Gladbeck

If only police, politicians and press had known what they were doing back then - 1988 when this incident happened - as well as director Kilian Riedhoff in fact knows his job! Nothing like this would have happened! Smart and sharp edged his work is keeping the spectator in the sniper position, always observing the hostage-taker through a virtual telescope never looking away, constantly ready to fire. A brillant thriller/drama/document about a sad and disturbing true story.

This is a German TV 2-part movie, and really is far better in almost every department than even the many higher profile & higher budget fare you get in the crime & heist genre you get in the English speaking world.

We have a curious case of a prolonged bank robbery led by a dangerous and frightening lead, who is able to take advantage of the bureaucratic and hand-tied authorities to string out his crime to try in a vain attempt to escape.

This film is brutal in its honesty about the different elements involved: the criminals, the police and the abducted. It's brilliantly paced and filmed, and you can't help but feel sucked.

A great experience, and really wouldn't be surprised if this is copied or influenced to others abroad in their efforts in years to come.

'54 Hours' is a docu-drama reconstructing the story of a hostage crisis that took place in Germany in the 1980s. A gang of bank robbers took some people captive and hoped to use them to negotiate their freedom. The police had no desire to let them escape, but also no wish to harm the hostages, and also, it seems, no willingness to take responsibility for action, although it's unclear how bad a thing this was - one thing one learns from the story is that there were no easy answers. An amazing detail was that the kidnap was followed the whole way by the press, who actively became part of the story - long before the internet age, the crimes were played out in full public view. Some of the acting here is perfunctory, and there's a frankly silly depiction of one of the victims as an god-like icon of German beauty, but the story itself is innately interesting and complex - more so, in fact, than that of most fictional crime dramas.

One might think that the plot is quite constructed and far away from realistic, because the behaviour of police and journalists looks too strange in this story. But all this stuff is extremely close to reality.

I remember the actual crime and the hunt taking place in Germany very close to my home in northrhine-westphalia, and I remember the repeated shocks and disbelieve I was in when all the television broadcasts rushed over the screens. Now, 30 years later, the mini series remembers us of what happened back in 1988.

The film makers say they added fictional elements to the plot and that of course must be true because just for example, police internal dialogues could not have been reconstructed this way. But in my opinion this film looks like it is very close to what really happened. Many if not all of the earlier television news are minutely reproduced with the actors and placed within the movie. I was thrown backwards in time while watching the film and watching again this failure of police and journalism.

This is not only a police thriller but in times a heartbreaking story about fear and loss. It is the best German television production I have seen in years. Very intense!

A sad event in German history but an excellent piece of television.

The story line dives straight in and keeps going. Similar material would be dragged out for 8 or 10 episodes on mainstream outlets.

Believable performances by all who make you think you are watching a documentary rather than a dramatisation. A very realistic feel.

More of this quality please.