Horst in Translation ([email protected])
"O.K." is a West German black-and-white film from 1970, so this one is quickly approaching its 50th anniversary these days. It is a relatively early career effort by writer and director Michael Verhoeven and while I like some of his later stuff, I can hardly say anything positive about this one here. The material is sufficient for a 25-minute film actually, if we just include a brief introduction, the rape, the murder and finally the attempt to bring justice. But it is not enough for a film that runs for roughly 75 minutes without credits. That's one problem. Another is that I can really see why it caused such a scandal and in my opinion it is scandalous for the sake of it. Does it protest against the Vietnam War? Yes. Is it based on real events? Yes. So far so good. But you also have to deliver something other than sheer revolting scenes and a scream that injustice has happened. The beginning is the best example. Verhoeven never succeeds with really keeping the soldiers apart from each other, with just giving them individual depth. There are the offenders as one unit and there is the protester as a second unit, as their opposition, even if he is just an individual.The cast includes several known names here in Germany like Bayrhammer, mostly known for Pumuckl these days still and I can't believe he really scored a German Film Award nomination for his portrayal here. Add to that Senta Berger, the filmmaker's wife back then already and she added nothing, Eva Mattes whose praise mostly resulted from her being physically ready to play the part, Zacher, Becker, von Thun, Verhoeven himself and others. I am a fan of some of Verhoeven's later works related to Nazi Germany, but not at all about this one here. It is propaganda for the sake of it really and a pretty empty statement eventually as she writing was so shallow. The simple mind thinks after watching that American soldiers raped their way through Vietnam and that makes this film fairly dangerous too, so lets hope they don't get to see this one. These days, it is really not easy to find a copy. Must have been a really bad year for German Film if this wins a screenplay award and is submitted (probably as nothing but a provocation) to the Oscars, where it obviously did not manage a nomination. The title is also a lie in reference to one character's words at the very end as afterward we are shown that not everything is okay with the prison sentences following the incident. Okay that is all I have to say about this movie. I give it a thumbs-down. Not recommended.
Mikew3001
A group of G.I. soldiers in the jungles of the Vietnam War meet a native young girl. They are raping and torturing it brutally and finally kill it. One soldier is disgusted by this inhuman behavior and reports this crime to his officers, who try to turn him down. Finally his former mates are sentenced to military jail or have to leave the army.This whole story really happened in Vietnam in 1967. It was the turn of German independent film maker Michael Verhoeven make a film about it in 1970, in real underground style, with b/w steady cams and German actors down in the forests of Bavaria. There is no jungle but just European forests. The actors are speaking with Bavarian German accents and wear groovy seventies' style haircuts. It wasn't Verhoeven's idea to make a "real" Vietnam war movie but rather a reflection of the war brutality on the human soul.The brutal rape sequences are shown in full and long details which appears rather like a mondo cane documentary or snuff movie. There is no space left here for any kind of humanity in this scene - all of the soldiers are turning to animals are torturing the girl in most disgusting ways. Only G.I. Eriksson, played by director Verhoeven himself, tries to withdraw from the scene but is forced by his mates to rape the girl as well. Another soldier who becomes eye witness to the scene is shot.The real touch of this movie is sometimes really unbearable, and although it was filmed in Bavaria with a low budget it has more impact on the spectator than many Hollywood Vietnam movies like Joel Schumacher's visually similar "Tigerland". The pain, cruelty and inhumanity of the soldiers can be felt in every second of this movie with its harmless title, and at its peak, "OK" reaches such a high level of emotions than another great German anti-war-movie, Bernhard Wicki's "Die Bruecke" (The Bridge, 1959).There can be seen some popular German actors in this film such as Rolf Zacher and Friedrich von Thurn as soldiers, Eva Mattes as the girl and Gustl Bayrhammer ("Pumuckel") as an army officer. At the beginning of the film, the actors are all introducing themselves with their real names, ages and marital status. In the end, Verhoeven probably seemed to calm down the high emotional story by showing the whole cast and crew behind the scenes and finally the main actors going out to a pub after filming. There is also a very strange moog synthesizer score, repeating an electronic loop every few minutes again.The story of his first performances was nearly as thrilling as the plot itself. During his debut at the Berlin Film Festival in 1970, the movie became a big scandal, and many critics left the first screening in disgust - the whole festival was closed down just after this first screening. There's been a big media hype with lots of negative reviews, and later on, "OK" was shown again at a San Francisco film festival where it became a big hit and a minor cult movie for the anti-war movement.Today, this early Michael Verhoeven direction is a rather forgotten German movie diamond, but its power and impact can still be felt after more than 30 years. In Germany it was shown on TV for the first time in 2001. In 1990, it was Brian de Palma's turn to do a remake with Michael J. Fox, entitled "Casualities of War", based on the same real incident in a lonely Vietnam jungle in the late sixties.
DJ Inferno
Michael Verhoeven´s "O.K." is a Vietnam war drama that takes place in the forests of Bavaria and all actors permanently speak with a Bavarian accent, although they play US-soldiers... Sounds funny, but it isn´t: the story is based on a true incident, when four American G.I.s brutally raped a 16 year old Vietnamese girl and murdered her afterwards. Only on member of the group, who didn´t take part at the crime tried to bring his companions to court-martial...Sounds familiar? Brian de Palma later filmed the same story under the title "Casualties of War" that starred Michael J. Fox and Sean Penn. But in comparison to de Palma´s stereotype Hollywood-pathos, Verhoeven´s movie is a legendary cult flick, which caused an immense scandal on the greatest German film festival in Berlin what even led to the break-off of the event.
The film itself is shot in muddy black&white-pictures, it contains no score and this idea was later used in "I spit on your grave" again. However, "O.K." is not as loud as the US-movie! It is another hidden gem, notorious for its reputation and one of the most interesting cinematic experiments I´ve ever seen!!
