Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		5.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

The Captain Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 9, 2019

Kind of astonishingly, The Captain doesn’t offer its brief credit title card until almost a half hour into the film, after a cartwheeling series of events that sees real life German soldier Willi Herold (Max Hubacher), who may or may not have been in the process of deserting as the film begins, stumble across an abandoned military vehicle that kind of felicitously has a suitcase filled with the clothes (including the uniform) of a German Army Captain. Herold dons the clothes and the resultant (assumed) “identity”, instantly matriculating into a position of command in the waning days of World War II, when the German front line was already in chaos and various rural communities further back had largely descended into mob rule. The Captain is a viscerally disturbing film, but it might have had more impact if just a bit more context had been given up front about Herold and his background. Instead the film catapults the viewer headlong into the “impersonation” angle, perhaps hinting at some mental instability on the part of Herold simply because of that very pretense, but never attempting to really dig beneath the surface in any meaningful way. It’s an absolutely astounding story in any case, one brought unsettlingly to life by director Robert Schwentke, in a perhaps unexpected addition to a filmography that has included such disparate fare as Flightplan, The Time Traveler's Wife, RED, R.I.P.D., Insurgent and Allegiant.

What’s fascinating about the subtext of the film, a subtext that Schwentke addresses outright in his interesting commentary track included on this Blu-ray disc as a supplement, is that the film is told resolutely from the perspective of the “bad guys”, but the film actually begins by depicting Herold as a victim himself. He’s running in terror from a group of German soldiers in a jeep who are all shooting at him (here the film seems to indulge in some of the “shoot ‘em up” antics of some other Schwentke outings, and it’s almost silly that with so many trained soldiers aiming for Herold at relatively close range, he manages to escape virtually unscathed). Herold comes across as a frightened naif early in the film, disheveled, barely clothed, and stumbling from location to location. Only when he kinda sorta befriends another straggler and convinces that guy to join him in raiding a nearby farm for food do we start to get a hint of the character’s darker proclivities. When the pair are caught red handed, the fact that Herold hides out in the shadows as the farm owners kill the other thief is probably as good a glyph of “survival” (such as it was) as anything else the film offers.

While a bit of contextualizing is ultimately given once Herold actually ends up “reuniting” with one of his tormentors from the opening scene, the film seems to be less concerned with any given individual’s back story and/or motivations, and instead is a kind of a chilling indictment of groupthink, especially a hive mind fostered under obviously trying circumstances. Herold keeps kind of colliding with other soldiers, many (maybe even all) of whom are either outright deserters or at least not that eager to go storming toward the front lines, but what gives The Captain almost a horror film ambience is that Herold and his charges soon take it upon themselves to begin executing any one they consider to have deserted or not followed the rules. This is especially ironic in Herold’s case, given the behaviors shown before he even finds the captain’s uniform.

The story may actually seem too far fetched to be actually true, but it does appear that Herold and his "battalion" (such as it was) of ragtag would be deserters managed to get to Aschendorfermoor prison camp, where German deserters were being held. The group pretty much tips over into completely abhorrent behavior here, and the dissolute tendencies of several of the erstwhile soldiers is nicely detailed (as are the pangs of conscience of one of the men, Freytag, the first "recruit" that Herold stumbles upon early in the film). What's actually kind of amazing (and no doubt intentionally if somewhat disturbingly funny), is that once Herold's subterfuge is uncovered (courtesy at least in part to that "meet cute" with one of the guys hunting him early in the film), is that the German officials are actually kind of impressed, with one arguing he ought to be sent to the front, since he has the kind of enthusiasm the already basically defeated German Army desperately needed in those closing days of the war. As is documented in a brief set of text cards offered as a postlude, Herold's ultimate fate was hardly even that "heroic".

The Captain Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Captain is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Music Box Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.39:1. The IMDb doesn't really offer any substantial technical data, but a CV for noted cinematographer Florian Ballhaus suggests the Arri Alexa XT was used for this shoot, and I'm assuming things were finished at a 2K DI. With the exception of one really odd and disjunctive shot (see screenshot 2), this is a lustrous black and white offering that features really solid contrast, beautifully deep black levels and impeccably modulated gray scale. The film takes place in an almost too wintry setting (historical photos I've seen of Berlin at least in April 1945 don't paint such a snow laden picture), but even if it's not completely historically accurate, the trees shorn of all "greenery" and a desolate, muddy ground really provide some remarkable imagery here that makes the film play almost in a Bergman-esque fashion at time (several framings reminded me outright of The Seventh Seal, whether or not that was intentional). Detail levels are uniformly excellent throughout the presentation. There's occasional very slight murkiness in some of the darker moments, but detail levels remain remarkably intact even in less than fulsome lighting conditions.

The Captain Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Captain features a really interesting DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix in the original German, with optional English subtitles (a German DTS- HD Master Audio 2.0 mix is also included). Kind of like with regard to another film taking place in the waning days of World War II that I recently reviewed, 1945, this film features a kind of weirdly hallucinogenic score and sound design, one that offers huge washes of LFE panning through the soundstage that create an instant feeling of dread, even if they're divorced from any actual imagery. The glut of outdoor material also provides ample opportunity for well placed ambient environmental effects. Dialogue and the occasional eruption of gunfire and/or explosions are all rendered with excellent fidelity and wide dynamic range.

The Captain Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Filmmaker Q & A From the Chicago Premiere (1080p; 31:52) features Richard Schwentke fielding questions from both moderator Ignatiy Vishnevetsky and members of the audience.


• Cast and Crew Interviews ) include

  Max Hubacher, (1080p; 11:42)

  Milan Peschel (1080p; 5:08)

  Frederick Lau (1080p; 3:31)

  Frieder Schlaich (1080p; 6:33)

• From Storyboard to Screen: The Escape

  Storyboard to Film Comparison (1080p; 3:57)

  Shooting the Escape (1080p; 8:14)

  Making the Hiding Place (1080p; 5:00)

  Shooting the Hiding Place (1080p; 9:23)

  "The Escape" Final Scene (1080p; 3:08)

• Deleted Scene (1080p; 2:44)


• "Recomposed" Soundtrack Video (1080p; 3:14)


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:01)


• Audio Commentary by Richard Schwentke is accessible under the Audio+Subtitles Menu.

The Captain Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Richard Schwentke discusses how "Brechtian" his one color interruption in the film is, but I personally think the allusion to "what happened after the war" would have been better placed as a coda to the film itself. Schwentke makes a couple of other kind of curious stylistic choices, including placing the title card at around the 24 minute mark (where it's equally "Brechtian"), and offering a post-film credits sequence that sees the cast driving through a modern urban environment. Schwentke seems to think all of these choices support the film, but I'm personally not that sure. What I am sure of is this is an absolutely riveting story, even if Schwentke's treatment of it tends to lag a bit in the energy department as it goes on. Performances are uniformly fascinating, and the film's look and sound are also extremely unique. Technical merits are great, and with caveats noted, The Captain comes Recommended.