Knife in the Head (1978)
One night when seeking his estranged wife, Hoffmann goes to the youth center where she works. The police are there rounding up radicals who frequent the center - Hoffmann runs into the building and ends up being shot in the head. He awakens with brain trauma, partially paralyzed and unable to speak. The police accuse him of stabbing an officer; the radicals herald him as an innocent victim of police brutality. During his slow recovery at the hospital, Hoffmann must piece together his life and struggle to remember the events of that night.
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I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much
The movie's only flaw is also a virtue: It's jammed with characters, stories, warmth and laughs.
This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.
Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.
In many ways one might think this an ordinary film. There are no special effects, no beautiful stars, no special flourishes. But every shot is perfect. Every frame is necessary. Every nuance is in place. And Bruno Ganz is absolutely superb at every moment.I first saw this film by chance in the early eighties and have searched and searched ever since -- for 25 years -- in order to see it again. Now it's 2012 and I almost expected to be disappointed. But I am just as impressed as ever, with the superb script and under-stated direction. "Knife In The Head" will hold you in its grip until the very last frame, and only gets better in the last few minutes.It seems odd to say, because in many ways this film seems so darned ordinary, like so many others. But, but, there is some difference. Rather than ordinary, I think it might be one of the best films ever made.
This is a terrific film, a political and psychological thriller, as well as a touching human drama about a man recovering from a devastating brain injury, filmed at a time when the Red Army Faction and the Baader-Meinhof gang were active in West Germany, and the state's reaction was to respond with what many at the time considered an almost totalitarian extreme of repression and violation of civil liberties.Vincent Canby, in his New York Times review, rated Ganz's performance as "extraordinary", and found "Knife in the Head" to be a "major, very original German movie".I have published a detailed review online in "Senses of Cinema".
It's astounding that this superb film is so obscure. Bruno Ganz is a well known German actor, and his performance in this film is a technical masterwork. Why has the German film industry not dusted off the master and released it as a DVD? With subtitles it should do well in any country. If it were to be dubbed into English it could be very popular in the UK and US - and German dubbing, though usually in the other direction, is always technically excellent.Ganz's portrayal of a man coming around from severe brain damage is intensely plausible, but accurate as well. Having witnessed the mother of a friend's recovery from a massive stroke, I can confirm its authenticity. The process is eerily similar to accelerated childhood as the blank slate slowly repopulates itself with knowledge, but in a very different way from that experienced by a child, and complicated by traces of lost adult memories.The title of the film - Messer im Kopf/Knife in the Head - is a semantic trick that cleverly sets up the mystery that poor, damaged Hoffmann must solve. Why is a film about someone who has so obviously suffered a *bullet* in the head so named? Despite his crippling affliction, he's sure there is something wrong with the story of his alleged attack on the policeman. Only one person knows...The film's political thrust is perfectly on-target. Police who become the enemies of their own people and protect only their corrupt masters are all too common in the world, and in such circumstances expediency will always triumph over laws or even basic morals. The scene that illuminates this is, I think, the one where the shattered Hoffmann is confronted by the policeman who shot him, and his crippling wounds are contrasted with the insignificant scar on the officer's belly. The unasked question is plain: is Hoffmann's near destruction appropriate punishment for this little blemish? Marvellous film. One point off for being hopelessly unobtainable.CD
I found this to be a very powerful film when I first saw it almost 25 years ago. My opinion of it remains the same to-day as it was then. I regret that more people have not had the opportunity to see this remarkable film.