"Tag der Abrechnung - Der Amokläufer von Euskirchen" is one of many films Christoph Waltz made in and around Germany before his big breakthrough in Hollywood and his two Academy Award wins. Here he plays Erwin Makolajczyk, the man who killed several people in an Euskirchen courtroom, including his girlfriend and the presiding judge. The film is based on real events and came out only months after the tragedy happened. The writing here is excellent both in terms of dialogs as well as in the way the central character was displayed and how his anger steadily rises till the unavoidable eruption when the fox enters the chicken barn. Wow what a finale. People who won't know about the events will be shocked. Then again, maybe it was not so unavoidable as the film also shows the failure from authorities when several people (including the killer's brother) warn the police and others that he will hurt somebody at some point if they won't stop him or take away his gun collection. The comments about how people will pay if they dare to fight him really (be it verbally, physically or legally) hit the nail on the head. He seems to hate pretty much everybody for the whole film, except his mother, even little school children.
The first 25 minutes are about Erwin's life as a kid and it is already here when we see how he is somehow stranger, somehow different. For example he is not the least bit grateful when his brother takes the blame for something Erwin did in order to protect him from another beating from their dad. Still, this first half hour is probably the weakest part of the film, but that is only because of how much a joy Waltz is to watch later on. He was in his late 30s when this was made, actually not much younger than Christian Redl, who plays his dad here. I am neither familiar with director Peter Keglevic nor with the writer duo, but I see that the writers have not worked in a long time on scripts and this was not the only project that Keglevic and Waltz worked on together. Here, these two were men on a mission as great as Makolajczyk's mission was evil.
If you get your hands on a copy, I highly recommend watching it. It's as good as it gets, especially for a television movie. It's edge of the seat stuff and still resembles a documentary where you will learn a bit of German history and emotional abysses aside from watching a great film.
The first 25 minutes are about Erwin's life as a kid and it is already here when we see how he is somehow stranger, somehow different. For example he is not the least bit grateful when his brother takes the blame for something Erwin did in order to protect him from another beating from their dad. Still, this first half hour is probably the weakest part of the film, but that is only because of how much a joy Waltz is to watch later on. He was in his late 30s when this was made, actually not much younger than Christian Redl, who plays his dad here. I am neither familiar with director Peter Keglevic nor with the writer duo, but I see that the writers have not worked in a long time on scripts and this was not the only project that Keglevic and Waltz worked on together. Here, these two were men on a mission as great as Makolajczyk's mission was evil.
If you get your hands on a copy, I highly recommend watching it. It's as good as it gets, especially for a television movie. It's edge of the seat stuff and still resembles a documentary where you will learn a bit of German history and emotional abysses aside from watching a great film.
