Matrixiole Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Brendon Jones It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Kirandeep Yoder The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

Jakoba True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de) "Götter der Pest" is a West German 90-minute movie from 1970, so this one is already over 45 years old. It is from the earlier days of filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder as he was in his mid-20s as he shot this one. There are three factors that are pretty frequent in his early works, namely the fact that this is still in black-and-white and also the runtime staying under 90 minutes. His works got longer as he grew older. And last but not least, crime-themed films were something he also did primarily in the first 5 years of his filmmaking career. This is one of these. There is lots of murder in here. A man leaves prison and as the film continues we find out about his relationship with his brother, with women and with an old friend who turns out pretty lusty. The latter is played by Günther Kaufmann, a regular in Fassbinder's films. But also lead actor Harry Baer and Hanna Schygulla (especially she) worked with Fassbinder on several occasions. Also in here are Jan George (brother of the late Götz), Ingrid Caven (Fassbinder's wife) and Margarethe von Trotta during her acting days and quite a while before she solely focused on shooting films herself. As a whole, I cannot say there were too many memorable or good moments in this film. To me it seemed as if Fassbinder was still a while back from his best years when he made the films I like the most from him. So I am not too surprised "Gods of the Plague" did not receive as much awards attention as some other works by RMF. My verdict is negative too. Watch something else instead.

benign_hypocrite Götter Der Pest, directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder is set in Munich, Germany. The main character Franz Walsch is a former prisoner played by Harry Baer. The setting is really dark and it reminds of film-noir but the plot is really realistic and I have to say anti-heroic. Franz doesn't have dreams, he seems that he doesn't want anything from his live. He is like a bored nihilist, a stoic human very different from the other characters of the film. The film centers on this character and his life. Franz had the chance to create a new life, he has every woman he wants, friends and his mother is still alone. But this affection seems to be drowned in hypocrisy of the modern society. Franz understands this and he chooses to continue a life of crime. Hanna Schygulla who plays Johanna is like the femme fatale of the story and she leads Franz to his death even if she loves him. Margarethe seems more loyal to Franz even if she is still lingered to society and her job. The male friends of Franz such as Gorilla are the only ones who can understand him. We have to point that Gorilla dies with him. Götter Der Pest is a punch to our society. Even if it is full of defects. The movie is very dark and at sometimes boring, the dialogs seem rather stodgy and arid. I think that Fassbinder shows his class here, because without a writing a great scenario he managed to do a nice movie which is worth of seeing even if it's not one of his bests. I recommend this movie to all of you who like artistic cinema and film-noir.

goblinhairedguy If only Bayer or Pfizer could bottle this movie for insomniacs, they'd make an even bigger fortune than they do now. Fassbinder proved he could fashion unique cinematic art out of a bunch of people standing around excoriating each other in several of his early pictures, but here the internal tensions never mount and the tropes don't connect. Some claim it to be a homage to film noir, and certainly there is alienation, paranoia and betrayal in spades, as well as iconic visual references to classics like Laura and Double Indemnity. But the moody lighting and framing in his excellent "The American Soldier" are much closer to the noir stylings of Alton and Planer than the arid non-style here. However, the greatest offense of the film is the inclusion of a seemingly endless, static sequence featuring the playing of a phonograph record of a gimmicky children's tune about an oddball menagerie -- I guarantee you that this nauseating little ditty will echo in your skull for days. At the same time, the subtitlers are owed a great deal of credit for their incisively clever translation of the absurd rhyming couplets into (very British) English.

cheese_cake the movie seems to be random events and unconnected characters, but when i watched it the second time everything fell in place. the main character has just got out of jail (this is not explicit, but he walks by a long wall which seems to be circular and confining...see now that's art/clever)...so he gets out of jail and starts contacting people in his life, including girlfriend, brother, brothers abused wife, friends named gorilla and joe, etc...the lead actor did a wonderfull job of expressing the film's many ideologies, initially he seems expressionless but later you understand why he is the way he is...some themes are the trauma of jail (minimal actually), the petty crook mentality, girls and lovers and the futility of getting a job when one's only goal is to live, eat and love. The photography is high contrast black and white. Either they were copying old time russian directors or because they are from theatre they liked the lightning scheme, but i think they just wanted to jar the viewer's perspective and it works, never seen a movie with this type of photography. Highly recommended for the serious movie viewer. geocities.com/free_love98