The Captain

Filmmaker Robert Schwentke’s darkly satirical and audacious film set on Germany’s western front in the final weeks of World War II begins with Willi Herold (Max Hubacher), a young private gone AWOL, pursued by his erstwhile Nazi comrades. Willi comes upon an abandoned car with a captain’s uniform inside that he dons. Before long others begin to treat Willi as an officer, and he pretends that Hitler has entrusted him with a wide-ranging mission to investigate the situation behind the lines and deal with any problems. Willi recruits an impromptu squad of underlings and bluffs his way into an internment camp for German deserters, where he turns into a sadist, ordering the summary execution of prisoners. And his bloodlust continues even after the camp is bombed, as he and his men go to a nearby town and harass the locals. Based on a true story, The Captain deliberately reveals nothing of Herold’s past; he is presented simply as a fresh-faced blank slate transformed by a Nazi uniform that turns him into a monster and compels others to obey him. Schwentke brings that idea into the present day in a postscript showing Hubacher and his fellow actors, dressed in Nazi garb, accosting present-day Germans in the street. While that coda feels awkward, the film overall trenchantly reaffirms the notion of collective German guilt for the horrors of the Nazi era. Recommended. [Note: Blu-ray extras include audio commentary by director Richard Schwentke, a filmmaker Q&A from the Chicago premiere (32 min.), storyboard-to-film comparisons (30 min.), cast and crew interviews (27 min.), a “Recomposed” soundtrack segment (3 min.), and a deleted scene (3 min.). Bottom line: a fine extras package for this dark satire.] (F. Swietek)