Der Tanz mit dem Teufel - Die Entführung des Richard Oetker (2001) Online

Kidnapped on the 14th of December 1976 and released after 21 millions of German mark was delivered as ransom money, Richard Oetker became one of Germany's most famous kidnappees. More than twenty years passed until the case could be completely closed.

This production for German TV, 'Der Tanz mit dem Teufel' (Dance with the devil), succeeds both in showing the mere events and giving an impression of the late 1970's when Germany was facing a series of kidnappings unknown so far, some related to the RAF. The movie is based on reports of officers in charge and on Oetker's memory, who still suffers from the after-effects of his captivity. Oetker's suffering is clearly depicted but never used to demand the audience's pity.

Sebastian Koch as Oetker, Tobias Moretti as Georg Kufbach and Christoph Waltz as Dieter Cilov - all on top of my list of German and Austrian actors - do a wonderful job. However, if you like to watch the movie in the German original version - in classes for example - subtitles are recommended, as the pronunciation is quite genuine: fast and slurred.

"Der Tanz mit dem Teufel - Die Entführung des Richard Oetker" (Dance with the Devil - The Abduction of Richard Oetker) is a German 2-part mini-series from 2001 (came out shortly after the terrorist attacks) and a definite contender for best career effort for both writer Berg as well as director Keglevic. These two have worked on many other projects even, some good, some not so good, so this means quite something. It's basically a two part mini-series and runs for about 3 hours as a whole and when I mention the names of Moretti and Waltz, maybe Austria's finest for a while now together with Hader, (and Koch), then you can already imagine that this is really a well-acted film we have here. It is about the abduction of a member from a really famous and successful family company and the guy who abducted him tries all he can to get away without punishment or at least with the ransom. He's played by Waltz. The actual abduction started and ended far more quickly than I expected given the running time, but I guess they also did not want to burden the audiences for that long with the violent scenes included here.

Instead, the film is much more about the ways in which the crime gets investigated and how they try to find the money decades later still. Moretti's character and his Ahab-like obsession with letting Waltz character not get away with anything is at the center of i all, even much more also than the title character. This is where I can accept the film as fictionalized, but there were moments when I hoped for references to the real events instead of a feel-good ending, for example in real life if I am correct, the money was never found. So why not have the film end on a high note that the cop can stop his obsession and instead focus on a healthy family life with the nurse character he loves. This honestly would have added some memorability and spice to the otherwise relatively forgettable romance plot. But that's just my opinion though and the ways in which they handled everything in here was done competently and what I criticize here is just what could have been done to turn a good film into a great film. There are some great moments in here for sure when I was tempted to give an even higher rating and it is nice for this duration without a doubt that the film never drags for a bit. There are many reasons to see it and I give it a thumbs-up of course. If you like films about crimes that really did happen, then this is almost a must-see. Speaking of crimes, the one thing this is is really criminally underseen and it's also not too easy to get a hand on it sadly. If you do, then don't even think of missing out. It's a stellar two-part movie for the most part.