User reviews

Saw this on Netflix streaming movies. Much of the movie is in German with English subtitles, but some of it is in English.

Uschi Obermaier was (is?) apparently a real person who joined in with what we would call the hippie free-love movement in 1960s Germany. But she was also a model and a very successful one. Much of her modeling was nude or semi-nude, graphically depicted in the film, and the actress certainly has a Playboy-worthy beauty.

German actress Natalia Avelon plays Uschi Obermaier . While she is the central character her life and travels take her many places and with many famous people. The beginning and the end of the film are the same, she is standing nude on the beach, watching a raft burn, symbolic of her relationships that had died and the men with them. In between is her story.

The critic Ebert has a very good and accurate review. Interesting film, but I lived through the 1960s and 1970s, I remember those days, and watching this one didn't do much for me.

This film describes itself as telling the story of Uschi Obermaier, a 1968 "icon" in the "student revolts". What it in fact shows is that she was nothing more than a girl with a good figure trying to make it out of small-town Bavaria. Apart from making money doing photo shoots and living in the Kommune I for a while, she did not do anything worthwhile for the movement. And this all the film cares to show us as well. Most of the film is actually based on her frustrating and uninteresting relationship with a guy from St.Pauli with whom she drives around in a van with for most of the film. Her thick accent is way too exaggerated, her non- acting tedious and the overall story predictable. The film is full of clichés from the 60s like free love and rock 'n roll and are not explored in any new or interesting way. Add to this the bad remake of the song 'Summer Wine" which is over-played incessantly during the film renders this a very poor 2 out of 10.

I'm disappointed about the low rating that this movie has. It's one of my favorites and I've watched it several times. I've read other reviews to see why it has such a low rating, and I notice that people expect from it something that it's not. They expect it to be about the "Kommune", they expect it to be about an extraordinary girl, and they expect expensive set designs.

This movie is not about all that. The way I see it, Das Wilde Leben is about a journey, it's about a girl who is free and is not afraid to break boundaries, it's about a girl who uses her beauty to have the adventure of her life. She falls in love with powerful men, she lives wildly, she sees the world. And, above all, this movie is about a powerful woman.

Is the movie true to the historical facts? Is it true to Uschi's life? That's not what's important. It's a movie, not a documentary. Beyond the cheap sets and the historical inaccuracies (if there are any) lays a beautiful and inspiring story.

Considering that this movie features a stunningly beautiful woman running around starkers on screen for about 1/3 of the movie, it's surprisingly boring.

The movie is about the most beautiful face of the 1960ies student revolts in Germany -- Uschi Obermaier. Unfortunately, she was little more than a beautiful face (and a very fit body), so possibly the movie's first mistake was picking her as a subject. The next mistake was to chose Natalia Avelon as lead actress -- she may be a great photo model, but she's not much of an actress, and her attempts to mimic Obermaier's charmingly proletarian Bavarian dialect are disastrous, she makes it sound as if Obermaier had some sort of speech impediment.

The makers of this movie apparently had enough money for great cinematography, exotic locations and some great music (to viz, "Kick Out The Jams" by the MC5), but they ought to have invested some of it for hiring someone who can write dialogues, which are risibly bad. The same goes for the "political" scenes -- the Kommune 1 comes off as a bunch of stoner caricatures. If none of the makers grasped what the political and cultural upheavals of the late 1960ies were about, why did they make a movie about that era? Overall the movie never allowed me to understand what Obermaier saw in Langhans or Bockhorn (or what Keith Richards or Mick Jagger saw in Mrs Obermaier, for that matter), or what infatuated them about her.

To give you an example of the hammy script: near the beginning of the plot, her mother discovers some nude pictures of her young daughter. Uschi consequently packs her suitcase, and in the next scene we see her and a girlfriend hitchhiking to Berlin -- for some reason, not along the only (and mandatory) highway that leads from Munich to the divided city, but on some backroad. None of the squares gives them a lift (presumably because pretty young girls were discriminated against in that day and age), until the archetypal VW hippie bus arrives on the scene. They climb aboard, someone hands them a comic-sized reefer, and announces that they're going to pay the Kommune I a visit. They arrive just as the most famous photograph of the KI is being taken, with the communards lined up naked against the wall. Rainer Langhans, still naked, strolls over to the new arrivals, and Uschi is of course instantly infatuated. And so on.

Basically, a (non-porn) movie about some shallow groupie shacking up with some celebrities is difficult to make captivating, and this movie gives it an especially half-arsed shot. I just found it painfully boring to watch.

I haven't seen the movie yet, I didn't know there was one, but I and some friends actually met Uschi and Dieter Bockhorn at the Maroon Bells Park in Aspen in early 80's, I think. I could look the date up on my slides, I guess. We spent the evening with them partying in their awesome, customized Mercedes bus overlooking the lake. It was really fun and interesting. We had NO idea who they were. Dieter was very cool, but couldn't speak English very well. Uschi translated for him but she had a heavy, very sexy, German-glish accent. They told us all about their travels, how they got their bus, about their wedding in India riding elephants, and about the magazine articles Dieter wrote…one was about "The Return of Uschi" so we figured she was obviously famous somehow, but we couldn't really understand the story with the language barrier and all. Not sure they even tried to explain. They were very friendly and down-to-earth. She was absolutely, amazingly, stunningly beautiful. Her hair was short then. She kissed me on the cheek when we said our goodbyes the next morning. Then we went our separate ways. We wrote back and forth a time or two. She said they were on their way to Baja Mexico where they went in the winters. I tried to look them up on the web without success, because I mistakenly tried looking for Uschi "Bockhorn." When I finally discovered her correct name and story I was stunned. And when I found out that Dieter had died, not too very long after we met them I was doubly-stunned and saddened. My middle son is named Dieter. Maybe I'll write her again sometime, maybe not, but I'll always remember that night. In the meantime I'm not sure if I want to get to know the Uschi of this movie or the Uschi I remember. We'll have to see.

(2007) Eight Miles High (In German with English subtitles) DRAMA/ BIOGRAPHY

Love it or hate it, all it is, is basically a true account (shown in stages) of a supposedly attractive female German model who got by as a result of her looks which anyone can find from every person you can possibly meet. The only difference with this one is that she made-out with 2 members of "The Rolling Stones" during the late 60's and 70's and she made a once wealthy tycoon to waste a lot of money on her by using most of it on an expensive bus for the purpose of traveling. I've only turned it off once upon watching through this, sometimes wondering aimlessly when she's going to disrobe again and make out with someone else since she's often nude throughout along with a few tiny dicks.

This is probably the worst of all the terrible German movies I had to watch over the years. If there was an award for stupidity the movie would definitely get it. I don't want even to mention the terrible acting, the cheap set design, the pointless "story" or the idiotic dialog and the overall horrible look which are nowadays standard for German films. What's really bothering is that for some reason the creators seem not to have the slightest idea what the "Kommune" and the whole 68 movement were about, what they wanted and what they did. The movie deals with childish clichés - the scene when Uschi and Rainer meet the Rolling - Stones is so exquisitely ridiculous that you will have trouble to believe your eyes - even if this is somehow true for the whole movie. If Uschi has really coauthored this we're all asking us if he had so many drugs during the time that she probably did not even get what was going on. Otherwise: How could this possibly happen?

A wonderful rendering of the 60s. If you grew up like me with the 1968 revolution as a mythical era, this film will make you jubilate. Sex, drugs, rock and roll, radical thinking, revolutionaries, and the research of freedom, pleasure and new horizons. Freeing of the mind, freeing of the body… In her small town in Bavaria, Obermaier feels the revolution pounding in her bones and can't stay in place in her confined, old-fashioned home. Listening to rock music is her escape but it simply is not enough. She takes off and lives in an activist commune for some time before becoming a lover of Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and marrying a rich adventurer and traveling the world with him. A lively portrait of strong-willed Obermaier, her rebelliousness and search for unbound freedom. "Don't dream your life, live your dream" is a motto that appears in the film and could not apply better. Uschi appears unstoppable, ready to conquer the world, explore the confines of freedom. Inspiring.

It is stupid to talk about this film seriously. It is a total stupid picture about history. Not more than a comic-strip. It has nothing to do with reality. If we Germans make film about erotic it is always total stupid. Thats a great problem. It is not possible to make a seriously film about sex and drugs and rock- roll - because everybody here this it is only a game and not a real way to go with intelligence.

The first scene in this film- father - mother and naked daughter shows us all. Only artificial - stupid without any felling or telling about a true story. All characters are only like in the Muppet's show - but this film should be no parody!! If should be slapstick it would be better- Only the journey to India and the naked are girl are good--- I've been waiting for the German teen girls who are sleep with David bowie in his Berlin time. Would they be shown so stupid too?

I will catch this film when it plays here in Chicago in August. I was in Kommune 1 for a couple of weeks in March of 1969. There were two residences - Rainer Langhans, Uschi Obermaier, Dieter Kunzelmann stayed in the larger of the two, a factory loft sort of place. I stayed in the other residence, a dozen or so people in one large room. I went there with a friend from Frankfurt who wanted to reconcile with his girlfriend, who had left him for Dieter Kunzelmann. His girlfriend was unreceptive and he split right away. I was welcome to stay on for a while and did. It was easy living. Everyone was nice, except grouchy Dieter. No star attitudes or pretensions. Both Rainer and Uschi were very grounded, not at all affected by their notoriety. I think that set the tone. I'll give this film a 10 just on its subject matter.

As I said earlier, we met Uschi and Dieter in Aspen, Colorado in 1982. I got a letter from her from Northern California in September of '82 prior to their trip to Mexico. I'm looking at it right now. She was excited that they were going to have a friend make a tepee for them and spend the winter living in it on the beach in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. The Uschi and Dieter that we spent an evening with gave no hint of being the type of people this movie portrays. They did not seem to be the dark and tortured souls that this movie shows them to be. They were happy, outgoing, talkative, generous and excited about the future. Dieter loved to fish. They loved Colorado. They enjoyed crossing the USA and had been all around it, but the movie make no mention of that time at all. The movie also gives no mention of her artistic talents. Uschi made scrimshaw, and as an artist I can tell you it was excellently done. She was going to have an exhibition of her scrimshaw in LA but I do not know if she ever did. I can't say they were friends of mine, exactly, having only spent one evening together but they were acquaintances and I have very fond memories of them. I'd always hoped one day I'd see their bus on the highway so I could say hello again. I don't know if this movie was authorized by Uschi as an accurate portrayal of their lives, but I do know it made me sad for them. My wish is for her happiness and hope that these last 30 years or so have been as happy as they could be.

Uschi, if you ever read this, blessings and happiness to you.

The story of Uschi Obermaier and her rise to fame in the 1960s. The film accurately depicts her life and in the process has many dope party scenes as well. The film is to premier in the US August 22 and I am excited to see how the English version will compare to the original German. Obermaier's accent is not "exaggerated" as the actress's native language is indeed German.

The unique viewpoint Uschi experienced during the social revolution makes for a very interesting film. Themes of growing up, life, learning to love, and experiencing loss all are major players. All in all, if you are looking for a film true to life, a film that doesn't gloss over the hardships and dull down the excitement of freedom, this is a movie for you.

After recent films about Sixties-pop-icons like Jim Morrisson, Brian Jones and Edie Sedgwick, now Uschi Obermaier is on.

This time there's a big difference, though: Uschi survived her wild young days and is still doing well. If I may believe the 'making of'-chapter of my German DVD: the real Uschi has been involved in the process, improving authenticity. The DVD also includes a few nice shots of young Uschi in her Sixties & Seventies-days.

I've also read Uschi Obermaier's autobiography 'High Times', and conclude that actress Natalia Avelon plays her character well - all set up with true German thoroughness.

Both real Uschi and her film-copy are about a girl who imaged out the moods of her young days very well - just that. What remains untold in film and autobiography, is the history of the vibrating Sixties-youth culture.

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Having lived through the thirties' economic depression and world war 2, Uschi's parents were strongly molded by these tragic times. Uschi and her generation, born shorty after the war, did not carry this emotional burden. They worried about a new danger their parents mostly ignored: environment pollution.

As a result, a wide generation-gap opened up. Youngsters like Uschi Obermaier felt a strong urge to liberate themselves from their parents' strong & strict moral rules. Add to that the new availability of anti-conceptive, greatly helping in experimenting with new lifestyles.

For Uschi's generation, the late Sixties and early Seventies were a time to develop a lifestyle they felt comfortable with. It is the German version of what happened in San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury neighborhood during the same period.

Sadly this movie is underrated. Deserves much higher points

A woman that dares to want to live life to the fullest. How dare she? Well that is what many people thought back then - some may still think this way today. And the main character here is based on a real life person, as are the people she meets and has "relationships" with. Free love and all that. Back then when life was easy (or so it may seem when you romanticise the past).

Obviously life wasn't easy and once someone tasted something they wanted ... something different? I think especially during the pandemic, many have reached the point of being more than bored. So you can imagine or feel how our Uschi here feels. I have not read her book, but the movie seems to paint quite the detailed picture of her and her adventures. The other actors in this really hold their own and while it could have gone wrong to portray iconic stars as Keith Richards or Mick Jagger, I'd argue the movie did right by them (as far as I can tell).

A drama that evolves and grips you and never gets boring ... with a lot of nudity by the way. In case that bothers or entices you!

So I read the reviews here and the opinions are very polarized

As often the truth is somewhere in between

Yes there is a reading here of the 60s/70s which is caricatural and aimed at younger folks who never saw those years

Bit of a joke to some

But people do not necessarily know how repressive the mentalities were in early 60s Bavaria

She Uschi Obermaier wanted to break away from the moral straightjacket and she did it elegantly and forcefully

This is shown well here. The boyfriend is depicted as a caveman which he might have been; she is depicted as Kali ; the haircutting of boyfriends' barnet is truly upsetting in a dark magic way but hey might be innocent

The actress they found for Uschi is Polish-born Natalia Avelon and the feat here is that she is even more beautiful than the one she portrays; and yes male viewers she is naked most of the time here; unashamedly. Germany is probably the country in the world which is the most at ease with nudity

We see this here. We also saw it in Carlos (2010) when the Baader Meinhoff blew into Aden

Anyway she is a picture and looks a real lot like Uschi

There is a long part in Pakistan and India very well done then we move to Mexico

They used German actors for Keith Richard and Mick J one really wonders why. No Brits available? A union issue?

Anyway overall not bad at all Kommune Eins at the start is OK altho a tad caricatured

Her fierce independence and girl power is well put in full view

Of course if you want to know more accurately about Uschi Obermaier watch Red Sun (1970) you will get the right idea.

I can confidently assert that this is one of the finest films ever made. If the hippie-bohemian lifestyle, fashion, and music of the era captivate your interest, and you appreciate films that are masterfully woven with a retro/nostalgic-melancholic cinematography, then this is an absolute must-watch. Natalia Avelon's enchanting beauty and how perfectly she embodies the role of Uschi are nothing short of mesmerizing. Her portrayal captures the essence of Obermaier, a feminine icon of her time, whose influence on the era's culture and style is unmistakable. This film not only offers a visual feast but also a poignant reflection on a bygone era, making it an unforgettable cinematic experience.