The Murderers Are Among Us

Rating:
Summary: Dark future in post-war Germany...
Review: Susanne Wallner is a survivor of the Concentration Camps of World War II. When she returns to her apartment she finds it in ruins as the rest of Berlin. She also discovers that her apartment has a new tenant, Dr. Hans Mertens, who spends his time in the local club where he continuously gets drunk in order to deepen the shadows over his memories of the war. Susanne finds out that Dr. Mertens refuses to move out, which leads to Susanne and him sharing her apartment. The two new roommates become involved in an entangled relationship where Susanne shows strong feelings and deep sympathy for Dr. Mertens despite her own hardships after the war. However, Dr. Mertens own ghosts from the war seem next to impossible to exorcise, and when Susanne finds a letter that Dr. Mertens was suppose to deliver for a fallen comrade the tension between the two roommates becomes more tense. This leads Dr. Mertens back into his past and into a dark secret that Dr. Mertens is carrying within himself. Murderer Are Among Us was the first film made in Germany after World War II that displays the true dark future that was laying ahead of a German nation in ruins after the war and the ambiguous nature of the people in a healing nation. In historical perspective, this film delivers a tremendously strong message, which even today should be pondered and mused. In addition, this ingenious story grabs the audience in a choke hold that never lets go until the end, and when it loosens its tight grip of the audience it leaves them with an imprint that will not leave them for a long time.

Rating:
Summary: Dark future in post-war Germany...
Review: Susanne Wallner is a survivor of the Concentration Camps of World War II. When she returns to her apartment she finds it in ruins as the rest of Berlin. She also discovers that her apartment has a new tenant, Dr. Hans Mertens, who spends his time in the local club where he continuously gets drunk in order to deepen the shadows over his memories of the war. Susanne finds out that Dr. Mertens refuses to move out, which leads to Susanne and him sharing her apartment. The two new roommates become involved in an entangled relationship where Susanne shows strong feelings and deep sympathy for Dr. Mertens despite her own hardships after the war. However, Dr. Mertens own ghosts from the war seem next to impossible to exorcise, and when Susanne finds a letter that Dr. Mertens was suppose to deliver for a fallen comrade the tension between the two roommates becomes more tense. This leads Dr. Mertens back into his past and into a dark secret that Dr. Mertens is carrying within himself. Murderer Are Among Us was the first film made in Germany after World War II that displays the true dark future that was laying ahead of a German nation in ruins after the war and the ambiguous nature of the people in a healing nation. In historical perspective, this film delivers a tremendously strong message, which even today should be pondered and mused. In addition, this ingenious story grabs the audience in a choke hold that never lets go until the end, and when it loosens its tight grip of the audience it leaves them with an imprint that will not leave them for a long time.

Rating:
Summary: An exploration of a German Homecoming
Review: There have been many movies about soldiers returning home from war, especially since Vietnam (Coming Home and The Deer Hunter leading into films like Courage Under Fire). But before the 70's it was rare to find a film that analyzed the absolute losing side's perspective. How do soldiers return to life if they are deemed losers by the whole world? In Staudte's film two soldiers return home to the ruins of post-war Berlin. The irony is that the one who courageously defended innocents finds himself destitute and plagued by nightmares while his sadistic officer has seamlessly blended back into the broken society. The film follows Ernst Borchert's character as he takes up with a woman and searches for a place for his life and a purposeful identity.
The power of the film is found in its realistic atmosphere shot in 1946 and in its uncompromising ambiguity. It is too early to make judgements on the completed WWII rather Staudte uses the medium to highlight the cyclical nature of violence. This is the notion that wars must be avoided at all costs for the damage they do is beyond any possible benefit as well as human comprehension. On that note, many see Murderers Among Us as a post-war message of hope. A prophecy that the German people would unite again as they had in the past, and again find some semblance of community. Only hopefully this time tempered by cool rationality. All in all, a decent film and one that begs comparison to the Hollywood mechanizations of the time epitomized in The Best Years of Our Lives.

Rating:
Summary: Not everyone "followed orders" in Nazi Germany
Review: This powerful piece of Historic Fiction shows a realistic look at Post-WWII Germany, and the determination of the shook-up nation to pick up the pieces and survive their darkest chapter in modern history.

Many gripping moments include the "return" of a young woman (played by a very young Hildegard Knef) who had spent years in Nazi concentration camps. Her innocence and purity are reflected in the woman's complete willingness to "forgive and forget" the attrocities witnessed and experienced.

A main character was a commanding officer responsible for horrible acts against innocent civilians, while another had refused to take part in such evil. The final scenes "drive home" the message how some feel no remorse for their evil deeds, while others remain plagued with the images of those mercilessly tortured and murdered.

Seeing the young woman who had been victimized by the evil regime step in to prevent a altercation between the man she loves and the man responsible for much of the suffering shows that humans are capable of forgiving and thus surviving into a better life, free of hate and vengeance.

I highly recommend the original German version with or without the subtitles. Many of the effects require the original sound track. This would be a valuable teaching tool for an advanced German class, or a related European History lesson...