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The American Soldier
(Der amerikanische Soldat)

Screening on Film
Directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder.
With Karl Scheydt, Elga Sorbas, Margarethe von Trotta.
West Germany, 1970, 16mm, black & white, 80 min.
German with English subtitles.

A full-scale, mood-thick homage to the world of Humphrey Bogart and great action directors like Raoul Walsh and Sam Fuller, Fassbinder’s film centers on a gunman named Ricky, a charismatic figure in soft hat and white suit. Recently returned from a Vietnamized America, Ricky carries out his assigned murders with neither knowledge nor emotion. The amazing final shoot-out is probably the most startling of Fassbinder’s patented off-beat endings.

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