
            The movie opens with a title card noting that 40,000 Germans went out on submarines in WW2, and that 30,000 never came back. In Fall of 1941 the German Atlantic U-Boat fleet is a mere 12 subs and the German campaign to rule the North Atlantic is turning against them.Three officers of U-96 are driving down a dark road by the shores of La Rochelle, France. Enlisted sailors are drunk and hanging out on the road. They harass the officers in a fairly obnoxious way, including urinating on their car as it goes by. The officers (including, as you soon find out, the Captain) take this in stride.The next scene is in a raucous beer hall. It is an award banquet for a sub captain Thomsen (Otto Sander), who just received a commendation, as well as a sending off for U-96's crew. Various scenes of debauchery play out. The officers are just a bunch of rowdy kids having fun. U-96's Captain (Jürgen Prochnow) looks on calmly. The Captain is then introduced to a party reporter, Lt. Werner (Herbert Grönemeyer) who will be accompanying them on their next tour to report on the greatness of the Reich's sub crews. They meet the Captain's chief engineer and de facto second-in-command "The Chief", (Klaus Wennemann), who is older and obviously doesn't look forward to another tour. His wife is ill back home and he leaves to call about her.Thomsen is brought out, looking very inebriated and supported by two officers. They note sadly that all the crews these days are just kids, and that the old guard is almost gone. At the podium, Thomsen gives a speech full of what comes very close to anti-Nazi rhetoric (a couple guys in the audience, possibly SS men, look tense), but ends it on a positive note without saying anything too incriminating, obscenely praising their Fuhrer for his courageous stance against Winston Churchill and Britain. Thomsen is found in the Men's room, even more inebriated than before and having vomited on the floor.The Captain, Lt Werner & the Chief report to U-96 in the shipyards of La Rochelle, France. The Captain addresses his assembled crew and introduces them to Werner. Of most note are the first lieutenant (Hubertus Bengsch), a prissy young hardcore Nazi, and the second lieutenant (Martin Semmelrogge) who is a clever jokester and constantly winds up the first lieutenant. Lt. Werner, the reporter, is led to the junior officer's bunks where he finds out that even the officers have to share beds because of space constraints. Lt. Werner is ribbed by Pilgrim (Jan Fedder), another jokester, and befriends a very young officer, Ullmann, with a French girlfriend back home who he constantly writes letters to. You also get your first shot of Johann, the head of the engine room, a pale, gangly fellow whom the crew members call "The Ghost".The crew experience the drudgery of regular drills. Lt. Werner snaps pictures of everything in sight initially, but gradually calms down. The crew goes about their day to day business with increasing dreariness, all of them except the first lieutenant stop shaving and grow beards, and their moil is only broken by a false alarm arranged by the Captain to keep them on their toes. During this time you learn that the Captain has no love for the Nazis, and morale amongst the higher officers seems abysmal.The Captain at one point decides to see how deep the sub can dive. The gauge limits the "safe" zone down to only 170 meters, but the Captain, much to the chagrin of the crew, takes it down to almost 200. This causes ominous creaking noises to emit from the hull, and everyone is relieved when the Captain orders the sub back up.After more boredom, the sub receives a transmission that a convoy has been spotted. The crew leaps at the opportunity to go after them, but the Captain says they have no chance of getting there in time and so they go back to the boredom of waiting for better news.Shortly thereafter, they get a message about a convoy that they will be able to intercept, and the Captain kicks the sub into full gear to catch it. They approach the convoy in very heavy fog, but before they can even get close enough to see anything one of the escort destroyers spots them and the sub has to dive. After being depth charged repeatedly by the destroyer but taking no real damage, the Captain manages to lose them and escape. The Captain notes that the British destroyers are getting smarter, and that they no longer make mistakes.The crew is totally demoralised since they didn't even get close to sinking a ship and barely escaped with their lives, but still remain in fairly good spirits. Lt. Werner sits in the middle of the boredom of the crew. Half the crew ends up with crabs. They randomly run into one of the other eleven subs in the Atlantic, which is a brief happy interlude, followed by the Captain being annoyed at the horrible planning and navigation that resulted in 1/6 of the fleet being in the same spot for no good reason.A new transmission is received that there is a large convoy spotted and that several other subs are already converging on it. They decide to go for it too, and this time they approach the convoy unnoticed and fire several torpedoes at two of the freighters, landing direct hits. While they are launching the torpedoes they spot a destroyer in the distance, but don't think it will cause a problem. However, after launching the last of the torpedoes the Captain can't see the destroyer in the periscope any more. When he finally does see it, it is rapidly coming straight for them.They dive quickly and manage to get far enough away that the depth charges don't cause any damage. They hear the torpedoes hit, and are quite happy until the first dreadful ping of the destroyer's ASDIC (British sonar) system sounds. The sub sits there with the pings getting closer and louder, the destroyer approaching, unable to do much besides hope it doesn't notice them. It does notice them, though, and starts depth charging them like mad. You see a shot of Johann wedged under some machinery, holding his head in his hands and looking freaked out and miserable.The Captain manages to evade the destroyer, only to have a second destroyer come at them from a different direction. Left with no choice, the Captain orders them to dive VERY deep, well into the red zone on their depth gauge. The water pressure causes bolts to start popping inwards, damaging equipment and wounding a crewmember. At this point Johann, now totally out of his mind, stumbles onto the bridge babbling incoherently. The Captain orders him back to his post, but Johann just lurches towards him. The Captain moves away and eventually the other officers are able to get Johann out. As he winds himself down, the Captain sets aside a pistol he'd quickly grabbed to deal with Johann's breakdown.Finally all signs of the destroyers fade, and the sub remains under water for six more hours just to be safe. It then surfaces to find that one of the ships it torpedoed was an oil tanker, which is now surrounded by burning oil but hasn't sunk. The Captain orders another torpedo fired at it to finish the job. As this torpedo hits, the sub crew is able to see that there are still survivors on the tanker. The Captain is incensed that in six hours no one came to rescue them. The survivors swim towards the sub, but the Captain sadly orders them to move away. The crew who witness this, particularly Lt. Werner, are very distressed.Running low on supplies and fuel, the crew expects that they are now to dock at La Rochelle, France. Instead they are given grim orders: they are to secretly dock with an undercover German supply ship at Vigo, a neutral Spanish port. .Another top-secret communique is received and decoded: U-96 will not return to La Rochelle but instead make the crossing of the British-controlled Straights of Gibraltar into the Mediterranean to reach the Italian coastal town of La Spezia. The Captain knows that this is essentially a suicide mission since the Straight of Gibraltar is one of the most heavily defended Allied naval zones in the world, and he arranges for Lt. Werner and The Chief (whose wife is very ill) to leave the sub at the Spanish port and make their way back to Germany. Lt. Werner doesn't want to go, but the Captain insists that he's already been in too much danger. Werner agrees to take the junior officer's love letters (there are dozens of them) to his French girlfriend.Johann comes to the Captain and apologises for leaving his post, insisting that it won't happen again and begging the Captain to not court-martial him. The Captain is hesitant, but eventually accepts Johann's apology and sends him off.They make it to Vigo and the secret supply ship, the "Wesser", turns out to be fantastically well-appointed. The officers go aboard and are treated like heroes by the fawning crew. The officers are sullen and do not take kindly to the princely treatment. They are even more annoyed by the ship's crew begging them to tell their exciting stories. The Captain's face and voice become haunted when he talks about their latest run and nearly being destroyed during the heavy depth-charging they received.In the midst of the temporary respite the Captain receives a telegram from headquarters. Leave for Lt. Werner and The Chief has been denied. They have to stay with the ship til the end. The Chief is visibly upset, but says that it's a good thing since his replacement would be some incompetent kid. Lt. Werner is conflicted, but definitely unhappy about having to give the junior officer back his love letters. The ship is resupplied and they go on their way.The sub stops away from the Straights of Gibraltar to take stock of things. They can see a fleet of British warships patrolling the narrow gap between the cliffs. The Captain, for lack of a better idea, decides that they will make a silent run towards the gap, then dive deep at the last minute and hope that the tide can help them drift under the enemy fleet. No one, including the Captain himself, seems to put much stock in this plan.When the time is right, they begin their run towards the Straights. Unfortunately, considering advances in Allied naval RADAR technology, they are immediately spotted; a British fighter plane immediately begins strafing the sub and releasing a direct hit with a bomb. Shots from the ships begin exploding around them. The Captain and navigator (who is badly shot up) head back into the sub, which immediately starts diving.Unfortunately, due to the damage from the bomb the sub is unable to pull out of the dive. It goes deeper and deeper, past the point that the bolts start blowing out again and horrible noises come from the hull. The pressure causes several pipes to burst and parts of the sub start flooding. The sub eventually comes to a rest on a rock at about 280 meters down, well beyond the limit of the depth gauge.The sub is flooding badly and its engines aren't working. Meanwhile, the navigator is bleeding to death and the doctor is desperately trying to keep him alive. The crew frantically begins to patch up the damage and stop the water from flooding the entire sub. Amidst the chaos of people madly jamming whatever they can into the leaks, Johann heroically dives into a deep flood puddle to find and jam the source of a major leak. The Chief shimmies under floor panels to replace a bunch of damaged batteries, braving the noxious fumes created by the spilled battery acid.As the leaks stop and the shot navigator stabilizes, the Captain and the Chief assess their situation. There is much damage to fix, and all the water needs to be bailed out, and if all goes perfectly they might have one shot at surfacing. They are also short on oxygen and need to do everything quickly so they don't run out.The crew goes about bailing the massive amount of water, bucket-brigade style, into the bilge where it will be blown out when they try to surface. The Chief continues his repairs. After hours the water is all bailed and the crew is utterly exhausted from the effort. Oxygen is critically low. The Captain orders all men not on immediate duty to go to their bunks and relax, while the Chief continues his repairs. In their bunks, the sleeping men wear small oxygen masks to save air.The crew is all collapsed about the sub, oxygen deprived and resigned to death. Even the Captain despairs and blames his own recklessness for the crew's fate. The Chief finishes repairs, however, and believes that they still have a chance. The Captain and the Chief resolve to give it a try. They blow their ballast and slowly start rising. Johann fires the engines and, amazingly, they start and work. They surface and everyone takes ecstatic breaths of fresh air. On top of the observation tower, the Captain yells joyously that they can escape since the Brits presumed they were all dead.The sub limps back to La Rochelle. Droves of people are out to greet them, and the tired mariners get a heroes' welcome. They look exhausted but happy that they made it.Suddenly, an air raid siren sounds. Enemy warplanes swoop in, gunning and bombing everyone and everything in sight, including U-96. Lt. Werner and the Chief manage to make it into a shelter along with a few of the sub's crew. After the planes leave Lt. Werner goes out to survey the damage.Most of the crew is dead. The corpses of Johann, the second lieutenant, Ullmann, and others lay on the pier. Finally Werner comes to the Captain, who is still standing... but a trickle of blood flows from his mouth and he slowly collapses. Werner looks on, horrified. The Captain lives just long enough to see U-96 sink from sight. The camera zooms out of the scene, with Werner holding the dead Captain.
    

The Boat


            
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Padre Pio

The Consequence

The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum

Half Brothers


            Private investigator John Trent (Sam Neill) investigates a claim made by Arcane Publishing director Jackson Harglow (Charlton Heston) of the alleged disappearance of popular horror novelist Sutter Cane (Jürgen Prochnow), who vanished days before his latest book was released. Harglow requests Trent recover the unfinished final story of Cane's popular series and assigns editor Linda Styles (Julie Carmen) to accompany him. After reading a few of the novels for research, Trent experiences vivid nightmares of monsters and deformed people murdering each other with axes. Linda explains the stories are known to cause disorientation, memory loss, and paranoia in "less stable readers." Trent notices a series of red lines on the book covers that, when aligned properly, form the outline of New Hampshire and mark a location alluded to be Hobb's End, the fictional setting for many of Cane's works.As they set out to find the town, Linda experiences bizarre phenomena during the late-night drive; a boy riding a bicycle whose visage changes as she somehow passes him three times; the yellow road lines vanish followed by the road itself disappearing; and the car seemingly driving over thunderhead storm clouds. They enter a rustic covered bridge in darkness and inexplicably arrive in daylight hours in Hobb's End on the other side. Trent and Linda search the small town and begin encountering fictional people and landmarks described in Cane's novels. They are checked into a hotel by Mrs. Pickman (Frances Bay), later revealed to have been torturing and eventually killing her husband. At The Black Church, described in Cane's books as the fount of evil that is polluting the entire town, Trent and Linda watch as a group of townspeople arrive wielding shotguns and torches, demanding Cane return a missing child. Johnny, the son of one of men of the group, suddenly appears in the doorway to the Church, supplanted by Cane himself. The townspeople are then set upon by attack dogs and driven off.Believing the events to be staged, Trent prepares to go back to Arcane, but is prevented when Linda steals the car keys. She heads to the Black Church to confront Cane, and is exposed to his final novel, In The Mouth Of Madness which drives her insane. Trent is approached at a bar by Johnny's father warning him to leave before the evil infects him as it has the inhabitants of Hobb's End. Trent later returns to the bar and witnesses the man commit suicide with a shotgun as he proclaims to merely be "a character written to do it." Outside the bar, a mob of mutated, monstrous-looking townspeople descend upon him with shotguns and torches. He flees to the hotel and discovers Mrs. Pickman and Linda have also been altered into mutated versions of their former selves. Trent then attempts to drive away from Hobb's End but is repeatedly teleported back to the center of town, subsequently crashing while swerving to avoid hitting Linda. He awakens in a Catholic confessional where Cane explains the popularity of his stories will soon free an ancient race of monstrous beings that will reclaim the Earth. Cane brings Trent to his writing studio and tells him he is an invented character in one of the stories, and has no choice but to return the In The Mouth Of Madness manuscript to Arcane and begin the destruction of humanity.After giving Trent the manuscript, Cane tears open his face like a piece of paper, ripping a hole that leads into darkness. Trent flees through a long tunnel as the group of monsters chase him and suddenly finds himself laying on a country road, apparently back in reality. As he returns to New York, he repeatedly receives and burns new copies of the manuscript. Back at Arcane Publishing, Trent meets with Harglow who informs him Linda never existed; he was sent alone to find Cane. Furthermore, he had delivered the manuscript months ago and the book has been on sale for weeks with a movie adaptation set to release soon. Trent suffers a psychotic break and is arrested after he murders several people with an axe. Dr. Wrenn (David Warner) visits him in the psychiatric hospital and, after listening to Trent recount his story, dismisses him as insane and leaves. Trent wakes the following day to find his cell door torn from its hinges and the residents of the hospital slaughtered. He departs, hearing over an ambulance radio that the world has been overrun with mutant creatures and outbreaks of suicide and psychotic mass murders. Trent goes to see the In the Mouth of Madness metafilm, laughing hysterically as he watches his own experiences. As it "catches up" to his current situation, his laughter becomes insanity-laced sobs of despair, finally realizing that he is just a work of fiction.
    

In the Mouth of Madness


            South Africa, 1976. A black boy and white boy, two friends, are happily playing-soccer, then rugby--on a beautifully manicured lawn. Johan (Rowen Elmes) is an adolescent, the son of Benjamin Du Toit, an Afrikaner schoolteacher. Jonathan Ngubene (Bekhithemba Mpofu), about the same age as Johan, is the son of Du Toit's gardener, Gordon.Outside a liquor shop in Soweto, a crowd of men are drinking from large plastic pitchers. A young man in a beret leaps on to a table and reminds those in the crowd that the beer they are drinking buys the bullets that kill their children. He is shouted down by the crowd. Nearby Jonathan is playing soccer in the street. Police pull up and begin beating young men and boys with billy clubs. They shove Jonathan and other young men into a police van.Benjamin Du Toit (Donald Sutherland)--a history teacher and former rugby player--and his wife Susan (Janet Suzman), attend one of Johan's rugby matches. As Du Toit and Susan are leaving the game, they meet Gordon (Winston Ntshona). Gordon thanks Du Toit for his financial help in educating Jonathan. 'Emily and me will always thank you.'Du Toit is in his garden enjoying a family gathering. Gordon brings Jonathan to 'Mr. Ben.' In the garage Gordon shows Du Toit and Johan Jonathan's buttocks, lacerated and bloodied from a whipping. Gordon asks Mr. Ben to hire a lawyer-he doesn't want Jonathan to have a police record. Du Toit replies 'it's a minor matter, let it go' and instructs Gordon to put iodine on the wounds. Gordon replies it is not the wounds on his son's body that he is afraid of, but those in his heart. Du Toit replies, 'there's nothing to be done.' After Gordon and Jonathan leave, Johan says, 'The cuts look terrible, Pa.' Du Toit replies: 'he must have done something.'Du Toit returns to his family in the garden. His daughter Suzette (Susannah Harker) asks what happened. Jonathan received a caning. 'Bloody savages,' says Suzette's husband. 'The only language they understand is force.' 'I thought the idea was to give them their own homeland,' Suzette adds. 'Let them live with their own kind. No conflict then. Everybody's happy.'That night Jonathan pleads with his father to not go to school the following day. He doesn't want to learn Afrikaans--where will that get him? He says to his father: We know you are a wise man, people ask your advice, you should be a lawyer, but what are you?Black school children take part in a protest march. Police block the streets and order them to disperse. The children respond by singing the liberation hymn, 'Nkosi Sikelel iAfrika', 'Lord, Bless Africa.' The police reply with warnings and threats of 'action.' The children continue singing. The police teargas the protesters. Some children hurl smoking canisters back at the police. Police open with live ammunition, shooting several students in the chest. Children flee. Police give chase, firing at the running children, shooting one in the back, then another, and another. Jonathan, charging through backyards and alleyways, stops to help a young girl crying over the body of her dead sister.
Gordon searches for Jonathan. A girl who was at the march tells him that the police took Jonathan away. At Gordon's home, Stanley (Zakes Mokae), Gordon's friend, enters. He's been driving children to the hospital all day-'one even died in the car.' Stanley, Gordon, and Gordon's wife Emily (Thoko Ntshinga), continue searching for Jonathan-first at the police station then at the morgue, where children's bodies are laid out, uncovered, on the floor, and on storage racks.Gordon tells Du Toit that Jonathan has been arrested and has disappeared. Du Toit vows to find out what he can about Jonathan's disappearance. He learns from a lawyer, Ian McKenzie, Jonathan had died-officially, 'in the rioting.' He does not know where the body was buried. Gordon vows to find out.In an alleyway near the police detention center, Gordon shows passersby a picture of Jonathan. Has anyone seen his son? One man says he did. That night Gordon brings a black lawyer and activist, Julius (John Kani), to his home to interview the witness. There's a knock on the door. A young boy enters, both arms bandaged from the wrist to above the elbows. He had been questioned and heard Jonathan's screams in the adjoining room. Jonathan was taken to the hospital and never seen again. Julius transcribes the testimonies.Gordon and his family are asleep. The police break down their front door and confiscate the notes the lawyer had taken. One of the black men whom Gordon had questioned about Jonathan's disappearance earlier, handcuffs Gordon and takes him away.Emily visits Du Toit at his school. Gordon has been arrested. Du Toit visits the police and speaks with Col. Viljoen (Gerard Thoolen). Also present is Captain Stolz (Jürgen Prochnow) who asks Du Toit for an autograph for his son, a soccer player. Du Toit obliges, and Stolz leaves. The colonel questions Du Toit about Gordon. Du Toit vouches for Gordon's character. The colonel 'assures' Du Toit that if Gordon is innocent, he will be released soon. The two men shake hands. Du Toit asks for a final favor--for Emily to bring a clean set of clothes for her husband. The colonel agrees.Gordon is being tortured. His face is beaten and bloodied. Captain Stolz demands to know who told Gordon to collect the statements regarding Jonathan's disappearance. Gordon responds: 'I want my son's body.' The torture continues.Stanley and Emily visit the Du Toit's home. Emily holds three of Gordon's teeth in the palm of her hand--they were in the pocket of Gordon's dirty clothes. Du Toit calls his lawyer, Ian McKenzie, who agrees to look into what happened to Gordon. Du Toit finishes the call. 'We must not give up hope, Emily.' 'Hope is a white word,' Stanley replies.Gordon continues to be tortured-he is hanging by from a rack by his ankles and his wrists 'Are you ready to fly?' Stolz asks. A black messenger stumbles into the interrogation room. Stolz orders him to never enter the interrogation room without knocking: 'Yes, captain. Yes, captain.'Stanley is at the Du Toit home with news from Emily: Gordon is dead. The authorities said he committed suicide. Du Toit is determined to see Gordon's body. Stanley tells him to stay out of it, but Du Toit threatens to drive himself to Soweto. Stanley relents and drives to the township with Du Toit hidden in the back seat. At the funeral home, Gordon lies in his casket-eyes swollen shut. His shirt is opened; scars are revealed. A newspaper reporter, Melanie Bruwer (Susan Sarandon), arrives at the funeral home and is acknowledged by Stanley. She asks to speak with Du Toit.Stanley tells Du Toit that Emily wants an inquest into Gordon's death. Du Toit visits McKenzie (Marlon Brando): he wants justice for Gordon Ngubene. McKenzie responds: 'Justice and the law...I suppose they can be described as distant cousins, and here in South Africa, they are simply not on speaking terms at all.' As far as the Ngubene case is concerned, he advises Du Toit to 'just give it up.' When Du Toit promises to find another lawyer, McKenzie agrees to take the case.The inquest into Gordon Ngubene's death. The courtroom is segregated by race: blacks on one side, whites on the other. McKenzie presents Gordon's teeth to the doctor who extracted them, Dr. Herzog (Paul Brooke). McKenzie questions the doctor, who testifies that he had learned from Captain Stoltz that Gordon Ngubene complained of a toothache. No, there was nothing 'noteworthy' about Gordon's appearance...he could not recall if he had used an anesthetic when he extracted the teeth...he does not recall who ordered the teeth pulled...he does recall, however, what day it is...to the 'relief' of McKenzie, who was afraid he had lost complete control of his 'faculties.' Stolz takes the stand. He testifies that Gordon Ngubene was arrested for being in possession of 'incriminating' documents. Ngubene was found hanging by a rope, tied to the window bars. A post-mortem was conducted by a police doctor. McKenzie reminds him a post-mortem was also conducted for the Ngubene family--by a doctor who had since been 'detained': Dr. Hassiem. McKenzie can present a graphologist who will testify that Dr. Hassiem's signature was forged on the official police autopsy report. The defense lawyer claims he can present several graphologists who will testify that it was not. He calls his final witness and reads his statement, which claims Gordon was in good health prior to his death. The court waits for the witness-a young man supposedly detained with Gordon--for confirmation. 'No! I signed because Captain Stolz forced me to!' He raises his shirt and reveals his back crisscrossed with lacerations. 'This is what he did to me!' McKenzie recalls Stolz to the stand and shows him photographs of Ngubene's beaten body. How does Stolz account for the lacerations across his front and back? He must have hit the bars when he tried to jump out the window, Stolz replies. 'He behaved like a wild animal.' McKenzie submits more photographs-photographs showing 'his jaw, broken; his nose, broken; his cheekbone, crushed; his eye hanging out of its socket and dangling on the crushed cheekbone; and marks and evidence of excessive burns on his genitals'-and all that while this man was trying to get out of a window?'The black members of the audience erupt in rage-yelling, screaming--and are removed from the courtroom. The magistrate responds: 'Now, Mr. McKenzie. What are you trying to prove with this idiotic recitation?' 'What I am...trying to prove with this 'idiotic' recitation, sir, is the fact that it was not Gordon Ngubene, but Captain Stolz, who behaved like a 'wild animal'.'The Ngubene's case is dismissed.The crowd leaves the courthouse. The white man, Benjamin Du Toit, fights through the crowd to reach the black woman, Emily Ngubene, and embraces her. Cameras are flashing. The crowd spills into the streets. The black Africans yell 'Justice! Justice! Justice!' The police respond with billy clubs. Du Toit is caught in the pandemonium and escapes with the reporter, Melanie Bruwer. At Melanie's home, Du Toit comes to terms with the reality of black life in South Africa. 'I've been too naive for too long.' Melanie offers him a glass of brandy: 'Welcome to South Africa, Ben Du Toit.'A picture of Du Tout embracing Emily Ngubene appears on the front page of a local newspaper. Suzette is enraged . 'My God, Pa. How could you let it go this far? You and a kaffir woman---you look like lovers.'Colleagues at the school shun Du Toit. His wife Susan becomes distant. Du Toit informs her that 'we'-'Emily and me'--are going to file a civil suit against the police. Susan asks, 'for what?' Let it go. This is not your fight. She'd heard what the police did...'I'm not saying it was right. But don't you think the blacks wouldn't do the same to us, and worse, if they had half a chance? ...We have to survive, and you must choose your own people.'Du Toit, Emily, Stanley and a black minister organize the suit against the police. They plan to search for witnesses who saw Gordon and Jonathan arrested or in custody, and to collect their signed statements, affidavits.Stanley hands Du Toit the first affidavit. Du Toit hides it in a secret compartment in a home-made lock-box in his garage. Julius, the activist and lawyer, and Stanley collect more affidavits-from the girl Jonathan helped the day he was arrested; from a nurse at the hospital where Jonathan was taken; the undertaker at the funeral home. The messenger who stumbled into the interrogation room tells Stanley and Du Toit that he saw Gordon being tortured, but he won't sign an affidavit-it would be suicide. That night Captain Stolz shoots him point blank in the chest in the doorway of his house.Stolz and his men search Du Toit's home, remove several documents, and place him under surveillance. The police question Johan at school; afterwards, Johan is attacked by schoolmates. Du Toit demands the colonel and captain leave his family alone.Du Toit comforts Johan. Johan says he knows what the police did to Gordon and Jonathan was wrong. 'Don't stop, Pa. Please, I don't want you to give up.'Emily and her children are given four weeks to leave their home.Du Toit visits the doctor who conducted the autopsy for the Ngubene family, Dr. Hassiem (Charles Pillai), who is recently released from detention. Dr. Hassiem gives him the genuine report. He can also provide the name of the young man who was arrested with Jonathan: Wellington, who saw everything. Wellington is in Zambia. Du Toit passes the information on to Melanie. 'With Wellington's statement, we can nail Stolz to the wall.' Melanie volunteers to go to Zambia.It's Christmas time. Du Toit is called to the headmaster's office and is fired. Johan is expelled. 'We don't need traitors here,' says the headmaster. Du Toit, on his way out the door, turns and slaps him in the face.It's a dour Christmas party at the Du Toit's household. As they are opening their Christmas presents, a drunken Stanley barges in. He and Du Toit struggle and crash to the floor. Stanley is in tears: 'Emily has been killed.' He tells Du Toit and Johan Emily was beaten by the police as she tried to prevent her children from being taken away. Susan re-enters the room. 'What a pretty picture: a drunken kaffir and an Afrikaner traitor. You deserve each other.' She moves out of the house.Du Toit and Johan are in the garage. Du Toit shows Johan his lock-box and the hidden compartment where the affidavits are hidden. From a distance, Suzette sees the hiding place.Captain Stolz returns the papers the police seized when they searched Du Toit's house. Du Toit signs for them. Stolz warns: 'There's a line you should not cross. I'd like to convince you of this.' That night Du Toit and Johan are sitting in the living room watching television. Three gunshots shatter the quiet of the evening. Du Toit throws Johan to the floor and protects him with his body.Du Toit visits Melanie. Her newspaper must publish the affidavits; there is no time for a lawsuit. All his 'references have switched.' Nothing is the same anymore.A bomb rips apart the garage where the lock-box is hidden. Thunderstruck, Du Toit examines the remains. The lock-box is destroyed. Johan runs into the house and returns with the affidavits. Suzette saw their hiding place, so he moved the documents.On her way back from Zambia, Melanie is taken into custody and deported from South Africa--but she has already passed along Wellington's affidavit to Stanley through an intermediary.Stanley brings Wellington's statement to Du Toit. They make plans to deliver all the affidavits to the newspaper that night. 'Not you, man,' Stanley says, 'you know Stolz will be on your ass every minute.' Du Toit is aware of that. He'll be the decoy.Du Toit calls Suzette: there was a break-in at the garage. They were looking for 'some things' I had hidden there, but they didn't find them. 'Why don't I look after them,' Suzette says.Du Toit meets Suzette at a restaurant that evening and slips her a large envelope. As Suzette leaves, a tear rolls down Du Toit's cheek. It's raining. Suzette hands Stolz the envelope, who opens it in his car. There is the receipt Du Toit signed when Stolz returned his documents. On the back is printed: 'No one can be free until all are free. Benjamin Du Toit.'At the same time, Johan bicycles in the driving night rain to the newspaper editor and delivers the real affidavits.Benjamin Du Toit leaves the restaurant. As he crosses the street Stolz's car appears. The car accelerates. Du Toit is illuminated in the glare of the headlights and is hit at full speed. He's launched over the roof and on to the road. Stolz accelerates backwards and bounces over the body, changes gears, and runs over him a third time, killing him.A new day. Stolz leaves his home and loads a sports bag into the trunk of his car. He turns. Across the street, behind the wheel of his car, Stanley is waiting. Their eyes lock. Images of Stolz's victims flash across the screen: Jonathan. Gordon. Emily. Du Toit. Stanley levels his revolver and fires a single round into Stolz's chest--and drives away.The newspaper publishes the affidavits.
    

A Dry White Season

Lore

Esther


            Set approximately two years after the original film, Beverly Hills Police Captain (formerly Lieutenant) Andrew Bogomil (Ronny Cox), Detective Billy Rosewood (Judge Reinhold), and Sergeant John Taggart (John Ashton) are trying to figure out who is behind the "Alphabet Crimes," a series of mostly high end store robberies distinguished by their monogrammed envelopes with an alphabetical sequence the assailants leave behind. Complicating matters is the new "political" state of the Beverly Hills police, headed by an incompetent and verbally abusive new police chief Harold Lutz (Allen Garfield), who is doing everything he can to stay on Mayor Ted Egan's (Robert Ridgely) good side. Unimpressed when Rosewood calls the FBI to help solve the case, Lutz holds Bogomil responsible as commanding officer and suspends him, despite Bogomil's efforts to convince him that Rosewood was only following a hunch, a traditional aspect of police work. Lutz also punishes Taggart and Rosewood by placing them on traffic duty.On the way home, Bogomil is shot by Karla Fry (Brigitte Nielsen), the chief hench-woman of Maxwell Dent (Jürgen Prochnow). Finding out about the shooting over a news report, Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) immediately flies out to Beverly Hills (covering his absence from his actual job in Detroit by telling his commanding officer Inspector Todd he was going "deep deep deep DEEP undercover" on the credit card fraud case he had been assigned to) to help find out who shot Bogomil to repay the favor he owes Bogomil for saving his job two years ago. Before leaving town, Axel asks his co-worker Jeffrey Friedman (Paul Reiser) to drive his red Ferrari convertable around town to make it appear that Axel is still in the city.Before leaving, Axel meets with his credit card fraud contact Vinnie (Robert Pastorelli) to stall the deal only to discover that Vinnie's front man is the same front man (Robert Pesce) that Axel did business while undercover before two years earlier during the cigarette heist deal. Axel accuses the man of being a cop and leaves for California.After arriving in L.A. by plane, Foley shacks up in a Beverly Hills mansion which is under construction while the owners are on vacation and sets it as his base of operations. Foley then goes to the police station and makes contact with Taggart and Rosewood who secretly agree to assist Foley because of Lutz's apparent attempts to find an excuse to get them fired. Posing as an undercover FBI agent to get past Lutz (by convincing Friedman in Detroit to pose as Todd to intercept Lutz's phone call to Todd's office and convince Lutz that Foley is part of a multi-jurisdictional task force). Foley soon starts making the connection between the robberies and Dent. Foley then asks Bogomil's teenage daughter, Jan (Alice Adair), to use her connections as an insurance agent to find out about Dent's financial dealings.It turns out that Dent is robbing his own businesses deliberately (which have insurance) to finance firearms deals and is discreetly using his henchman Charles Cain (Dean Stockwell) as the front man for his operations. Bogomil was shot because he was on the right track with his investigation into the case.Having foiled a robbery attempt at a bank depository, Foley is able to trick Dent's accountant Sydney Bernstein (Gilbert Gottfried) into using his computer and discovers that Dent and Karla are planning to leave the country, and he also learns from Jan that all of Dent's businesses have gone under except his race track, which he is convinced is the next target.On the way to the race track, Foley solves the latest riddle sent to the police, and is convinced that this riddle was made easily solvable for the cops so Dent could implicate Cain as the Alphabet Bandit (though Foley is aware that Cain is being used as a patsy to throw the authorities off of Dent's trail as he not intelligent enough to be the Alphabet Bandit, having met him personally at Dent's gun club and getting an impression that he is a pawn instead of a criminal mastermind).The three arrive too late to stop the robbery and find Cain's body (he was shot by Karla) among those killed. While Lutz announces publicly that the Alphabet Crimes have been solved, Foley notices some red mud at the stables, which leads him, Taggart and Rosewood to Dent's oil field where Dent is making his final arms deal. The three of them then engage in a shootout with everyone involved in the deal. Dent confronts Foley in the warehouse, but Foley gets distracted by one of Dent's men on the roof and Dent walks into the shadows. Dent then crashes through the wall in his car and Foley shoots Dent through the windshield, sending his car down a hill and erupting in flames, but not before running Foley over. Karla appears and is about to kill Foley, but is shot dead by Taggart.Just as the last thugs are about to flee, the police arrive upon the scene, along with Lutz and Mayor Egan. Lutz tries to fire Rosewood and Taggart for their insubordination and also attempts to arrest Foley. However, both Taggart and Rosewood stand up to Lutz this time and prove that Dent was the real Alphabet Bandit and that the real purpose of the Alphabet Crimes was about financing the arms deal (so Dent could make a larger profit overseas). They are also able to convince Mayor Egan of Lutz's incompetence (since Lutz would had gotten in the way had he known about their activities due to him intentionally ignoring the truth from other cops), and the Mayor personally fires Lutz because he is tired of his abusive attitude towards his own men.At the end, Bogomil is chosen by Mayor Egan to replace Lutz as the next Chief of Police, and Foley returns back to Detroit, but not before he gets chewed out by Inspector Todd over the phone, right after Egan called him to congratulate him on allowing Foley to assist them on this case. On top of that, Jeffrey Friedman is revealed to have accidentally wrecked Foley's car while covering for him.In the final scene, Rosewood and Taggart say their goodbye to Foley for good when the owners of the Beverly Hills mansion return from their vacation to find Foley and the two detectives there, forcing Foley to flee to the airport and leaving Rosewood and Taggart to explain to the owners what they are doing in their house.
    

Beverly Hills Cop II

Murder: By Reason of Insanity

The Seventh Sign

Robin Hood


            The prized possession in my video collection is my copy of 'The Keep' . For those as yet unaware of the treat awaiting them, The Keep portrays a time worn castle in hallowed Eastern Europe captured by German SS forces during World War II. The brutality and greed of the German occupying forcesAs a movie it has the ability to transcend its populist graphic imagery with an undercurrent of empathy that allowed me to identify with the evil occupant of the
    

The Keep

The Fourth War


            A scrolling and narrated prologue opens the film: in the Third Millennium (the 21st Century), the Earth's ecosystem has become polluted and altered, leaving much of the world's landmass a barren desert called the Cursed Earth. Most people have moved to a few "mega" cities, where, due to the rampant population increase, law and order have collapsed. A new order has risen, that of the Street Judges, who are "judge, jury and executioner", possessing the license to fight criminals, pronounce sentences and summarily execute them if necessary.When the story opens, Herman "Fergee" Ferguson is returning to Mega City 1 after serving a sentence in the Aspen Penal Colony. He arrives at his new home, Heavenly Haven, a dangerous neighborhood which is embroiled in a vicious "block" war. Gangsters have set up their command post in his new apartment and have opened fire on their rivals in another building and on the street, 40 stories below. Fergee finds himself an unwitting accomplice, passing ammunition to the block warriors.Street Judges Hershey and her candidate judge respond to the block war. Hershey calls immediately for backup, which arrives in the form of Judge Joseph Dredd, the most famous of all the Street Judges. He leads an assault on the block warriors, dispatching several of them rapidly with his pistol, the Lawgiver 2. Hershey's candidate is killed when he rushes into the command post and is shot immediately. Dredd kills everyone but the block war leader and charges him with several violations of the Mega City Municipal Code, before summarily executing him for the candidate's murder. He announces that court is adjourned. Outside the apartment, he finds Fergee hiding in a servo-droid and finds him guilty as a repeat offender, giving him five more years in Aspen. Fergee claims he's innocent and was hiding from the block warriors, however, Dredd refuses to be swayed and dismisses Fergee to re-incarceration. Dredd reports to Chief Justice Fargo, who questions Dredd's hardened methods of summary execution. He believes Dredd when the judge tells him that the executions were unavoidable. Fargo assigns Dredd to teaching ethics at the academy a few days per week.At the Aspen Penal Colony, Warden Miller meets with a man named Rico and gives him a small object that contains a copy of Rico's badge and a picture of a reporter, Vartis Hammond, who has done several investigative reports on the Street Judges which are high critical. Rico suddenly unlocks a secret compartment in the box and it becomes a small pistol, which he uses to shoot Miller through the throat. Miller is unable to match the voice-identification that disarms the cannons in Rico's cell and he is immediately killed by them. Rico hides and is able to massacre the guards who rush into the room.At the Academy, Dredd tells a pool of cadets about the weaponry of a street judge and how little of it matters where knowledge of the Mega City Municipal Code is concerned. He also tells them that they stand a high chance of being killed on duty and that if they live to old age they will undertake the Long Walk into the Cursed Earth, where they will teach the savage denizens outside the city walls of the law. Hershey later speaks to Dredd about his obstinate personality and whether he had any friends. Dredd tells her that he did have a friend at the Academy but was forced to judge and sentence him when he broke the law.Rico stows away on a shuttle from Aspen in a body bag. In Mega City, he goes to a pawn shop and retrieves a box set aside for him. In the box is a judge's uniform and a Lawgiver pistol. When Rico reaches for the pistol, the pawnshop owner warns him not to pick it up because all Lawgiver's are booby-trapped and will only recognize the grip of a street judge. Rico picks up the pistol, unharmed by the defense mechanism, and shoots the man dead, revealing that he is a judge himself. Rico finds a giant combat droid, an ABC Warrior, in the shop and reactivates it, giving it the duty of being his personal bodyguard and a mission of "war".At Hammond's apartment, an unidentifiable judge bursts in and kills Hammond and his wife. The incident is captured on a security camera and Hammond's final word is "DREDD!!" Dredd is arrested on the street and incarcerated for trial.Dredd chooses Hershey to defend him due to her expertise in criminal law. At the trial, the recording from the security camera is presented, however, Hershey successfully has the evidence dismissed as circumstantial since Dredd cannot be positively identified. However, new evidence is presented; the Lawgiver 2 pistol has a secret feature that captures the DNA of the wielder and imprints it on every round of ammunition fired. The DNA from the rounds that killed Hammond and his wife are an exact match for Dredd himself. Hershey and Dredd's defense crumbles and Dredd is sentenced to death. Fargo, who is overcome with guilt at seeing Dredd, one of his greatest students, sentenced, decides, with some goading from Justice Griffin, to retire as Chief Justice and leave Mega City on his long walk into the Cursed Earth. Before he resigns, Fargo asks the Justice Council to commute Dredd's death sentence and send him to the Aspen Penal Colony for life. The council agrees, Fargo leaves Mega City in honor and Griffin becomes Chief Justice.Later, when Griffin returns to his office, he is confronted by Rico, who demands access to a project called "Janus". Griffin tells Rico that there must be a demand for the project to be implemented; violent crime must engulf the city for Griffin to convince the Justice Council to re-institute Janus. Rico promises to do just that.Dredd is put on to a shuttle going to Aspen; seated next to him is Fergee. (Seated around them are several criminals who were sentenced by Dredd himself.) Dredd and Fergee argue briefly about how Dredd unfairly re-convicted Fergee; Dredd claims "the law doesn't make mistakes" and Fergee asks Dredd to explain how the judge became convicted himself. Just then, another con on the shuttle attacks Dredd. On the ground, the Angel Family, religious fanatics and pirates of the Cursed Earth, blast the shuttle out of the sky with a rocket launcher. In the ensuing chaos, the pilots of the shuttle are killed. Dredd and Fergee are the only survivors and are captured by the Angels.In her apartment,Hershey conducts her own investigation of Dredd's conviction but quickly find herself locked out of Central's online system.In the Angel Family's lair, Dredd identifies them as pirates and scavengers. Fergee, in an attempt to escape their clutches, suddenly proclaims himself a believer in the Angel's religion and is let go. Dredd then reveals the Angel's darkest secret; they are cannibals and plan to eat Fergee in sacrifice. Dredd frees himself and is immediately attacked by the Angels, whom he takes out one at a time. When Pa Angel attacks Dredd, he is shot dead by one of the salvage team sent by Chief Justice Griffin himself to investigate the shuttle crash. The two salvage men prepare to execute Dredd when they are shot dead by Chief Justice Fargo, who'd found the crash site. Fargo himself is critically wounded by Mean Machine Angel, whom Dredd had knocked out moments before. Dredd fights Mean and electrocutes him, citing a violation of the Mega City code for illegal use of electricity.Hershey consults a promising cadet, Ohlmeyer, about a photo she'd found of Dredd as an infant with his parents. Ohlmeyer quickly determines that the photo is a forgery.As Fargo dies from his wounds he tells Dredd about Janus, a sophisticated genetics project that tried to clone children with the best traits of the existing judges in an attempt to create the perfect Judge. There were two subjects produced, Rico and Dredd himself, who never knew Rico was his brother. The project was a massive failure with Rico becoming a psychotic monster, judged by Dredd and sentenced to Aspen for life. Fargo dies and Dredd vows to return to Mega City and stop Rico from starting the Janus project again.Back in Mega City, chaos erupts as Rico, using his ABC robot, declares war on the Street Judges. Many are killed and their numbers reach a critical low point. Hershey detects a power surge near the Statue of Liberty and moments later is almost killed when her Lawmaster cycle explodes. The Judges Council meets and discusses the crisis, knowing that they cannot replenish their ranks quickly enough, even if they conscript every candidate at the Academy. Griffin suggests that they unlock the Janus project, which can produce a fully mature judge in mere hours (with the technology being more advanced than 20 years before, it's possible to create adult clones rather than children). Each member of the council gives their authorization, as does Griffin, however they collectively object when they realize that the project was already a major failure. Just then, Rico enters the room and murders the entire council, leaving Griffin alive.Outside the city walls, Dredd and Fergee are able to enter the city through a heat vent, barely making it inside. They enter the Halls of Justice, where Dredd steals a judge's uniform. Dredd finds the murdered members of the council and Griffin. He also sees Rico but fails to stop him. Griffin shoots himself in the arm, framing Dredd for the assault and the murder of the council. When guards move in to arrest Dredd, he flees on a newer model Lawmaster, flying off with Fergee. After a furious chase, they escape.Dredd finds Hershey at her apartment and tells her of Rico's plan. She goes with him to the Statue of Liberty where Rico has already started the Janus project. When Griffin objects to Rico replacing the old DNA samples with his own, Rico has the ABC robot dismember him alive. When Dredd, Hershey and Fergee try to enter the lab, Rico has the robot shoot Fergee and seize Hershey. With Rico threatening to have Hershey killed, Dredd agrees to listen to Rico explain his plan to create a super race of judges that will do only their bidding. Dredd naturally refuses to join Rico and they battle hand-to-hand. Fergee distracts the ABC robot long enough to disable it and Hershey fights with Rico's assistant, Ilsa Hayden, chief scientist of the Janus project. Rico finally corners Dredd where he hangs above the city. Rico tells Dredd that his judgement is death for betraying Rico years before. Dredd is able to distract Rico with a flare from his Lawgiver and pulls Rico over the edge where he falls to his death. Hershey finds Dredd and helps him to safety.On the street, Dredd is greeted as a hero. When asked if he'd like to take the position of Chief Justice, he refuses, saying he would rather remain a Street Judge.
    

Judge Dredd

Damascus Cover

The Conspiracy

Love Is Forever


            A forensic anthropologist is looking over a mass grave of people who have been killed by what she claims are identical gunshot wounds. Both the woman and the UN soldier head away from the mass graves to inspect another one on the south side. She digs her shovel into what she believes is another mass grave only to be attacked by an unseen creature. The anthropologist is dragged into the water as the UN soldier opens fire. Other soldiers show up and begin shooting at the attacker as it devours the woman and heads for deeper water.The next setting is a New York City news room. The main character, Tim (Purcell), is seen and he is looking at a TV and talking on his phone. Apparently he is waiting to see if his name is mentioned in connection with a case that he was working on. Not much is heard about this. His cameraman and best friend Steven is telling him maybe their boss, Roger, did not see or hear what was being broadcast on the news. Right when he says that Tim is asked to see Roger, which Steven says was really quick and jokes about being a cameraman for another reporter. Tim then goes to see Roger who in turn does not want to talk about his contract just yet but instead introduces him to a very attractive woman standing by another television set viewing a report about the woman who was seen previously with the creature. This is where Gustave is introduced. The woman's name is Aviva and she is a reporter that focuses on reports dealing with animals being killed or harmed, and she is interested in the crocodile who is known to have killed hundreds of people in Africa. Tim is more-or-less "forced" into going to Africa with her and brings Steven along to help capture this creature.In Burundi they meet Harry, who is there to warn them about "The Bush," as he calls it, and the dangerous warlord who lives there, who has nicknamed himself "Little Gustave." They are to travel via riverboat to their destination, a small village, where they will set up their traps in attempts to capture Gustave. All attempts to capture Gustave fail. Their cameraman, while getting scenic video, catches on film Little Gustave himself executing the village people who helped the group. The guards that are sent with the group end up working for Little Gustave. Both of them get killed either by gunshot or Gustave.Then a fast-paced series of events takes place. The group tries to kill Gustave with a hand grenade resulting in the death of their guide and their crocodile expert that went with them. A helicopter appears and it looks like the survivors are going to be rescued. But Little Gustave's men attempt to blow up the helicopter to stop them from showing the video of the execution. That results in the group getting separated. Steven gets separated from the group and Gustave chases him. We don't find out happens to Steven till later. The other members of the group come together to look for Steven but Aviva has to stay with the injured Jojo. Tim finds Steven's camera. Little Gustave (who is actually Harry) comes to get the video himself. That results in Aviva, Tim and Jojo getting captured. Tim attempts to trick Little Gustave by giving him the GPS locator that tracks Gustave by saying it tracks the suitcase that also has a copy of the video. Little Gustave declines and forces Tim to find the suitcase. That's where they finds Steven's body. Aviva splatters pheromones on Little Gustave and Gustave comes and kills Little Gustave. Tim, Jojo and Aviva escape to the range rover and Gustave appears and attempts to kill all three but they manage to escape. We see the group on a plane home. The ending states that the civil war ended and Gustave is still alive and killing.
    

Jürgen Prochnow

Jürgen Prochnow Movies or Tv Shows (upto Dec 2024) - Watch Online

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