"Der amerikanische Soldat" or "The American Soldier" is a West German German-language film from 1970, so this one had its 45th anniversary last year. The writer and director here is Rainer Werner Fassbinder and like several of his earlier works, this is a black-and-white film. Also like some of his early works, it is a relatively short movie as it runs for 80 minutes only and this already includes closing credits. The title character is played by Karl Scheydt, who is probably (a couple years after his death) not really known to many anymore today, but he actually appeared in several Fassbinder films. The filmmaker had a tendency of choosing his regular male actors in a way that each of them gets one film to shine in and this is Scheydt's. The rest of the cast here include many actors who regularly appeared in Fassbinder's films. If you weren't nice, you could call it his posse. I will not mention the names as you can check these in the cast list yourself, but Jan George for example is the older brother of the late Götz George and he plays a pretty big role in here and also appears in other Fassbinder films which not too many people know.About the action, here we have the story of a man who is an American/German contract killer and he is in Germany after the Vietnam War to fulfill some assignments. We see him kill people, we see him meet his mother and brother again and we also see him hook up with a woman. It is a bit ironic that not this woman who was intended to bring him down is crucial in the end, but his own mother when it comes to who helped the police the most in catching him eventually. All in all, I must say that black-and-white film noir is not perfect for Fassbinder as his later films relied a lot on the use of color and it was a vital instrument to the stories he told. But this is not supposed to mean, he is not a good artist when it comes to essential filmmaking. I really liked the showdown at the end for example in this film, but I really struggled with caring for everything that happened earlier in the film. And ultimately I must say that sitting through the first hour is not worth it, even if the last 15 minutes are pretty good. That's why I give this one a thumbs-down, but to end the review on a positive note I still want to mention the great song used by another Fassbinder regular here: Günther Kaufmann, who does not act in here, but is a scene stealer with his music.

American SOLDIER is certainly not among Fassbinder's greatest works. Fassbinder's oeuvre demands that his actors 'pose' rather than 'act'. Ordinarily, a successful dramatic performance allows the viewer to forget that an actor is 'pretending', but that one is witnessing a real depiction of emotions and reactions. However, Fassbinder strives for the converse of this process. He seems to aim for an almost militant lack of affectation, and his actors strike stylized poses which only represent authentic emotions. It's almost like German Kabuki Theater. It would seem that this form of acting technique would lend itself very well to the genre of Gangster Noir, but this film definitely missed the mark. The tale of three rogue police detectives who employ the skills of a heartless American Vietnam veteran is bogged down in an untidy avalanche of wacky details. Odd monologues, pointless car trips, enigmatic phone calls, and arguably the weirdest final scene ever brought to film, do not advance the storyline, but only confuse and perplex the viewer. Fassbinder's more successful films created surreal hyper-realities, but American SOLDIER only conveyed a feeling of disconnected opaqueness. Only for Die Hard Fassbinder Fans.

I have really liked some of Fassbinder's films, so I cannot be accused of being "anti-Fassbinder". BUT, I really hated this film. It was amateurish throughout--with a lousy score, indifferent acting and dopey direction. It was VERY obvious that this was one of Fassbinder's first films because it has so many obvious flaws and looks more like a home movie. Let me give a few examples:1. When the lead shoots one lady and the man with her to death, she is very obviously breathing as he leaves the room. I could easily see this while watching it on a DVD on TV, so I'm sure on a large screen it was even more apparent. Normally, this flaw would have been spotted and the scene re-shot. 2. The end of the movie is choreographed poorly and comes off very sloppily.3. The actors, at times, have trouble with their lines. Once again, a director would NORMALLY re-shoot the scenes.4. The suicide scene is, perhaps, one of the most poorly acted and pointless scenes I have ever witnesses. Most high school plays have greater realism.The film appears heavily influenced by Jean-Luc Godard and in some ways looks like a knock-off of the movie, Alphaville. This is a real shame, as Alphaville is another terrible film that has been seen, by some, as great art--while the average person would probably find the films amateurish and choppy.FYI--this is a VERY explicit film in places, so parents beware.Also, during one scene in the film, one of the actresses tells a story. Apart from a few changes, the story she told later was made by Fassbinder into ALI: FEAR EATS THE SOUL. A very interesting touch indeed, but not enough to save this film.

This is an early Fassbinder film, and from what I've seen, one of the best of his first 11 (which make up his first stage as a filmmaker). It's Fassbinder in gangster mode, and has been called an homage to film noir or even a parody of film noir. This isn't the case though. The movie is just film noir done by Fassbinder. There are little homages here and there, the beginning and end could be seen as being inspired by Breathless (taken to ridiculous extremes), and there are lots of filmmakers names used as characters, but Fassbinder isn't winking at the camera so much as just being himself, which back then, could be quite bizarre. In fact, this might be one of Fassbinder's most bizarre movies.The camera stands still, characters occasionally deliver seemingly unrelated monologues, unusual plot lines are treated nonchalantly (Ricky's brother is in love with him?), people about to be killed don't seem to be worried, and the singlehandedly greatest song ever plays over and over again, crooning "so much tenderness is in my head, so much loneliness in my bed." To have this song play over scenes of a stone-cold amoral hitman (the title character) casually driving his car are perversely hilarious. Even better is when it plays in the end, in one of the greatest endings I've ever seen (you'll have to check it out).The recent release of this film on DVD should help bring it some attention, as its now available for a pretty reasonable price from Wellspring. If you're looking for one of Fassbinder's more mature, professional, socially poignant melodramas, maybe this isn't the movie for you. If you're interested in an extremely unique unclassifiable early Fassbinder, by all means, check this out. Despite the occasional nods to past filmmakers, it's surprising how unique Fassbinder was from the start.(for those who are Jim Jarmusch fans, it's apparent films like these must have inspired the detached humor in some of his more recent films).