"Die dritte Generation" or "The Third Generation" is a West German German-language film from the year 1979, so this one will soon have its 40th anniversary. The writer and director is Rainer Werner Fassbinder and it is among his later works. He died 3 years later an untimely death at the age of 37. This is one of the films by him where he really unleashes and what worked very well with "Satansbraten" did not work out so well here. The film is over-the-top and ignores all kinds of restrictions. The reason I did not like it is because it just didn't fit the topic. This is one of Fassbinder's most political movies and it's obvious he was very much influenced in his work by the big issue of left-wing terrorism in the FRG back then. But with some of the scenes and dialogues, the film loses all its seriousness in my eyes. The cast once again includes several familiar names from his movies such as Carstensen, Kaufmann, Schygulla and Spengler. So if you have seen some other works by Fassbinder, you will definitely recognize some familiar faces. I personally can see though why this film was not received so well by awards bodies despite the political relevance it had without a doubt back then. I have to give it a thumbs-down. Not recommended.
Review of The Third Generation
