BLOOD AND GOLD

Germany, 2023, 98 minutes, Colour.

Robert Maaser, Maria Hacke, Simon Rupp, Alexander Scheer, Roy McCrerey, Jordis Triebel, Stephan Grossman, Petra Zieser.

Directed by Peter Thorwarth.

While watching Blood and Gold, many film buff audiences may well be thinking of Quentin Tarantino and his treatment of the war, Nazis, in Inglorious Bastard s. This story is certainly told with this Tarantino tone, other commentators mentioning spaghetti westerns. Some note a Finnish film release in the same year, Sisu, with some similar themes.

The film opens with German soldiers pursuing another, Heinrich, shooting at him, finally capturing him in the forest, charging him with desertion, hanging him, taunting him about his suffering, then abandoning him. Fortunately, Elsa, a young woman who works a farm with her brother, finds him, cuts him down, cares for him.

Just as he’s about to leave, disillusioned with his part in the war for six years, wife and child killed, but a daughter still alive whom he wants to find, the Germans arrive at the farm with consequent mayhem. The brother is mentally impaired and taunted, the sister is about to be assaulted but Heinrich comes to the rescue, and the beginning of the elimination in mayhem of the Nazis. Heinrich and the couple escape into the mountains but the brother is concerned about the pregnant cow and her being milked, returns, is taken, put in the belltower of the church where he pushes out a soldier, gets the gun, but the stereotypical Nazi commander shoots him. His sister attacks the commander and he takes her, intending to keep her as his companion.

So, quite a set up for bad Nazi behaviour, the reason for being in the village is that they know an ousted Jewish family had left gold behind, realising that the Mayor and his associates had taken the gold, but then a complication with the local priest and a local woman, the hiding of the golden the church, explosives inside, and then a shootout within the church. Then the GIs arrive and find the gold!

Heinrich and Elsa the only survivors.

Tarantino tone but not the ironic subtleties of his films – rather, a violent entertainment and the demolition of those bad Nazis.

1. Title? Expectations? Fulfilled?
2. A drama in the exploitation tradition, suggestions of spaghetti westerns, Tarantino and Inglourious Basterds, perils with the Finnish Sisu?
3. Atmosphere of World War II, Spring 1945, the retreating Germans, occupations of towns, the SS, cruelty and vengeance? Their search for gold? Behaviour, attitudes (touch of caricature in the commander, his wounded face, removing the mask, the ring in his eye socket), the cruelty of the Sergeant, brutality, attempted rape? The other men? And receiving news of the downfall of Berlin?
4. The opening, Heinrich, being pursued, his skills, captured, condemnation, charge of desertion, the hanging? The German departure, Elsa, cutting him down, reviving him? The history, the death of the family, Paule and his mental state, the farm, Rita the cow? Heinrich about to leave?
5. The Germans in the town, the mayor and his Nazi uniform, appeasing the Germans, offering hospitality at his inn, his wife and family, the revelation of the background of the gold, the ousting of the Jewish family, his colleagues and Sonia wanting the gold, the flashbacks to digging for it, finding the Bible against stealing, disputes amongst themselves, going to the priest, with Irmgard, the fight amongst themselves, killing the mayor?
6. The Germans wanting supplies, going to the farm, the insults to Paule, the attempted rape? Heinrich on the roof, his attack, Elsa helping, the fights, the defeat of the Germans? The later return, Paul with the cow, capturing him, shooting the cow, taking him to the bell-tower, his pushing out the German, the guns, his being shot?
7. On the run, Heinrich and Elsa, Paule wanting to go back to the cow, leaving, the returning?
8. The further attacks on the Germans, blood and gore? Heinrich and Elsa coming back to the town, the help of Irmgard, the priest? Elsa attacking the official after his shooting Pauel? His taking her, his story about Rebecca and shooting her, wanting Elsa, giving her the ring, the night, her seeing his suicide pill, her performance, the pill in her mouth, kissing him and inserting the pill (seen through the socket of his wounded jaw)? His death? Escape?
9. Heinrich, the wounds, tended by Irmgard? The priest? The relationship? The gold? The plan and set up?
10. The greedy trio, the priest going to the church, removing the lid, the gold, the explosives and the consequences? The arrival of the Germans, Heinrich, Elsa to the rescue, the continued shootings? Irmgard and her hunting rifle, stabbing the brutal Sergeant? Sonia surviving?
11. Heinrich and Elsa, leaving the town, finding the daughter?
12. Sonia, the gold, the American GIs, destroying the vehicle, finding the gold? And Sonja surviving?
13. Adrenaline pumping exploitation entertainment?