Google
 

THE EDUKATORS / Hans Weingartner (2005)

February 15th, 2008 by Scott Marks

the-edukators.jpg

THE EDUKATORS (2005)
Directed by Hans Weingartner
Written by Katrina Held & Hans Weingartner
Starring: Daniel Bruhl, Julia Jentsch, Stipe Erceg and Burghart Klaussner
Running Time: 126 min.
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1

Rating: ★★½☆☆

After the last presidential election I began wondering what kind of ex-hippie would pluck the daisy from their rifle and vote Bush in. Twice no less! It took some time, but Hans Weingartner’s second feature eventually got around to examining a German love child gone terribly wrong.

The first hour of “The Edukators” in which a trio of budding anarchists key cars, protest sweat shops, spout current events, smoke, screw and attempt to bring about “poetic resistance” by breaking into the homes of vacationing capitalists, covers no new ground.

Daniel Bruhl, who garnered attention in “Goodbye, Lenin!” stars as Jan, the angry, young and already disillusioned group leader. He fears that today’s young radicals find the hippies a tough act to follow and don’t bother trying. His co-conspirator Peter (Stipe Erceg) seems equally content stealing Rolex watches as he does engaging in political uprising. Peter is involved with Jule (Julia Jentsch), a struggling waitress who moves in with the boys and is immediately drawn to their mysterious brand of anarchy.

Their handle is “The Edukators” and their goal is to, what else, edukate the masses. Working off an address list of local yacht club ambassadors they plan to change the system from within mansions. Their distinguishing characteristics: rearranging personal belongings and a cautionary note that threatens, “Your days of plenty are numbered.” These are the most victim-friendly terrorists one is every likely to meet.

The ideas of defining self by assuming the lives of others and home invasion as an anti-capitalist statement are better dealt with in Kim Ki-Duk’s “3 Iron.” Weingartner should have nailed these malcontents in the first ten minutes and cut to them scrambling for a kidnap plan the moment homeowner Hardenberg (Burghart Klaussner) makes an unexpected return. Only then does their youthful folly, and the film’s ultimate purpose, become blindingly apparent as their catch turns out to be a fifty-year-old former SDS radical-turned-Republican millionaire.

While laying low in a mountain getaway, the old school activist befriends the group, becoming their instant guru. In a well-calculated rush of nostalgia, Hardenberg drops the ultra-radical concept of “free love.” While Peter was on vacation, Jan and Jule began a clandestine relationship that the savvy capitalist catches wind of. Watching Scout Master Hardenberg’s fleeting return to rebellious idealism as he works the kids is time well spent. The “knock-your-socks-off” ending hyped in the promotional material arrived three minutes too late for my taste and could easily have been excised.

Note to cinematographers Matthias Schellenberg andDaniela Knapp: Get some shocks and struts on that shopping cart you use for a camera dolly. Your fuzzy digital visuals are made even worse by the director’s insistence on wall-to-wall, hand held camerawork. 35mm film stock may be cost prohibitive, but a tripod? Luster quickly fades when a tool of visual punctuation and/or expression becomes the sole mode of presentation.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Filed Under DVD, Reviews