Two incredibly strong guys
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Two incredibly strong guys |
| Original title | Stir crazy |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1980 |
| length | 108 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Sidney Poitier |
| script | Bruce Jay Friedman |
| production | Hannah Weinstein |
| music | Tom Scott |
| camera | Fred Schuler |
| cut | Harry Keller |
| occupation | |
| |
Two insanely strong guys (also Zwei crazy jokers , original title Stir Crazy ) is a film by director Sidney Poitier from 1980 and also his most financially successful directorial work.
action
Scriptwriter Skip Donahue and actor Harry Monroe have lost their jobs and are now on their way from New York to Hollywood to start a fresh start. To make ends meet, they take on odd jobs along the way. In one of these jobs they are singing and dancing woodpeckers in the counter of a bank for this advertisement. When the two take off their costumes to take a short lunch break outside, they are stolen by two strangers. They put on the colorful costumes and perform in the same way as Skip and Harry. But they have completely different plans: With the help of their costumes and the anonymity that goes with it, they rob the bank and can then flee unmolested. Better still: Everyone naturally thinks that the two birds are Skip and Harry. In the excitement that followed, Skip and Harry unsuspectingly return to the bank to continue their job, but are immediately arrested by the alarmed police and taken to a court of law. There a short trial is made with them and the two unlucky ones are sentenced to a total of 125 years in prison.
The stay in the maximum security prison turns out to be quite uncomfortable for the two effeminate New Yorkers. After a failed attempt to pretend to be sick, they make at least two new friends: the bank robber Jesus Ramirez and the gay black Rory Schultebrand, who is said to have killed his stepfather. Much to Harry's chagrin, Rory immediately tries to get on him. Harry and Skip are instructed by the two in all essential processes and procedures in the prison, and they are also told who to watch out for and who to watch out for. There would be B. Jack Graham, who looks after the contraband, then ax killer Blade, who heads another area of the block, and above all the silent Grossberger, a convicted mass murderer of huge and powerful stature, of whom all inmates and the guards themselves fear . The naive Skip immediately sees “something nice” in Grossberger and tries unsuccessfully to talk to him.
After three months in prison, Skip and Harry are taken to see Prison Director Beatty and Deputy Wilson. In search of a new rider for the annual prison rodeo, they also want to do a short test on a mechanical rodeo bull with Skip and Harry. To the amazement of everyone, Skip proves to be a natural talent: He rides through to the highest level without being thrown at all and stays in the saddle like a rodeo professional. Director Beatty is intrigued and chooses Skip as his candidate for the rodeo. Back outside in the courtyard, they learn from Jesus and Rory the true background of this fraudulent rodeo that is being held between two neighboring prisons. The income from the rodeo, which is supposed to benefit the prison inmates, goes into the pockets of the prison directors. In order to take advantage of this and to gain some time to work out an escape plan, Skip is advised to cancel his participation in the rodeo for the time being and to delay the director.
Angry Headmaster Beatty instructs Wilson and the other guards to give Skip and Harry extra treatment and make life in jail even more difficult than it already is. So they are divided into work teams for tough missions and on top of that one tries to break their will by taking smaller portions of water and depriving them of sleep. When none of this worked either, Skip was fixed with chains on wrists and ankles overnight. But even after that night, Skip comes out of his cell the next morning in a good mood, because an old back problem has miraculously vanished into thin air through this torture. After that, Skip is put in solitary confinement for an indefinite period of time, but here, too, Skip even demands a second look. After that didn't achieve the desired effect either, Skip is brought back to Harry's cell - and see, there is now a new cellmate: the notorious Grossberger! The next morning, the guards can't believe their eyes anymore, the three of them are playing cards with relish ...
In the meantime they are visited by attorney Garber and his cousin Meredith, who are still trying to prove their innocence. Skip is very fond of Meredith, but she immediately makes it clear that she has never hooked up with a client. When Harry arrives at the infirmary with alleged appendicitis , his bed neighbor tells him about the monstrous practices of the prison doctor. In addition to a normal inguinal hernia surgery, he was also castrated . This is too much for Harry and he runs out of the station screaming. Skip immediately contacts Director Beatty and offers him his participation in the rodeo if he gets his own team and a bigger cell. Beatty accepts, but instructs Wilson to conduct covert surveillance. Graham and Blade are used for this task: Graham shadows Skip and Blade is responsible for the rest of the troop. Wilson also tells Graham about his own plan: Skip should survive the rodeo alive.
Meanwhile, searching for evidence and exonerating witnesses, Meredith has taken a job at a country-western strip bar where she can identify one of the suspected bank robbers from a tattoo on his hand that a girl saw in the bank. She immediately alerts Garber and the police.
In the course of the rodeo, all five people who wanted to flee did their respective tasks flawlessly and did not raise any suspicions. Skip also survived the attempted attacks by Wilson and Graham with a lot of luck. Then the other four start implementing the escape plan, and at the moments when the attention of all spectators is somewhat distracted, they briefly disappear from view with the active help of Jesus' wife and brother to change clothes and as visitors to the rodeo to dress up. Meanwhile, Skip has to face the reigning rodeo champion Caesar Geronimo. The point is to be the first to grab the bundle with the prize money - but unfortunately it is fixed between the horns of a wild Brahmanic bull. Skip tries to convince Geronimo to do better together, and appeals to his opponent's sense of honor with the question of whether he really wants to continue to be his director's assistant. That works - both fight for the money - Geronimo wins ... and, much to the annoyance of the two directors, throws the money over the gate into the hands of the inmates.
Skip now also runs away and together the troop can make their way to a secret meeting point. There they say goodbye to each other: Some continue to drive to Mexico , while Skip and Harry take the other direction. But shortly afterwards they are stopped by another car in which Meredith and Garber are sitting, who tell them that the real bank robbers have now been caught and that they are free men. Totally beside themselves, they want to continue their original plan and move on to Hollywood . But Skip can't let it go and asks Meredith if she would accept an invitation to visit the premiere of his new play, which had already been given during her and Garber's visit to prison. Meredith says: "Yes" and changes.
background
- Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor, the two stars of Trans-America-Express (1976), brought two incredibly strong guys together with actor and director Sidney Poitier . He is considered one of the last living Hollywood legends of the 20th century and is the first African American actor to be awarded an Oscar for a leading role.
- Poitier insisted on being as realistic as possible and decided to shoot parts of the film in a real prison. The choice fell on the Arizona State Prison , the administration of which has agreed to make their facility available for a substantial sum of money.
- Filming lasted from March 10th to May 21st, 1980 and was uneventful on site, not least because some inmates gave the actors advice on prison etiquette - never run unless you really want to be shot!
- In 2000, two incredibly strong types from Total Film voted to 22nd position of the greatest comedies of all time magazine.
- In the cinema year 1980 the film achieved the third highest annual result in the USA with a total grossing of 101 million US dollars, only surpassed by Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back and Why, actually ... we don't kill the boss?
- The premiere date in the FRG was on September 3, 1981.
- Georg Stanford Brown's acting performance was honored with the nomination for the Golden Raspberry in the category Worst Actress , because he appeared in some scenes dressed as a woman.
Reviews
“Unsuccessful comedy full of crude jokes at the expense of others, characterized by the unimaginative grimacing of the leading actors; in a web of action full of inconsistencies. "
“Most of the time [genre parodies] are just about the typical. As in "Stir Crazy". But where the details are missing, the parody quickly becomes imprecise, i.e. harmless. So in "Stir Crazy" only Gene Wilder's game remains. "
“The Over-the-Top Fun was the third most successful movie in the USA in 1980. Conclusion: Quite nonsense with a funny duo. "
Individual evidence
- ↑ Two incredibly strong guys. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed February 2, 2017 .
- ↑ Norbert Grob: Harmless . In: The time . No. 36/1981 , August 28, 1981, Film Tips, p. 36 .
- Jump up ↑ Two incredibly strong guys in cinema
Web links
- Two incredibly strong performers in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Two incredibly strong performers at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- Two incredibly strong performers at Metacritic (English)
- Two insane guys in the online film database
- Two incredibly strong guys in the German dubbing file