The Legend of Rita

Starring:Bibiana Beglau, Martin Wuttke, Nadja Uhl, Harald Schrott, Alexander Beyer, Jenny Schilly, Mario Irrek, Franca Kastein, Thomas Arnold, Dietrich KÃ¶rner, Rudolf Donath, Monika Pietsch, Matthias Wien, Petra Ehlert, Hannelore Schubert, Isolde Wabra, Antje Klambt, Alexander Hosfeld, Jennipher Antoni, Thomas Just
Director: Volker SchlÃ¶ndorff
Studio: Kino Video
Product Type: DVD

Description

West Germany; the early 1980s. A terrorist gang bursts into a bank. "Hi guys, we're the robbers," says Rita Vogt, "We're nationalizing the economy." As they flee, Rita stops to give money to a street-person. These are not your average bank robbers. After a series of complications, these anti-capitalist revolutionaries are forced to disband, but Rita decides to take refuge in East Germany under a false identity, and this former socialist activist begins to encounter some of the drab and discontented reality of a Communist state. Volker Schlondorff (The Tin Drum) directs this striking political thriller set in the later years of the Cold War.

Customer Reviews:

"To my liberation from the class enemy!".......2005-12-17

Rita Vogt (Bibiana Beglau) is one of a group of West German terrorists who spring fellow terrorist, Andrea (Harald Schrott) from jail. Several people are shot during the jailbreak, and the group goes on the lam to Paris. While in Paris, Rita kills a policeman, and the terrorists are once again on the run--this time they slip into East Germany with the help of Stasi officer Erwin Hull (Martin Wuttke) who befriended Rita when she was recognized upon entering East Berlin before. Since the heat is on the group, Erwin makes an offer--the terrorists can accept a new life--with new identities in East Germany, or they can be flown out to Beirut. While everyone else elects Beirut, Rita decides to stay in East Germany.

Rita assumes a new identity in East Germany, and her adjustment to her environment is at the heart of "The Legend of Rita" from director Volker Schlondorff. The plot places Rita in some interesting situations. Her first job, for example, is in a factory where she befriends Tatjana (Nadja Uhl). Tatjana loathes East Germany, and would love to live in the West. She can't understand why Rita (now living under an assumed name) would give up Western freedoms and chose to live under Communist rule. In the meantime, Rita's former rebelliousness against the state has simply disappeared, and she's become a drone--speaking the party line and accepting whatever she's told to do. When Rita's new identity is threatened, she has little choice but to move on--leaving Tatjana and their budding lesbian affair.

The film fails to fulfill its promise, however, on several layers. Rita becomes a pawn for the Stasi--every move she makes is watched, and every conversation she has is taped. The film could have chosen to tackle some fascinating complex arguments--Rita's ideology, for example, and the challenge she faces in either rejecting her beliefs or sticking to them in the face of such nauseating, and threatening Orwellian bureaucracy. The plot shows Rita as mindlessly accepting what she is told to do--she doesn't question her freedoms, and by making Rita a drone, she is a far less interesting character. Instead, the film concentrates on Rita's two love interests. Also, if you are expecting to discover something about the Red Army Faction (RAF) here, keep looking. This is not a film about the RAF. There is an excellent book by Stefan Aust on the subject, but it's rare to find a copy in English. I recommend "How It All Began" By Bommi Baumann and "Televisionaries: The Red Army Faction Story 1963-1993" by Tom Vague. "The Legend of Rita" is worth watching for all fans of German film out there. Overall, the film's message argues strongly against aligning oneself with any political ideals. In German with English subtitles--displacedhuman

Fascinating Portrayal Of A German Terrorist .......2005-02-16

The Legend of Rita is generally an excellent film. Rita Vogt belongs to a small faction of terrorists who rob banks and commit other crimes "to support the revolution" in 1970s West Germany. From the get-go, the movie is fast-paced and exciting, with robberies and fights among the terrorists highlighted by quick scene changes. Rita, fleeing from the West German police, ultimately takes refuge in East Germany and is then given "legends," i.e., identities, to disguise her presence in that country. Although the character is completely fictional, Rita appears to resemble, both physically and otherwise, the Red Army Faction member Susanne Albrecht, who was given asylum and a new identity in East Germany (although Albrecht did not participate in a jailbreak.) Rita idolizes East Germany and is pleased to live in a "true socialist state" - a position that becomes untenable after the wall falls in 1989. The film strikes a note of truth as it contrasts East Germany as seen through Rita's rose-colored glasses and the country as it is seen by its own citizens. Rita's faith in, and enthusiasm for, socialism blinds her to the dreariness of East German life, which drives other characters in the film to drink.

Having said that, this portrayal of an RAF (although that group is not named) terrorist is far too sanitized. In the liner notes, the director refers to the real RAF as "so-called" terrorists. In the film, we are shown the apparently accidental murder of an attorney mid-jailbreak, and the murder of a policeman who is trying to catch Rita. Both of these murders can be rationalized (for those who wish to rationalize them) as crazed attempts to prevent arrest or continued imprisonment. In reality, the RAF deliberately, and with malice aforethought, murdered innocent people. Susanne Albrecht, for example, deliberately lured Jurgen Ponto, chairman of Dresdner Bank and Albrecht's godfather, to his death. An RAF faction killed Heinz Hillegart, the German economic attache to Sweden, and hung his corpse out the window. They kidnapped Peter Lorenz, the Christian Democrat candidate for mayor of West Berlin. The RAF joined other terrorists in the hijacking of an Air France jetliner to Entebbe. They separated the Jews from all the other passengers and threatened to kill them -- and would have, had an Israeli force led by Jonathan Netanyahu not rescued the hostages. In short, this was a bad, bad, bad gang, and - if indeed Schlondorff was portraying the RAF - it does no good to sugar-coat them.

While the film shows the Stasi helping the terrorists -- which did indeed happen -- it shows the Stasi men to be far too genial for my taste. The Stasi are portrayed simply as enthusiasts, who romanticize the revolutionary spirit of the terrorists and try to live vicariously through their exploits. In fact, as demonstrated elsewhere, the relationship between the Stasi and various terrorist groups was symbiotic: it was part of East German policy, determined at the highest level of the Politburo and with the encouragement of the Soviet Union, to arm and train them.

Despite these flaws, I highly recommend the film. It provides a very realistic portrayal of East Germany, right down to the prefabricated houses and the workplace collections for worldwide revolutionary movements. The spy agency's "Comrade General" is shown hunting, which was a favorite activity of Stasi commander Erich Mielke. Moreover, Bibliana Beglau is a terrific actress, and her portrayal of Rita is convincing. We are never completely sure why Rita joined the gang -- was it really love, or did her obvious sympathies lead her over the edge? Finally, the film raises some important issues about youthful mistakes from the perspective of middle age. Overall, the film is well worth watching.

Not much Germany during the Terrorism years.......2002-03-20

First, I need to correct the editor's information. The terrorism of this group at the beginning of the film is NOT in the early 1990s, but in the late 1970s. Rita and her group are operating in the late 1970s as a terrorist cell (similar to RAF, June 2 and Bader-Meinhoff Gang). The film then leads up to the time when the "wall" falls in Berlin (02 October 1989) and the fate of Rita who decided not to leave the GDR when offered the chance to go to Beirut (in the early 1980s).
This film deals mostly with the East German government's reaction to West German terrorists. Another excellent film (though not available on Amazon.com) is "Lost Honor of Katherina Blum" (also directed by Schloendorff).

Subtitles in the VHS version are not always accurate, but close enough. This review refers to the VHS edition.

Survival is just another word for nothing else to lose........2001-07-01

Early in this story, Rita tells another young, female terroist that she got in it because she loved one of the terroist leaders. As a result, she spends the rest of her life living under assumed names, never being allowed to sustain relationships, worrying about being "discovered," and certainly having no freedom to be herself.

Customer Reviews:

I Assume this is the Russian version of Ivanhoe, so here are some answers to other reviewers' questions.......2005-08-10

After reading all 14 other customer reviews of this Ivanhoe version, I am positive the film all of you are referring to is the Russian version of the great novel by Sir Walter Scott. It is often difficult for a western audience to understand why Russian filmmakers and Russian actors do what they do, and why a movie, particularly one based on a foreign (this case English) text and centered around the need for tolerance, courage, and acceptance leaves a lot of what was in the book out.

Question: Where is Issac and Rebecca?
Answer: Issac and Rebecca do appear for about 30 seconds during the jousting match right when Ivanhoe appears (you remember the old man and young lady who were shown translating the word Desdecado--the disinherited knight, to the rest of the crowd at the tournament)-well thats them.

The reason why Issac and Rebecca then mysteriously vanish is because it is a SOVIET film, and centering a film around Jewish characters, no matter how crucial, was simply unheard of. So the story was quietly twisted around to throw all significant references to the critical Issac and Rebecca conveniantly out.

The heart of this movie, as I and many other Russian people will tell you, is the soundtrack, with songs from the legendary Russian actor, singer, and poet Vladimir Visotsky. He is the only real reason, i think, that this movie is tolerable. But hey, you have your siege of Tolkelstone Castle, you have the good guys defeating Sir Brian and Font De Beuf, so enjoy and get some popcorn. As far as loyalty to the book, given the premise by which this movie was put together, it could not be anything but unfaithful

Not a good movie.......2004-12-27

I have no idea where this movie was filmed or what language the actors (all with English names!!) were speaking, but the overdubbing was absolutely atrocious. The voice-over actors hardly made an effort to sound enthusiastic, and the voices were terrible. (Would've been better with subtitles.) The movie also could have been trimmed by about a half hour of meaningless and repetitive scenes of shooting a message arrow, trotting through the hills, etc. And them maybe they could've included two of the more critical character's from Scott's novel: Rebecca and her father. Odd that these characters were dropped.)Overall, I thought this a terrible movie, and I am usually very forgiving of anything with swords or knights.

good movie but short.......2004-05-01

this movie was good but a little bit short we all liked it and gave it 4 out of 5 stars it could have been longer

great family film.......2004-05-01

we got this movie and kids and adults love it, great action, story and plot. Nothing in it that kids cant see. you will enjoy it!

voice-over nightmare.......2002-07-27

Like many young boys, I first read Sir Walter Scott's novel Ivanhoe when I was nine, over forty-five years ago. It was one of those novels that drew me into literature. In fact, it was the very first full-length work of fiction I ever read. Unfortunately, this video utterly butchers it. None of the characters emerge as real human beings. Ivanhoe, himself, is almost a non-presence! And while the background music is very nice, (you may even want to purchase Dave Uhrich's CDs) it is not appropriate to the the video at all (try to imagine Winterhill during a battle scene!). And Isaac and Rebecca?! What happened to them?! At least they remembered to put Rowena in it... though they forgot to give her any character at all.