categories of Best Action / Adventure / Thriller Film and Best Music , but did not win an award.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack The Rock by Nick Glennie-Smith , Harry Gregson-Williams and Hans Zimmer was released on June 25, 1996 as an audio CD. The CD is published by the Hollywood Records label , comprises eight pieces and has a running time of almost 60 minutes. The reason that three composers were commissioned with the music for the film is the fact that Michael Bay was dissatisfied with the original film music and therefore had this trio compose new music within four weeks.

background

The Rock
  • The F / A-18 Hornet pilots flying in the film are from the US Navy Blue Angels . In the film, the Hornets are flown by US Air Force pilots, although the US Air Force itself does not have any Hornets.
  • VX is actually not a skin warfare agent and therefore does not melt the skin, as shown in the film. In fact, no skin warfare agent has nearly as spectacular an effect as in the movie. By blocking acetylcholinesterase, VX causes permanent irritation of the nerves, which among other things leads to respiratory paralysis and thus ultimately to death. However, the potential effects mentioned in the film are also clearly exaggerated. The main hazard comes from direct contact with VX and absorption through the skin. In terms of appearance, VX is not green, but a colorless and odorless liquid that is often slightly yellow due to impurities.
  • The film is dedicated to Don Simpson , who died while filming.
  • Quentin Tarantino did an unnamed script work.
  • This film is cut in many versions. In the television broadcast there are 50 cuts with a total playing time of about 11:30 minutes, on the FSK -16 DVD there are seven cuts about half a minute.
  • On September 13, 2007, the uncut version of the film was released on Blu-ray in Germany with the FSK 18 rating.
  • In March 2013 the film was re-examined and received the approval "16 years and older" in its uncut version.
  • The film was also marketed in Germany under the name The Rock Decision on Alcatraz .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Certificate of Release for The Rock - The Rock of Decision . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , March 2013 (PDF; re-examination).
  2. ↑ Synchronized files
  3. ↑ Box Office entry from The Rock
  4. Jump up ↑ The Rock. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed October 8, 2016 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  5. ^ A film review by Thomas Groh on filmzentrale.com
  6. ↑ Robert Fischer , Peter Körte , Georg Seeßlen : Quentin Tarantino . Berlin, 1997
  7. ↑ http://www.schnittberichte.com/schnittbericht.php?ID=181
  8. ↑ http://www.schnittberichte.com/schnittbericht.php?ID=1507
  9. ↑ Approval certificate from the FSK