Hangmen

Starring:Keith Bogart, Sandra Bullock, Daniel Chapman, Stu Day, Lisa Fugard, Steven Kaman, David Henry Keller, Robert Khaleel, Danny Kuchuck, Jake LaMotta, Dan Lutsky, Dick Mel, Frank Pechillo, Sam Silver, Dog Thomas, Henry TorrÃ¨s, Kosmo Vinyl, Rick Washburn, Amanda Zinsser
Studio: Platinum Disc
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

Because it's been little seen, and because people tend to shrug off contemporaneous World War II films as "propaganda," Hangmen Also Die has never received its due. It's a brilliant, riveting movie, made in response to the atrocities committed against the Czech people following the assassination of Reichsprotektor Heydrich, Hitler's personal "hangman." Under Fritz Lang's ferociously stylized direction, the duel of wits between the Nazi occupiers and the Prague underground--"a ghost army sworn to haunt them till their blood runs cold"--becomes the stuff of legend: virtually another installment of Die Nibelungen, and a dynamic variation on the urban phantasmagoria of the Mabuse films and Spione and M.

There is propaganda--but when the blood-curdling rhetoric comes from Bertolt Brecht, no less, in his only movie script for an American producer, who's to complain? Lang was Brecht's full collaborator, however, and the narrative is a steel trap closing on everyone. Every act of charity may potentially doom an entire family, and the resistance fighters--especially Brian Donlevy's doctor-assassin--agonize over their culpability in jeopardizing hundreds of innocents taken hostage in reprisal for Heydrich's shooting. The moral-ethical duality extends to the casting, and our response to it. Apart from Walter Brennan, astonishingly "Brechtian" as a Czech professor of history, the "good guys" are ho-hum Central Casting types while the Nazis--evil incarnate--are juicily portrayed by a passel of German-Jewish émigrés (Alexander Granach, Reinhold Schünzel, Ludwig Donath, et al.), all savoring the opportunity to skewer their own oppressors and to act up a German Expressionist storm in their Hollywood exile. Superbly photographed by James Wong Howe. --Richard T. Jameson

Customer Reviews:

Hangmen Also Die: The Lesson is Evil Exists.......2007-02-05

When Reichsprotektor Reinhard Heydrich was assassinated by Czech patriots in 1942, the immediate result was the liquidation of the entire village of Lidice. Every citizen was murdered and the town itself reduced to rubble. The enormity of this crime was not made apparent at the time, but in HANGMEN ALSO DIE, director Fritz Lang and screenwriter Bertold Brecht created a film that dramatises the essential events in a manner that suffers from some deliberately heavy acting but in no way subtracts from its incredible power.

Brian Donlevy in surely the flattest of his career sleepwalks through his role as Dr. Svoboda, the assassin. One would think that the ethical issues of deciding whether to give himself up for execution or allowing innocent hostages to be shot should have occupied more of Donlevy's interpretation of the assassin. Donlevy does little more than allow others to debate the need to weigh one life against hundreds of others when there are larger issues at stake. To director Lang's credit, he allows the film to address the tricky issue of whether there can even be larger issues than human lives. Lang comes firmly down on the side that in the larger horror of war some issues of right and justice must trump the lives of those who pay for the right of others to debate these ethical dilemmas. Walter Brennan as Professor Novotny shows the same lack of dramatic fire that afflicts Donlevy. In fact, it becomes clear that the only characters who show any pizzazz are the Nazis. Some critics have suggested that this disparity was the deliberate intent of Lang, whom they saw as interested more in the underlying themes of justice versus retribution than in character glorification. The Nazis are so over the top that this gap cannot be by accident. Alexander Granach as Gestapo Inspector Gruner and Gene Lockhart as turncoat Czaca positively revel in their nefarious machinations. I see this discrepancy more as revelatory of Lang's wish to present the Czech hostages as internal mirrors of their pacific exteriors. And on those rare occasions when the hostages show a more direct attitude about their lot, they are quite capable of evincing a believable straightforwardness.

When the film was released in 1943, audiences knew the Nazis were evil, but evil more in the Al Capone sense than in any genocidal one. The ending in which the duplicitous Czaca is framed for Heydrich's murder implies that as bad as the Germans were their word about releasing hostages could be trusted. History has proven otherwise. HANGMEN ALSO DIE is a life-affirming film that shows that even during the horrors of genocide, men and women of courage could yet find the dignity to retain their humanity even as their hammy tormentors could lose theirs.

A tribute to the oppressed who dared to fight Nazi brutality..........2007-01-02

'Hangmen Also Die' takes as its story, the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, a German Nazi official, head of the security police, chief deputy to the head of the Schutzstaffel, Heinrich Himmler, who organized mass exterminations of European Jews during the opening years of World War II... and also the subsequent retaliatory devastation of Lidice, a Czech mining village...

With his usual skill, Lang weaves a tale of gripping suspense: the Gestapo's efforts to find the assassin; the workings of the Czech resistance fighters; and the traitor who is finally hoisted on his own petard...

The film is an indictment of Nazi brutality and a tribute to the oppressed who dared to fight it...

Bert and Fritz together at last!.......2006-12-12

This is a relatively straightforward propaganda melodrama, with nothing
particularly compelling to recommend it, but for one notable exception.

Bertold Brecht's villains and miscreants are all so full of gusto. They share kinship with the ones in Threepenny Opera and Mahagonny after all. It seems Brecht could not create a scoundrel he couldn't admire on a certain, mischievous level. The ones in this film are no exception, and lift it out of the "ordinary" into the realm of the "oddity".

why the end titles are ironic, etc........2006-06-15

Classic Expressionist images and sly situations by Fritz Lang; cinematography by James Wong Howe; propaganda poetry by Bertolt Brecht (so nice they recite it twice in succession, in case we've missed the point)--HANGMEN ALSO DIE is irresistable!

The story was inspired by the actual assassination of Reinhard Heydrick, who had earlier appeared as himself in Riefenstahl's TRIUMPH OF THE WILL. It's interesting to note that Heydrick continued to have a successful film career for another fifty years, for he also appears posthumously in at least eleven more motion pictures!

Some reviews complain about Brian Donleavy's alleged "lethargic" performance, though I found it consistent with his other straightforward work and quite acceptable. It's peculiar, however, to witness the Czech underground played with so many extremely American faces and mannerisms--Donleavy and O'Keefe in particular. I've never been a fan of Walter Brennan, between the geezer impersonations and his politics; but he does do very well in what elsewhere would be the "Walter Huston" role (NORTH STAR, DRAGON SEED, and others). If any non-German actor's performance seems weaker than others, it's Anna Lee's. But this entire topic only arises because the performances by German actors are so excellent.

In writings of Hollywood (notably Gore Vidal's SCREENING HISTORY and Waugh's THE LOVED ONE), much has been made of the British colony of actors and writers whose films before and during WW2 consciously endeavored to increase American sympathy and support for their homeland. But there's an unusual fascination in watching German actors (not to mention Fritz Lang and "Bert" Brecht) pulling out all the stops in this project.

Much is justifiably made of Hans Heinrich Twardowski's dazzling impersonation of Reinhard Heydrick at the beginning of the movie, which makes the "Nazis" of Otto Preminger, Conrad Veidt, and Erich von Stroheim look like Gandhi, but my "favorite" Nazi in the film is the satirical limning of a Gestapo officer in charge of "questioning" a couple key female suspects. Priceless! As is the performance of the old-lady grocer who refuses to rat out Anna Lee. She, the girl's gossipy aunt, and the Nazi in charge of the investigation have all stepped out of earlier Lang films (M, FURY, etc.) and bring tremendous Old World authenticity to their roles.

The final irony lies in the film's end-title. As Amazon notes, after the plot's presumed climax the end-title challenges whether this is REALLY the end of the story. In truth, the original film was several minutes longer, and included the execution of the hostages. Too grim for war propaganda of 1943? (Some suggest it was excised perhaps before its release in Europe; and it's known that HUAC banned the movie as possibly pro-Communist, and that the American public was "protected" from it for decades.) Or perhaps the studio said Genug already, for a film that's well over two hours long even WITH the snipping?

Doubtless that lopping contributed to Brecht's dissatisfaction with the final product. Meanwhile, the German-speaker who was hired to help him with the project, John Wexley, was indeed a Communist and, like Brecht, was later brought before HUAC--though with more dire consequences.

Austere WW2 fictionalized docudrama.......2005-04-23

Fritz Lang's "Hangmen Also Die", written by Bertholt Brecht is a propagandized 1943 account of the assassination of Reichprotector Reinhard Heydrich. Heydrich was the despicable, pompous and belligerent Nazi appointed military governor of parts of Czechoslavakia played by Hans Heinrich von Twardowski. The hated Nazi is shot by Dr. Franticek Svoboda played effectively by Hollywood tough guy Brian Donlevy.

Donlevy is part of a Czech underground anti-Nazi movement. As a result of his involvement Donlevy is ultimately protected by the Novotny family headed by terrific character actor Walter Brennan, who plays Professor Stephen Novotny. His daughter, Nasha played by Anna Lee, is initially willing to colloborate with the Gestapo to reveal the identity of the assassin to protect her family. As punishment for the shooting, prominent Czech citizens are rounded up and put in camps to be summarily executed. Included in this group is her father, Brennan.

Lee eventually comes around, inspired by the bravery of the Czech citizens. She aids Donlevy in ultimately framing traitorous Czech beer magnate Emil Czaka played by rotund Gene Lockhart as the assassin.

Lang's creation was a powerful film that delivered an important message to the viewers in the midst of WW2. The resolve and determination of the Czech people to throw off the yoke and Nazi oppression was effectively portrayed.

Great Spy Movies (The Inside Man / Hangmen / The Sell Out)

Average customer rating:

If you like old flicks - one is a really good bad movie
1 good movie & 2 fair ones

Great Spy Movies (The Inside Man / Hangmen / The Sell Out)
Starring: Leif Ahrle , Gösta Ekman (II) , Gustaf Elander , Charlie Elvegård , and Lena Endre
Manufacturer: Bfs Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video

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4-for-3 Drama | 4-for-3 DVD | Stores | DVD | Video

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Similar Items:

Great Detective Movies (They Call It Murder / Murder Once Removed / A Tattered Web)
Classic Heist Movies (The Great St. Louis Bank Robbery / High Risk / The Squeeze)
Classic Courtroom Movies (Mesmerized / Death Sentence / Dishonored Lady)
Great Mystery Movies (The Stranger / D.O.A. / Lady Of Burlesque)
Classic Mystery Movies (And Then There Were None / Cry Panic / The Bat)

ASIN: B00005N5RZ
Release Date: 2001-10-09

Description

3 Great Movies on 1 DVD. Star Power, Exciting Genre with Extras on each DVD.

Customer Reviews:

If you like old flicks - one is a really good bad movie.......2005-09-01

I am refering to Hangmen - apparently Sandra Bullock's screen debut. My jaw dropped and soon I was rolling on the carpet in spasms. So much silly dialogue and unexplained action are the very essence of a good bad movie. The directing and the photography are acually quite good and show New York at its grittiest. Sandra Bullock gets shot with a kind of a tranquilizer bullet - you know, the ones they use on enraged rhinos in wildlife parks. No, really, I can honestly recommend that one. The rest: forgettable (The Inside Man), truly annoying (The Sell Out).

1 good movie & 2 fair ones.......2004-02-07

The Sell Out is the best of these 3. Good acting by Richard Widmark. For the other two movies, Inside man would be second best and kept my interest well enough. Hangmen though is a different story. Too much gunplay & people getting killed. I only sat through it for the Sandra Bullock parts since this was her very first movie. She was good & the rest of the picture was so so.

Customer Reviews:

Hang in there, Man.......2005-07-21

And give yourself ten stars if you made it all the way through. I don't know if this is the worst movie ever made, but it's the worst I've ever seen. It was like end-to-end junk. No plot, no acting, no direction, no point. A scrap yard, a wrecker dump. A gun collection. These people (they weren't actors) were given lines to say 2 minutes before filming, and they said them. Some of them made faces. A lot of triggers were pulled, and men ran around shooting. The body-count was innumerable. Jaw-dropping, mind-numbing, belief-begging. Ugh-gh-gh. I'll just add something to that. If someone had deliberately set out to make the worst movie ever made they could not have made one worse than Hangmen. Actually, this must be a record: something supremely remarkable has been achieved, without even trying.

Written while watching the movie.......2005-05-07

Reading the reviews is more entertaining than this absolute piece of trash. I think this starts an entire new catagory of being worthless and not entertaining in the least. If they had left it in the original French, or whatever the language was, and not dubbed in a bad english soundtrack, at least it would be tolerable (except for the lack of plot and bad acting). Blockbuster should have done their customers a favor and not even offered it!!!

GET THE NOOSE OUT.......2005-01-09

There are two kinds of bad movies: good bad movies, which are so cheesy they entertain in a campy sort of way; and then there are bad bad movies like this truly bad movie!!! Don't let the DVD cover fool you. Sandra Bullock is not the star of this movie..in fact, she's hardly in it at all and when she is, she's downright terrible. I'm sure she doesn't include this turkey on her resume. There's not one redeeming quality to this so-called thriller. The performances are all awful; the editing and cinematography are choppy and amateurish; the direction is nil. Truly a bad movie, not worth anyone's time. Shame on you Sandra!

Over-rated by most of these Reviews!.......2004-07-07

Yes, I do believe that most of these reviewers have over-rated this film. One star indeed - where do you folks get off with such generosity? I too picked it up because of Sandra Bullock's pic on the cover, but I'm convinced that I overspent - I got it free at the library! I will recommend to them that they put it in the fireplace where it can actually be of some value - little though that will be.

SAVE YOU'RE MONEY!!!!.......2003-12-23

I give this movie a -10 stars because this movie isn't even worth one star! Well this film is one of the worst films that I have ever seen and wish to never see again. After about 20 minutes into the movie, I fell asleep. This is even worse than when my daughter watch the Teletubbies and they were colorful and did have some method to the madness!!! I gave this DVD away, because it was so horrible, and believe it or not...the darn thing was returned to me with a note that read: "Thanks, but no THANKS!!!" I guess that note says it all. I have filed this "movie" (and I use that term very loosely), in file 13 -- THE TRASH!

Average customer rating:

Hang in there, Man
Written while watching the movie
GET THE NOOSE OUT
Over-rated by most of these Reviews!
SAVE YOU'RE MONEY!!!!

Hangmen
Starring: Keith Bogart , Sandra Bullock , Daniel Chapman , Stu Day , and Lisa Fugard
Manufacturer: Platinum Disc
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Crime | Action & Adventure | Genres | DVD | Video

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Thrillers | Action & Adventure | Genres | DVD | Video

General | Kids & Family | Genres | DVD | Video

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Two if by Sea
Who Shot Pat?
Forces of Nature
Lisa Picard is Famous
In Love and War

ASIN: B000058TLQ
Release Date: 1999-09-01

Product Description

Danny Greene is just like every sixteen-year-old kid...except that a secret splinter group of the CIA wants him dead. Danny is running for his life. Enter Danny's father, an ex-Green Beret, equipped with a rag-tag bunch of urban guerillas and an entire arsenal of weaponry. But can five former commandos defeat the largest, most thorough network of government-sanctioned assassins in the world? In this high-stakes world, before the case even gets to trial, someone's already called the HANGMEN.

Customer Reviews:

Hang in there, Man.......2005-07-21

Written while watching the movie.......2005-05-07

GET THE NOOSE OUT.......2005-01-09

Over-rated by most of these Reviews!.......2004-07-07

SAVE YOU'RE MONEY!!!!.......2003-12-23

Average customer rating:

Action Packed: Hangmen/Mesmerized
Starring: Action Packed
Manufacturer: Platinum Disc
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Action & Adventure | Genres | DVD | Video

( A ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

All Deals | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video
ASIN: B00008G8RW
Release Date: 1999-06-29

Hardcore Action: Hangmen/Deadly Drifter/Laser Mission

Average customer rating:

Hardcore Action: Hangmen/Deadly Drifter/Laser Mission
Starring: S/Coyote, P Bullock
Manufacturer: Platinum Disc
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Action & Adventure | Genres | DVD | Video

DVDs Under $9.99 | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video

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ASIN: B00008G8XS
Release Date: 1999-06-29

Average customer rating:

Hang in there, Man
Written while watching the movie
GET THE NOOSE OUT
Over-rated by most of these Reviews!
SAVE YOU'RE MONEY!!!!

Hangmen
Starring: Keith Bogart , Sandra Bullock , Daniel Chapman , Stu Day , and Lisa Fugard
Manufacturer: Unicorn Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Action & Adventure | Genres | DVD | Video

4-for-3 All DVDs | 4-for-3 DVD | Stores | DVD | Video

( H ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

All Deals | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Two if by Sea
Who Shot Pat?
Forces of Nature
Lisa Picard is Famous
In Love and War

ASIN: B00005Q4EK
Release Date: 2001-10-02

Customer Reviews:

Hang in there, Man.......2005-07-21

Written while watching the movie.......2005-05-07

GET THE NOOSE OUT.......2005-01-09

Over-rated by most of these Reviews!.......2004-07-07

SAVE YOU'RE MONEY!!!!.......2003-12-23

Average customer rating:

Action Packed: Hangmen/Mesmerized
Starring: Tom Byron , Kim McKamy , and Alex Jordan
Manufacturer: Platinum Disc
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Action & Adventure | Genres | DVD | Video

( A ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

All Deals | Today's Deals in DVD | Special Features | DVD | Video
ASIN: B00008G8SV
Release Date: 1999-06-29

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