Strongman Ferdinand Movie Review

One of the more amusing releases of 1976 failed to win much in the way of audience acceptance. It's a shame, really, because West Germany's Strongman Ferdinand had a great deal to say about the sort of mentality that may have made the Watergate break-in possible. Ferdinand (convincingly played by Heinz Schubert) is the security officer for a large corporation. He soon discovers that the continuation of his job is dependent on frequent states of emergency. When they fail to occur, he creates them, thus “proving” that his services are needed. Law and order carried to its logical end, director/screenwriter Alexander Kluge suggests, leads to probable sabotage and destruction. Ferdinand's rationale may be extreme, but it had its parallels in many political acts of the 1970s. Ferdinand is absorbing, yet so subtle that many audience members at 1976's San Francisco International Film Festival screening seemed to miss altogether the wry humor in the German voiceover statements. The inadequate subtitles did not quite provide the essential ironic counterpoint that Kluge clearly intended for them to have. AKA: Der Starke Ferdinand.

1976 98m/C GE Heinz Schubert, Verena Rudolph, Gert Gunther Hoffman, Heinz Schimmelpfennig, Siegfried Wischnewski, Joachim Hackethal; D: Alexander Kluge; W: Alexander Kluge; C: Thomas Mauch.