Customer Reviews

Why Does Herr R. Run Amok? [VHS]

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4 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

This film requires concentration and repeat viewings. Fassbinder employs exceedingly long takes and a relatively still camera to portray a man slowly being led to the end of his tether.

Herr R (Kurt Raab, a Fassbinder regular) is everyman. Indeed, each scene conveys the sheer drabness of his daily routine. Work, wife, in-laws. None of it registers. Despite the perfect middle class life--emotionally, he's stone. It has been said that he is invisible in this film. Certainly, he is not seen as something particularly dynamic or magnetic. He doesn't attract people, none of his co-workers seem interested in him personally. Likewise, he doesn't seem interested in them.

But he does feel. He's passionate about music, sings a gorgeous, heartbreaking ballad that causes him to sigh slightly and look even more wan and dejected than usual. His wife bores him, her friends irritate him. Work is a release of sorts, but he's not making any progress there. He tries to impress the right people but he ends up making a total ass of himself.

All of these factors lead him on a particular course. Hence, the title of the film. The key to answering it is careful, patient viewing. This is a brilliant example of building up evidence to support myriad theses about the motivations of a fundamental character. Just be focusing on Herr Raab's face provides essential clues as to the forces that drive him towards his destiny. Great film.

This is a film that should not be too thouroughly explained prior to watching. Mostly it is a series of the every day happenings in the life of Herr R, a reticent underachiever. He is the child of a certain spiritless bourgeois existence. We watch him at his job, not quite making points with the boss, not quite winning the favour of his coworkers. We watch him try to teach his average, but slightly dreamy, son to pronounce properly. We watch his wife hosting the self-absord and catty neighbors to tea. In short, we watch an unextraordinary bit of an unextraordinary life, which is somehow familiar and for some reason completely entrancing. As one watches it can't helped but be asked why wouldn't Herr R run amok?

why does herr r run amok is not a typical fassbinder movie - and it stands out stylistically from the other 50 or so movies he made... It is shot almost like a documentary.. improvised scenes that bring so much realism to the screen.. it is an interesting look at the german middle class of the time period.. and what it takes to drive a man insane... it is the realism that is so consistently presented throughout the film which makes the climax so unnerving.. it is like real life in the moment.. there is no escaping the images on the screen.. in most movies we are shielded by a sound track (which tells us how to react) or by visual cues like cutting back and forth or zooming.. there is nothing of that here no visual safety net.. This is a young and talented cast and director.. one of the early antitheatre films which would eventually evolve into a more cinematic melodramatic style.. but it are these early groundbreaking works that would set the framework for an inspired and all too brief career..

Very deliberately paced and shot in a detached, voyeuristic manner, "Herr R" documents a man's slow and subtle meltdown from his meaningless, banal, unsatisfying environment, ending in a tragic act of violence. The story itself is a familiar one, but the presentation is what really sells it. There is nothing obvious about Raab's transformation -- you really have to pay attention, look for the subtle tics here and there that tell you you're watching a man slowly unravel. And then it's just a waiting game -- what's he gonna do, and when's it gonna happen? And at the very moment you, the viewer, cannot take it anymore (not unlike our beloved anti-hero), BOOM. It happens.

The film is not particularly easy to sit through, if only because we are subjected to the same banalities that are eating away at our protagonist. In fact, these boring, trivial glimpses of everyday drudgery comprise the majority of the film. This was clearly what Fassbinder intended, and when you see that final scene and the robotic, emotionless way Herr Raab goes about it, you know there is no other way the story could have been told. ****

Warun läudt Herr R. Amok? ( Why Does Herr R. Run Amok?)

"Amok", is a Malaysian word that means: murderous attack like frenzy runaway. The word came from Malaysian culture. A person, generally a man, start killing people without any clear provocation. The person with Amok use to kill himself after finishing the man slaughter. In USA, Columbine Massacre, is an unfortunately example for " follie-a-deux (madness of two).
This is the third film of Reinnaer W. Fassbinder. A simple person, Kurt Raab (Herr R), shy, that smoke a lot as the doctor told him, (but all the characters and the crew smoke a lot), because he is too anxious of about all that is going on in his life, just everything!. His wife Frau R ( Lilith Ungerer) is the kind of people who talk all the time. So one may think, if somebody would be capable to listen Herr R, could be, by doing that, to have the chance to release what ever was built-up inside?. The character of this woman, Herr R's wife, started the deeply observation about female psychology that Fassbinder performed all over his cinematographic works. Herr R, is a shy individual, almost with social phobia, having some problems with the interaction with several persons. Specially with his boss, in the drawing architect bureau.
Yes, Herr R is shy person, the contrary of Reiner Fassbinder, that could be so amusing himselfe in developing this character that resemble the other side of the coin, the opposite of Reinner's personality (almos hypo manic sometimes): But Herr R., never receive enough attention of the others, insecure always trying to recapitulated what others just have said , in front of them. The only time he was able to make an speech, was an the company dinner after several drinks, then his toast became tedious, because he spoke about personal characteristics of those persons, both, pro and con, that maybe good sometimes. There are some subtle signs of contempt anger, that finally ended one Sunday afternoon, in which all the secrets were open up in a dramatic way and then Mr. Amok started running. That is the moment in which all the people around started to be notice of Herr R existence. A German Neor-realistic kind of movie that just give us a signal of what Reinner was capable of doing and he did in his short life time.

I just finished watching Funny Ha Ha, a cinema verite, "mumblecore" film, and I thought of this film. This film is done is the same realistic style as that one, except this is much darker, brooding, tense, and funny. I adore Fassbinder, and I've seen this film a few times. It has a really creepy power to it, a tension that you can't really explain. The takes are very long (as opposed to Funny Ha Ha), and there is an unmistakeable bleakness to the proceedings which makes this film memorable (and a lot more memorable than Funny Ha Ha). Fassbinder captures the boredom and underlying violence of middle class morality, and it explodes in the final scene, which is realistic and terrifying at the same time. And there's something sad here, you feel for Herr. The scene in the record shop is kind of poignant, considering the 2 shop girls are mercilessly making fun of him, and he's oblivious to it. His family is very similar as well, mocking him for attempting to be human and frail, where others hide their insecurities through their bullying and coldness. So when the ending comes, you feel a sense of relief.

This is one of those movies that you'll either love or hate I imagine. I loved it but I am a HUGE Fassbinder fan so I am a more than a bit biased. Kurt Raab's performance in this is nothing short of revelatory it also contains some witty dialogue and two of the greatest scenes in a film I have ever seen (i.e. scene w/ raab in record store and the shocking ending). The cinematography is cinema verite in style and gives hints of what was to come (i.e. dogme 95, the digital indie movement). In a weird way you might call this the granddaddy of those films. I am very much looking forward to the release of this film on dvd.

A kind of documentary of madness, with the madness coming late in the film. Or is the madness everywhere? Disturbing, provacotive, if you have the patience and courage to find out, why does Herr R. run amok?

I watched this film with a University German class over 30 years ago. We suffered through it in silence until Herr R. ran amok, at which point everyone cheered. At last something was happening! Herr R. is a miserable man with a miserable life, and I feel for him, but murder and suicide as an existential statement in response to profound boredom is silly. It annoyed me then, and it annoys me now. This is NOT a great film, but a pretentious,posturing waste of time.