美国国家公共电台 NPR In 'The Captain,' Clothes Make The Man — And The Monster

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AUDIE CORNISH, HOST:

World War II movies often focus on courage under fire and battlefield heroics. But the German film "The Captain" takes another tack¹. It's set in the last moments of the Nazi² regime's collapse³ and centers on a German deserter. Critic Bob Mondello says the captain is a true story of deception⁴ gone haywire.

BOB MONDELLO, BYLINE⁵: An open field - you hear the war coming before you see it - a trumpet⁶, gunshots, then the roar of a truck.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE CAPTAIN")

MONDELLO: Willi Herold, a German deserter, is being chased across the field by drunken Nazi soldiers. They're in no rush. Herold's starving, half-frozen, exhausted⁷. Somehow, though, he makes it to the trees bordering the field and survives another day.

Herold's not the only German deserter in these last few days of the war. He comes across an abandoned car - inside, a suitcase with an officer's uniform, coat, boots, hat. He puts them on mostly for warmth and starts singing to himself - it is good luck - then freezes in panic as another German soldier comes into view and salutes⁸ him, asking to be attached to the captain.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE CAPTAIN")

MILAN PESCHEL: (As Freytag, speaking German).

MONDELLO: It takes Herold a moment to realize this means him. The new soldier fixes the car and becomes his driver. The uniform works on others, too. Herold, played by babyfaced Max Hubacher at first seems an innocent, using the uniform's power benignly⁹, say, to get a free meal. But when some locals bring him a soldier who's been stealing food, essentially¹⁰ what he's doing himself by getting that free meal, he realizes he either does what a real Nazi captain would do, or they'll see through him. So he does.

(SOUNDBITE OF GUNSHOT)

MONDELLO: Things escalate¹¹. He picks up a squad¹² of military police, blowing off their questions...

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE CAPTAIN")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: (As character, speaking German).

MAX HUBACHER: (As Willi Herold, speaking German).

MONDELLO: ...By claiming he's operating on the highest authority...

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE CAPTAIN")

HUBACHER: (As Willi Herold, speaking German).

MONDELLO: ...And finds he can intimidate¹³ other officers, even ones who cite regulations and outrank him, by being the cruelest of the cruel, overseeing a bacchanal of brutality¹⁴.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE CAPTAIN")

MONDELLO: Remember that Stanford University prison experiment where students divided randomly¹⁵ into guards and prisoners took on the traits associated with those roles, guards becoming vicious, prisoners sullen¹⁶? Writer-director Robert Schwentke has imagined that dynamic in a society that's both monstrous¹⁷ and in mid-collapse, social restraints in full retreat.

(SOUNDBITE OF GUNFIRE)

MONDELLO: He's ensured that "The Captain" is as gorgeously shot in black and white as it is filled with hideous¹⁸ images - men flailing¹⁹ and dying as the leading character eats a sumptuous²⁰ dinner unconcerned, whole platoons blown apart by airborne bombs, the near-dead walking through a field of skeletons. "The Captain" is so violent that it starts to feel gratuitous²¹ until a postscript²² calculated to leave audiences slack-jawed. I won't spoil its surprise, but I will say that it happens behind the final credits. And once it starts, if you're anything like me, you won't see a single name. I'm Bob Mondello.