THE OGRE (aka DER UNHOLD) review

You know... sometimes you wait for some movies for a seeming eternity to come out.

This was one of those for me.

I remember back in 1996 when I heard tale that the director of TIN DRUM, Volker Schlöndorff, had made a film called Der Unhold (aka THE OGRE) starring John Malkovich.

I heard it was a true story of a man who rode atop a great steed collecting young Aryan boys from the countryside in Germany to take to an SS Hitler Youth Training Castle.

It was a one sentence synopsis that hooked me.

And I sat in eager anticipation. You see Schlöndorff’s TIN DRUM was one of the most affecting movies I ever saw as a kid. I still remember that weird freaky kid with his horrified eyes... like some sort of nightmarish version of Elijah Wood.... screaming and... I had nightmares. I love nightmares. Nightmares keep your heart beating in your sleep.

Well... it’s now three years later and it’s FINALLY playing at the only theater left from my childhood. The Village. Ironically, it’s the same theater that I saw THE TIN DRUM in back in ‘79. Might have even been the same screen... I can’t remember. Though I do remember seeing SONG OF THE SOUTH on this screen in that reissue when I was a kid.

We haven’t had many, if any reports on THE OGRE. It’s one of those films that for whatever reason never really gets people excited.

There is a reason... and it’s not because of any problems with the film.

When you see THE OGRE there is a profound sense of... it’s not depression.... it’s a sense of melancholy that has arisen from watching someone who’s life has gone terribly astray but hasn’t recognized it... even at the end.

This is a almost lyrical story about a simple man with a simple urge to protect children and to be a wilderness man. Malkovich plays perhaps my favorite character I’ve seen him become in his portrayal of Abel.

Abel is that big dumb guy that my sister has a crush on. That adorably simple and slightly off man that also frightens if the shadows fall wrong upon his face. The only character that this really reminds me of is actually not human. It’s a character given life by Willis O’Brien and Ray Harryhausen. He plays his Abel a lot like they animated Mighty Joe Young... the vintage black and white film... not the remake...

He’s a bit of a beast... Some see him as being stupid. Some see him as a threat. Some see him as something to exploit. And... in this film... he has noone that truly cares about him, he has no Terry Moore. That’s the difference that is killing the word of mouth on this film.

Nobody really cares for Abel. They all... tolerate him. He’s given jobs to do, and he is happy to fulfill them, but he really is a go-getter and a nice man.

And when he is put in the hands of the top ranks of the SS and the Nazi political world... He is used as an unwitting monster.

The film is about this simple Frenchman, who through a series of amazing circumstances finds himself connected to the number 2 man in the Nazi party. He hasn’t heard the rhetoric. He hasn’t seen the death camps. He doesn’t see or know of any of the evils that the Nazi’s are doing. He is... sad enough... an innocent.

The film is a study of how one can be lured into an evil enterprise without ever realizing that they are doing wrong.

This is a true horror story. He is charged with collecting fine young boys to be trained to serve the will of Hitler.

He doesn’t see the harm. He sees boys enjoying themselves, playing, saluting. Never fighting amongst themselves. Singing. Enjoying athletic endeavors. They are all so healthy. So fit. So perfectly happy. So he, of course wants to bring others to this ‘paradise’ for boys.

It’s a wild take on the Coachman from PINNOCHIO. Imagine if he really thought he was taking kids to Pleasure Isle... The greatest field day ever for children. If he had NO IDEA that they were being turned into donkeys to carry the loads of some miner somewhere.

BUT.... there is another side of this film... actually quite a few.

I found myself wondering what would have happened to me if at the age of seven or so, this man came and grabbed me from the forest and took me to this most excellent castle.... A castle filled with the bests of food and drink. A castle filled with other boys like myself, and we played and learned to fire guns... something my mom would never have allowed. And that I was the chosen future of the world. And that we, me and all these new friends of mine, were destined to rule the world alongside.... Our hero, Adolf Hitler.

It’s sick... but in this film you can see how a youth could fall into that world. It’s so appealing that as you watch the film you have to keep reminding yourself of what happened... until THEY (the filmmakers) show you what happens to these SS children.

It’s horrifying.

Then there is the actual SS leaders training the boys. And the aristocracy that owns the castle. And we begin to see how the SS was built upon the dreams of shopkeepers and groceryboys whom signed on to a dream of running the country and never having to look up to a king or a baron, in a sick twisted sort of way... It’s a bit of a Robin Hood world.

The Count von Kaltenborn (played magnificently by Armin Mueller-Stahl) is a man with a proud history. And now he’s being bossed about by these... ‘commoners’ and is seeing his country and the strata of how it once was being torn asunder. He hasn’t been blinded by the propaganda of the ‘uberman’. And you see how he... well... see the movie.

This movie is fantastic. The film builds up the beauty of the Nazi Empire beautifully. They don’t play them as being evil, but as seducers. This is the way I’ve always wanted to see a film dealing with Nazi Germany. I don’t want EVIL men, I want to see deluded men. People that believe they were doing the right thing. And perhaps only at the end did they truly understand, and even then some where in denial.

It was this aspect in DAS BOOT that I loved. That the Nazis were not all a bunch of goose-stepping morons that should start reading books instead of burning them. The stereotype button is a double edged sword.

And in this film, it begins tearing at the stereotypes of what occurred in Nazi Germany.

If you want to see a movie that isn’t... an easy film. That may very well disturb you... and this one will. You will understand how kids could easily be caught up in the pomp and circumstance.

While we had Frank Capra lampooning Hitler and crew in his WHY WE FIGHT series... Their Propaganda was equally effective in the other direction. And... this film begins to really get into the complexity of what was going on.

There is still a great movie waiting to be told regarding the inner workings of Nazi Germany. I don’t feel it’s quite been told yet. But this one is definitely headed in the right direction.

Malkovich is incredible as Abel though. Seek this film out, it is rewarding on sooooo many levels and... unfortunately you won’t have to fight audiences to see it.