Movie Review: The Good German

By Cynthia Fuchs

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What Parents Should Know
Parents need to know that this black-and-white, 1940s-style "film noir" isn't likely to appeal to kids. Its plot includes references to Nazis, war crimes, and the atomic bomb, as well as lots of strong language and violence (beyond what typified the era). Characters frequently say "f--k"; there's also one use of "c--t" and an anti-Semitic remark. Violence includes beating, kicking, and shooting (resulting in bloody wounds). Sexual imagery includes a woman stripping, a rough sexual act (the woman's figure and face are in shadow), and some kissing. Several references are made to Lena's work as a prostitute. Characters smoke incessantly (it's 1945) and drink like fish.

Families can talk about the film's attempts to mimic 1940s style and culture. How is the era presented differently in this movie than in films actually from that time period? How does the movie's explicit language and violent imagery alter your idea of what 1944 might have been like? How do Lena and Jake form a romantic couple that is at once old-fashioned (sentimental, nostalgic) and like those in present-day movies (cynical, passionate)?

Common Sense Media Review
Set in 1945 Germany, THE GOOD GERMAN is Steven Soderbergh's latest expansion of stylistic and thematic boundaries. Shot in black and white, the movie focuses on the moral and political dilemmas emerging from the Potsdam Peace Conference, where, an epigraph asserts, Harry Truman, Winston Churchill, and Josef Stalin gathered to "draw the postwar map."

As the film begins, reporter Capt. Jake Gesimar ( George Clooney) arrives in Germany to cover the conference. Immediately, he's set in opposition to his younger driver, Corporal Tully ( Tobey Maguire). Where Jake is principled, if cynical, Tully is at once naïve and slick, selling liquor on the black market (he's soon involved in more dangerous trade). The men's differences come to a head over a femme fatale -- a prostitute named Lena ( Cate Blanchett) who's currently Tully's girlfriend and was formerly Jake's lover.

Soon Jake is embroiled in a murder case that's been covered up by crafty American Colonel Muller (Beau Bridges) and somehow involves the insidious Russian General Sikorsky (Ravil Isaynov). Jack is variously helped and stymied by convention attendee Congressman Breimer (Jack Thompson) and war crimes prosecutor Bernie Teitel (Leland Orser). Bernie is friend of Jake's from the old days who knows enough not to trust him, but is invested enough in tracking down the now-scurrying-away Nazis that he makes deals with whomever will help him do it, be it Jake or the U.S. military.

Lena and Jake's passionate past -- as well as a scene at a rainy airport -- evokes Rick and Ilsa in Casablanca . But Jake's efforts to do the right thing are repeatedly complicated by others' greed and desire for vengeance. As Bernie puts it, "Nobody around here's acting like the war's over."

Indeed, it isn't. This thoughtful, complex film ends with a Stars & Stripes headline announcing that the United States has just dropped the atomic bomb on Japan. Even as WWII comes to a horrific end, the Cold War is already in motion. Life and destruction go on. The bomb, says Congressman Breimer, is "our destiny."

Fans will also enjoy the movies that inspired this one, including Casablanca, classic film noir Double Indemnity, and post-WWII legal drama Judgment at Nuremberg. Or try Clooney's other recent black-and-white movie, the superb Good Night, and Good Luck .