The American Soldier

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The American Soldier

1970,

1h 20m,

Drama

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Watchlist

77%

13 Reviews

Tomatometer

55%

250+ Ratings

Popcornmeter

77%

Tomatometer

13 Reviews

55%

Popcornmeter

250+ Ratings

A soldier returns home from Vietnam and is hired by crooked cops to kill a few crooks, but things get complicated when one of the cops' girlfriends falls for him.

Noel Murray

The Dissolve

Sep 4, 2013

3/5

Fassbinder toys with the imagery of noir and pulp, peppering The American Soldier with long scenes of men in hats driving through darkened city streets, and throwing in references to Batman comics and science-fiction.

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Keith Uhlich

House Next Door

Jan 28, 2009

As Billy Wilder turned a crumbling Berlin into a slapstick, satirical playground in One, Two, Three, so Fassbinder offers up The American Soldier's Munich as a monochrome city of sadness.

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Tony Rayns

Time Out

Feb 9, 2006

This film marks a decisive step towards 'real' Fassbinder: the absurdity of its world of second-hand experience invests every clich with a meaning it never had before.

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Jordan Brooks

Vague Visages

Aug 3, 2023

A surrealist bookend to his unofficial gangster trilogy, The American Soldier finds R.W. Fassbinder not only at peace with his version of cinematic grace but more cynically-minded than ever.

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Ted Whitehead

The Spectator

Aug 4, 2015

Fassbinder loses both comedy and tension in his pursuit of grotesquerie, and there is a desperate sense of strain throughout.

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Fernando F. Croce

CinePassion

Oct 10, 2009

The phantoms of Old Germany are everywhere

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Rey S

Feb 12, 2011

Fassbinder creates a crime film that's all form and no content. Ricky, a German born American who served in Vietnam, returns to his hometown of Munich as a contract killer. He receives orders to kill 3 people ... 2 of whom are people somewhat arbitrarily connected to the previous killing. He hangs out with his childhood friend played by Fassbinder himself. He visits his mother and doting brother (Kurt Raab). He eats steak with ketchup, drinks straight whiskey right out of the bottle, sleeps with prostitutes and flirts with the chamber maid (who delightfully tells the viewer the plot of "Ali: Fear Eats the Soul" with a different ending). A trio of rogue cops are his employers, but they are also investigating the murders. It all ends in betrayal. In his incredible detached style, Fassbinder walks his characters through the motions of a gangster film, and it's truly wonderful. Two of the best deaths ever committed to the screen are right here folks.

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Rainer Werner Fassbinder

Director

Karl Scheydt

Ricky

Elga Sorbas

Rosa von Praunheim

Jan George

Actor

Hark Bohm

Doc

Marius Aicher

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Synopsis

A soldier returns home from Vietnam and is hired by crooked cops to kill a few crooks, but things get complicated when one of the cops' girlfriends falls for him.

Director: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Producer: Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Peer Raben
Screenwriter: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
Genre: Drama
Original Language: German
Runtime: 1h 20m

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