In 1970, it seems as if Roland Klick set out to emulate Sergio Leone’s “The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly”, mixing it with Michelangelo Antonioni’s “Zabriskie Point” to create a modern Sauerkraut Western (without horses, but rather a truck and a car). The story stars three characters, Marquard Bohm as the “Kid” (The Good), Siegurd Fitzek as “Mr. Sunshine” (The Bad), and Mario Adorf (can be seen in Dario Argento’s “The Bird With The Crystal Plumage” as the reclusive cat eating painter) as “Mr. Dump” (The Ugly) (who again plays a reclusive man who lives in a dump??). The story begins with the Kid, who has just pulled off a heist (with a bullet wound in the arm), and is carrying millions of dollars in a case. Wandering aimlessly through the sunbaked desert, (he finally passes out and is left for dead) until Mr. Dump drives along and finds him and the money. Once back at Mr. Dump’s residence (a sort of abandoned junk yard), the Kid warns Mr. Dump, that Mr. Sunshine (who apparently is the ringleader of this heist) will be coming for his money. Thus begins the cat and mouse story, of who will get the case of money. Mr. Dump also has two neighbors, an older (and apparently sexually crazy) woman and her pretty (but feral) daughter (who is obviously sexually curious of the Kid).
The film is set in (what looks to be) a wasteland desert, which could have been a forerunner for films like “A Boy And His Dog” and “Road Warrior”. Yet the film maintains a complete Sergio Leone feel to it. You get all the great close ups of the characters sweating in the sun, and the typical double crossing that took place in his westerns. The Kid in this movie also kind of resembles Charles Bronson’s character in Leone’s other masterpiece “Once Upon A Time In The West”. But on the flipside, this film also kind of reminded me of Antonioni’s “Zabriskie Point”, in the surreal desert filming. Also the use of Kraut Rock band “Can”, who’s music score, will remind one of Pink Floyd’s music score for Antonioni’s film. The inspired use of Can, as the music score was a great choice, because though at times it does remind you of Pink Floyd, it also reminds me of Ennio Morricone’s music score as well. The Kid’s theme song seems to be “Whiskey Man” by Can, and this reminds me of the way you hear that unforgettable Clint Eastwood whistling theme, or the accompanying harmonica for Charles Bronson. Can’s score embodies both stylizations perfectly. The film is pretty obscure, and there was very little information, that I could find on it. But it’s worth searching out if you have an interest in different cult type movies from the late sixties, or an interest in Can. But the pacing is a little uneasy and the finale was a tad unclimatic (yet somehow downbeat). Though it’s a German production, the English dubbing will remind you of the Spaghetti Westerns as well. Cool, but very weird.
Video ID : 1 ID in the original source medium : 4113 (0x1011) Format : AVC Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec Format profile : [email protected] Format settings : CABAC / 3 Ref Frames Format settings, CABAC : Yes Format settings, Reference frames : 3 frames Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC Duration : 1 h 33 min Bit rate mode : Variable Bit rate : 35.0 Mb/s Maximum bit rate : 38.0 Mb/s Width : 1 920 pixels Height : 1 080 pixels Display aspect ratio : 16:9 Frame rate mode : Constant Frame rate : 23.976 (24000/1001/189150) FPS Color space : YUV Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0 Bit depth : 8 bits Scan type : Progressive Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.704 Stream size : 22.8 GiB (97%) Language : English Default : No Forced : No Color range : Limited Color primaries : BT.709 Transfer characteristics : BT.709 Matrix coefficients : BT.709 Original source medium : Blu-ray
Audio ID : 2 ID in the original source medium : 4353 (0x1101) Format : DTS XLL Format/Info : Digital Theater Systems Commercial name : DTS-HD Master Audio Codec ID : A_DTS Duration : 1 h 33 min Bit rate mode : Variable Bit rate : 1 095 kb/s Channel(s) : 1 channel Channel layout : C Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz Frame rate : 93.750 FPS (512 SPF) Bit depth : 24 bits Compression mode : Lossless Stream size : 729 MiB (3%) Title : DTS-HD MA 1.0 Language : English Default : Yes Forced : No Original source medium : Blu-ray
Text #1 ID : 3 Format : UTF-8 Codec ID : S_TEXT/UTF8 Codec ID/Info : UTF-8 Plain Text Duration : 1 h 20 min Bit rate : 21 b/s Count of elements : 497 Stream size : 12.8 KiB (0%) Title : English-SRT Language : English Default : Yes Forced : No
Text #2 ID : 4 ID in the original source medium : 4609 (0x1201) Format : PGS Muxing mode : zlib Codec ID : S_HDMV/PGS Codec ID/Info : Picture based subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs Duration : 1 h 20 min Bit rate : 12.1 kb/s Count of elements : 838 Stream size : 7.03 MiB (0%) Language : English Default : No Forced : No Original source medium : Blu-ray
Text #3 ID : 5 ID in the original source medium : 4611 (0x1203) Format : PGS Muxing mode : zlib Codec ID : S_HDMV/PGS Codec ID/Info : Picture based subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs Duration : 1 h 20 min Bit rate : 12.6 kb/s Count of elements : 814 Stream size : 7.28 MiB (0%) Language : English Default : No Forced : No Original source medium : Blu-ray
Text #4 ID : 6 ID in the original source medium : 4611 (0x1203) Format : PGS Muxing mode : zlib Codec ID : S_HDMV/PGS Codec ID/Info : Picture based subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs Duration : 3 s 441 ms Bit rate : 27.9 kb/s Count of elements : 2 Stream size : 11.7 KiB (0%) Language : English Default : No Forced : No Original source medium : Blu-ray
Text #5 ID : 7 ID in the original source medium : 4613 (0x1205) Format : PGS Muxing mode : zlib Codec ID : S_HDMV/PGS Codec ID/Info : Picture based subtitle format used on BDs/HD-DVDs Duration : 1 h 31 min Bit rate : 41.5 kb/s Count of elements : 1430 Stream size : 27.3 MiB (0%) Language : English Default : No Forced : No Original source medium : Blu-ray