I was little torn apart with "The Brutalization of Franz Blum". It had an interesting subject to tackle which is the issue about human rehabilitation
of a criminal, if it's possible or not to make them repent for their crimes, learn new things through hard work and then get sent back to society as functional
members of it.
The time to face the law and pay for his mistakes comes to Blum (Jürgen Prochnow), a young petty criminal that comes from a family of means who is sent to
jail after a robbery gone wrong where he was the only member of the gang to get arrested. Completely unfamiliar with the system and how prisoners deal with
themselves, with guards and the warden, Blum is tossed around here and there, at times being very obedient to the guards and the warden rules to the point
of clashing with other inmates by reporting their schemes and fights, and other times being part of the bargain schemes trading products and sharing working
duties, to the point of becoming a cell block leader who competes with the veteran and violent leader Kuul (Burkhard Driest).
Reinhard Hauff's film truly believes that the prison system changes the man, but not in the rehabilitation sense and obvious that it's about that the
change comes from what prisoners can make to improve their crimes when they get out or at least learn ways to survive any prison system possible if they ever
come back. Blum goes from a wimp snitch who has only one friend, a man suffering with a sick heart who helped him early on, to a man who has comrades working
under him and against their former boss; a man who initially worked along with the guards that later on managed to blackmail one of them when needed.
When the movie works through such ideas we have a most fascinating and gripping story to see. But on the other hand, and maybe that's just me, for the most
of what we were shown in this German prison things aren't so tough and it feels like a summer camp those men are forced to stay in. Instead of the usual violence
(which is rarely presented) most of the time the prisoners keep swaping cigarettes, schnapps, medicine and coffee, and there's a weird hierarchy where group leaders
don't need to perform the hard labor on the outside, they just keep watching the others and they guards allow it.
Unlike the Hollywood cliche
of groups divided by race fighting against each other, here the division and the shift of power comes from either the toughest guy or the most intelligent, and
those below in the hierarchy can switch from leader whatever they want - except for one guy who's in love with Kuul, he's faithful all the way even though he's
always mistreated. Yet they all bicker with each other for small things, some prank that wasn't well received or just test of force against each other.
It's a fine movie, made it a somewhat positive experience due to Prochnow's masterful performance. His early films as a lead in Germany rather than
the typecast villains he played in Hollywood flicks are all something special - most notably "The Consequence" where he also plays a prisoner; and the mega hit
"Das Boot" both directed by Wolfgang Petersen. Check them all out if you can. 6/10.
