Search - The Good German on DVD

Michelle F. (alycat)
Reviewed on 10/17/2022...

As a fan of Joseph Kanon's books, I watched this adaptation right after reading the book. I ended up shaking my head a lot. Another reviewer already mentioned the gratuitous expansion of Tully's character, presumably to give Toby Maquire more screen time, and the exclusion of the journalist Liz. My main issue was the COMPLETE reworking of Lena and her whole relationship with Jake, as well as with her husband! For that matter, her relationship with Tully- in the book she never even knew him. Without spoiling the ending for those wanting to watch, I'll just say the murderer was changed, the ending was changed completely, and two exciting scenes in the book with shootouts and chases, things Hollywood loves, were completely omitted; lost opportunities in my opinion. If you have never read the excellent book, you may enjoy the movie. For those who have read it, you may be disappointed.

Frank E. (realartist) from HENDERSONVLLE, NC
Reviewed on 7/20/2009...

If you are fond of superbly well done period pieces, this one will not disappoint. I am becoming more and more of a fan of George Clooney - I have now seen in a number of period pieces. He will wind up being one of THE great actors of our generation. No matter what role, serious or comedic, he handles them all so beautifully. Kate Banchett's performance is a show stopper too, as you might guess. Some of us were young when news of WWII was seen at the movie theaters by way of "Movietone News" clips...this captures the high contrast black and white photography of that era, with marvelous, continuous excellent composition. It will remind many of the classic "Casablanca" with Ingrid Bergman and Humphry Bogart..and it would seem quite influenced by that great movie in subtle, but not obvious ways. George can also be seen in another period piece, while we're on the subject, and you want to see more..."Leatherheads". That on is almost a faded technicolor cartoon strip, rather than a movie.
He plays magnificently off Renee Zelweger. She seems to delight in, and take on female roles requiring a kick to the groin wicked witch. Watch the movie to for see yourself if George can even come close to taming that god awful shrew- a perverse characature of now tiresome, emasculating, off with their heads get the h__ out of my feminist.
And once you get toughened up to that, then you might be ready for the woman who holds the world title in mean-ness..Tilda Swinton - who played the wicked witch in Narnia..only this time she plays the stone cold B in "Burn After Reading" with George Clooney...boy he keeps getting paired with these women, huh? I guess he attracts these kinds of women ( joke )

A terrible film made from an outstanding novel!

DocJay | San Diego, CA | 02/09/2010

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I guess I should know better by now than to hope that a film adaptation of a really good novel could satisfy me. I'v seen too much evidence to the contrary, starting with the film adaptation of Herman Wouk's "The Caine Mutiny", from which the film omitted the entire second half of the novel. I'm just glad that I borrowed this atrocity from my local library for free! Joe Kanon is my favorite contemporary author (I've even started a fascinating correspondence with him), but this film takes such wanton liberties with his plot, characters, and basic premise that it's totally unrecognizable! Take the character Tully: in the novel he's a lieutenant who appears live only briefly in the first scene, only to be murdered immediately. In the film he is demoted to a corporal assigned to a motorpool and hangs around as a creep for at least half of the production, totally losing the focus on the reason for the murder of the original character. And the photographer Liz (a double for Bourke-White) doesn't even appear! If only something could have been gained by all the liberties taken, I might have forgiven the screenwriter, but in point of fact he accomplishes nothing but the diffusion of the plot till it's totally obscure! At the end I found myself asking, "What, after all, is meant by a 'good' German?" The whole moral point of the novel is lost, and all that remains is muddled, obscure trash, posing as film noir."

The Good German

Arnita D. Brown | USA | 03/10/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Berlin, July, 1945. Journalist Jake Geismer arrives to cover the Potsdam conference, issued a captain's uniform for easier passage. He also wants to find Lena, an old flame who's now a prostitute desperate to get out of Berlin. He discovers that the driver he's assigned, a cheerful down-home sadist named Corporal Tully, is Lena's keeper. When the body of a murdered man washes up in Potsdam within the Russian sector, Jake may be the only person who wants to solve the crime. U.S. personnel are busy finding Nazis to bring to trial, the Russians and the Americans are looking for German rocket scientists, and Lena has her own secrets. The movie is mesmerizing. Say what you will about it, you have to commend Soderbergh on his cinematography skills. This a movie done in black and white, and was very well done. The score is good. It evokes just the right atmosphere. The editing is crisp and clever. I wouldn't say it's Soderbergh's best movies, but it's certainly one of his his most unique ones, I think. I highly recommend it.
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