"Todesspiel" or "Dead Pool" is a German movie from 1997, so this one has its 20th anniversary this year. Actually, it is two movies I would say as it consists of two episodes of roughly 90 minutes, which means it runs for almost three hours. The writer and director is Heinrich Breloer and this small screen work is still among his most known efforts today. The cast includes a couple familiar names, such as Ünel, Michelsen, Koch or Matthes. The subject here is probably the second favorite subject when it comes to German film(maker)s: the left-wing terror during the years of the Cold War. The first chapter here is about the kidnapping of Hanns-Martin Schleyer (played by Moritz Bleibtreu's father briefly before his death) and the second is about the hijacking of the Landshut airplane. Both are extremely interesting subjects in my opinion, but I am not sure if this film did them justice. It is a mix of documentary (interviews, old footage) and reenacted scenes with today's actors. Or I should say with actors from 20 years ago even if some of them are still known today.
I don't think this movie will really get anybody interested in this most tumultuous time in German history. It may be a good watch for those who have a deep interest in the topic already, but not to anybody else. There were certainly more than just a few lengths during these 180 minutes unfortunately and there is so much filler material in here. For example they show a scene from the Landshut and 30 seconds later they show an interview with one of the hostages where she says exactly the same as the actress said in the re-enacted scene. Why include it double? It felt pretty amateurish at times. Still the film does the subject justice sometimes, but this is also not really because of quality filmmaking, but because of re-enacting very baity very showy moments that actually happened back then. I think these moments are also, especially as they are packed at the end in a pretty desperate manner, why voters here on IMDb gave this movie such a high rating. I myself cannot agree with it and I think this is nowhere near the best German RAF movies sadly. Thumbs down and with more focus and slightly over half the runtime it would have been a far superior work.
I don't think this movie will really get anybody interested in this most tumultuous time in German history. It may be a good watch for those who have a deep interest in the topic already, but not to anybody else. There were certainly more than just a few lengths during these 180 minutes unfortunately and there is so much filler material in here. For example they show a scene from the Landshut and 30 seconds later they show an interview with one of the hostages where she says exactly the same as the actress said in the re-enacted scene. Why include it double? It felt pretty amateurish at times. Still the film does the subject justice sometimes, but this is also not really because of quality filmmaking, but because of re-enacting very baity very showy moments that actually happened back then. I think these moments are also, especially as they are packed at the end in a pretty desperate manner, why voters here on IMDb gave this movie such a high rating. I myself cannot agree with it and I think this is nowhere near the best German RAF movies sadly. Thumbs down and with more focus and slightly over half the runtime it would have been a far superior work.