source: Deadlock

Deadlock

I only wanted to check this so to hear how the music of "The" Can had been used and was surprised to see that the answer was: very effectively .... never really thought of Can's tunes as filmic despite the album Soundtracks but yes and very good here The film is mostly to me interesting because of the landscapes we are informed The Negev in Israel sometime after the 6-day War; there is great use of a broken-handed wooden advertising board and many other cool touches photographic and landscape-driven The actual tale is duller than dishwater the acting fairly good but not memorable All in all would rate it a five or a six.

Better than it has any right to be. It's an odd film, is 'Deadlock'. It drags its heels pretty much from start-to-finish and can feel aimless at times, though to be fair it certainly does live up to its title. The performances from Mario Adorf, Anthony Dawson and Marquard Bohm are solid and are the main reason as to why I'm rating this as I am. The whole thing looks neat for 1970, too. I can kinda see why others like this more than I do, but for me it falls short to what it was seemingly attempting to do. Location is cool, cover (not the current IMDb one) is ace, (much praised?) soundtrack is meh. Still, I'd class it as 'good' - albeit marginally so.

In the immensity of the desert, three men dispute a suitcase full of money. A German western spaghetti, in the form of homage to one of the greatest classics in cinema (The Good, The Bad and The Ugly). It lacks the mystique and mood of the film that inspires it, but doesn't become a cheap copy, has its own personality and that's good. It's interesting for fans of the genre, and can even be considered superior to some american westerns, when we talk about the score and the way it plays an important role in the story itself. The cinematography is also pretty good, to be honest. It's dark, with a lack of joy or hope, showing that excessive ambition and selfishness lead the human being to commit the most perverse acts.

The movie is so slow paced that you may not like how it evolves. It also only has a few characters and a very contained location setting. But if you buy into it and do not mind that it tends to get violent, tends to have weird characters to say the least and sounds like it has been dubbed (the english allegedly original audio) - then you will have a movie that will have your attention from start to finish. I really dug the weirdness of it, the setting, the character quirks and how it went on with the intertacting and backstabbing. Certain things are quite predictable - which may be because I've seen quite a few movies and because they rely on cliches too. Still a low budget sort of western, that might be able to tickle you in all the right places. Be aware of what this is and how its pace is and mood are ... and decide for yourself

A strange, small scale little movie, a showdown between three main characters and other assorted oddballs, as everyone falls out following a heist. Shades of RESERVOIR DOGS here, then, and it does have plenty going for it aside from the scant plotting. It's a German movie shot out in the Israel desert somewhere, with a great sense of the visual: all rusted machinery and ghost town chic. The cast happens to be very good, even with some dubbing; Mario Adorf delivers another great sleazy turn that reminded me of his roles in the Fernando di Leo crime classics, and '50s veteran Anthony Dawson (DIAL M FOR MURDER) is a welcome presence too. No classic, and very obscure, this is still worth tracking down for genre fans.

"Deadlock" came as something of a surprise as I only bothered to hunt down a copy because of the inclusion of Can on the soundtrack. While Can's contributions are quite notable -- their music works perfectly with the stark imagery -- the film itself holds up quite well on its own. Shot almost entirely in the desert, the filmmakers make use of the threadbare environment and utilize it to heighten the sense of isolation and persecution which propel the characters of the film. Slightly overlong at 92 minutes, "Deadlock" is nevertheless well worth investigating.