Kamikaze 1989 (1982)

Too much of everything

How sad is this?

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

"Kamikaze 1989" is a German movie from 1982, so this one has its 35th anniversary this year. The director is Wolf Gremm and he is also among the writers who adapted the novel for the screen here. The outcome is a 105-minute movie in the German language. The lead actor is famous German filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder and this is actually his last performance of an actor before his untimely death. Fittingly, the cast also includes many actors who have appeared on several occasions in Fassbinder's films, such as Mira or Kaufmann. I already wrote that this movie is from 1982 and the events it depicts are actually a vision of the future of what the year 1989 may look like. A touch of "Clockwork Orange" you will find in here for sure, even if the focus is on the "good" side of the law this time. Fassbinder's character is a police officer dealing with a bomb threat that may be legit or just a prank. It all has to do with the governing institution that is apparently very powerful and has their very own ways to make sure things stay the way they are. You could certainly characterize this film as shrill here. The sets, but even more so the costumes are really extremely over the top, but it feels all intended and it adds a decent little atmosphere to the entire project.But unfortunately, the story cannot deliver beyond all the bright and colorful characters in here. The story about the crime becomes ultimately forgettable in the face of it being just one absurd scene chasing the next. And sadly, these aforementioned characters rarely have more than two scenes, which results in them becoming ultimately mostly forgettable as the moment they may have depth they are recycled for the next wave of characters. Except Fassbinder of course, who is in this for every scene from start to finish. As a consequence, the film also feels very Fassbinder, for example during the scene when the woman invites him to her place and also the entire scene at her place then. Anyway, I personally was relatively underwhelmed and I would call this a piece of style over substance. I still think Fassbinder is at least as good of an actor as he is of a writer and director and he shows it here. There are moments when his line delivery comes off a bit wooden, but it still works somehow. He is the least of problems this film has, even if I found it pretty sad to see him like this. His looks make clear that something is very wrong with him and his health and it was a bit of a depressing watch because of this, even if his acting was certainly one of the very few okay aspects about this movie. But overall, it is just not enough, especially in terms of the script which sacrifices coherency in its desperate and unsuccessful attempts to be as bold and mesmerizing as possible. Don't watch.

This film comes across as a very ambitious project. It features Rainer Werner Fassbinder (only acting, he has no creative role in the project beyond that as far as I can tell) in the lead. It has appearances by Franco Nero and Brigitte Mira. Co starring is early Fassbinder regular Gunther Kaufman. The point is, the cast is pretty damn good.The soundtrack is entirely original and is penned by Edgar Froese of Tangerine Dream. I am assuming that was not cheap for the producers to arrange.With a good cast, good soundtrack, you have what appears to be a good futuristic sci fi script. An antihero cop and his partner are called in to organize an evacuation of the building for the most important corporation in the country (or world, was a little fuzzy of how far it reached). The bomb threat turns out to be a hoax, then things get twisted and confusing. I'd describe the story has having half devils battling half angels except you can't tell if they are fighting themselves or there really is a certain opposition. The film ends with major events not appearing on film. In fact, the film feels like it's missing most of the third act before coming to an abrupt conclusion. You sort of have closure during the very end but the exposition is coming from a news broadcast. It could have been thrown on in post production just to save the project and get it rushed to release in time to still cash in on the international success of Blade runner (both are futuristic sci fi stories but Blade Runner debuted a month before this), or perhaps to capitalize on the untimely death of Fassbinder who died unexpectedly 6 weeks before this film was released.Regardless of the reasons, you get what might have been a complex story, well acted and brought to life via an interesting plot and without the need for cheap special effects. Alas, you get the pretense of a good story and are stuck trying to piece together the events in the second and third acts. It's a chore.I've watched this several times. I, like most I imagine, was drawn to this movie if only to see the type of film project Fassbinder would simply act in without much more creative input. The film looked like it was trying to follow the same approach of Fassbinder sci fi experiments like World on a Wire. Maybe if Kamikaze '89 were almost three and a half hours long to explain what the heck is happening like World On A Wire is then perhaps things would be different. Instead, good luck with the 106 minutes you get.

A futurism crime thriller was a different venue for Fassbinder, whose stature had grown lately with films in historical settings. Though he didn't direct "Kamikaze," it was helmed by fellow New German filmmaker Gremm & has the moody complexity for which both directors are known, as well as more action. In the near future, West Germany's economy (remember, the fall of Communism was yet unforeseen) has become the world's largest. Virtually all broadcast & print media are controlled by a single, family-run corporation whose head (Gober) styles himself "The Blue Panther" & carefully crafts an elaborate personality cult, including a line of action comics. You still have a lot to learn, Rupert Murdoch. A terrorism campaign against the company by a nebulous entity called "Krysmopompas" (more impressive than "Osama," more intelligent than "Carlos the Jackal") brings on a police investigation headed by the force's most famous detective, Jansen (Fassbinder), who's never failed to solve a case. Clues indicate that someone well-placed in the corporation is responsible, but Jansen soon learns that the company itself is trying desperately to keep secrets. Is Krysmopompas really just an element of the Blue Panther personality cult? The story from Swedish writer Wahloo's novel "Murder on the 31st Floor" is frighteningly accurate in some of its visions, including the rise of cheap, inane reality TV (the marathon laughing contest is a classic) & the creation of euphemistic, self-serving police propaganda machinery (there's no such thing as murder or suicide anymore, only "accidental death"). The props are gleefully, stylishly cheap & cheesy, including Jansen's pajamalike leopard outfit, which might be some sort of uniform (remember Sylvia Anderson's purple wigs in "UFO?"), the burly assassins in black lingerie, the 3-wheeler choppers of the police & the Superman executive phone. However, they're no more outlandish than those of the wildly popular "Mad Max" films (Tina Turner in chain mail, oh, my!). Fassbinder does a remarkable job of projecting an air of old-fashioned, authoritative competence from Jansen through the futuristic absurdity, in contrast to the bland, painted-smile routine of the other cops & the worried urgings of his dying chief (Marquis). His relationship with his temperamental, long-suffering sidekick Anton (Kaufmann, Fassbinder's frequent collaborator & longtime companion) adds a complex human touch to the film. The brilliant Jansen is curtly condescending & critical ("Don't use unnecessary words, MK1 Anton") while the energetic Anton is alternately effusive & sullen. The portrayals of the media executives & personalities are delightfully bizarre & over-the-top, but probably less enjoyable if you don't understand German. The futurism venue was probably a good one for Fassbinder & Gremm (the latter's copious work remains almost unknown in the US) to venture out of the art-house domain of New German Cinema while keeping much of the technique that they had developed. Despite its similarity to "Soylent Green," "Kamikaze" is far less literal & direct but stylish beyond the point of parody. Hardly the most important work of the New Germans, "Kamikaze" is a valuable film in the near-future genre that died out in the 1980s but is about due for a revisit.

First off, yes, you're right, this is a godawful movie.Being a big Fassbinder fan, I rented this with excitement. Fassbinder stars, and he's always fun to watch. It's one of those punk-future-dystopian movies that popped out a bit in the early '80s, always good for some cult fun. It came out at the end of Fassbinder's career, and Fassbinder's whole 12 year filmmaking period only got better and better until his end.So half way through I thought "what the hell happened? This movie is an atrocity exhibition."Then I glanced at the cover, and in horror noticed this movie was NOT directed by Fassbinder. He just starred in it in a coked up narcisstic haze. I read he actually wore that leopard outfit he was giving in this movie on and off again in the last few weeks of his life. Fassbinder was proud of this movie, somehow, and that gives it an odd charm. It's horrendous, but I haven't regretted watching it. There's a scene where Fassbinder climbs to a roof of a building, odd buzzing music is playing and the wind is blowing his hair and he has this perverse smile on his face as he gazes out across the city. There's also the ending where Fassbinder, bloated, in a robe, girates his body against a photo of an astronaut (I'm guessing this is Fassbinder's input, as the exact same ending pretty much is used in Stationmaster's Wife). These two scenes made it worthwhile. Otherwise, mark it off as an awful "Alphaville" rippoff.