Redundant and unnecessary.

Pretty Good

Overrated

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

"Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei" or "The Edukators" is a German 2-hour film from over 10 years ago written and directed by Hans Weingartner. The core cast here includes Daniel Brühl and Julia Jentsch (2 of Germany's biggest stars back then, Brühl still today) plus Stipe Erceg and Burghart Klaussner, who won a German Film Award for his supporting performance here. The movie itself also finished in second place behind " Alles auf Zucker!". It is somewhat a mix of "Funny Games" and "The Dreamers", so basically a kidnapping film that is not a thriller though and not about who lives and who dies, but about the protagonists' approach to life and society. And as much as this may apply to the young trio, for me, it was all about Klaussner's character here, a man at the age of 50 who sees himself in the idea of his captors before life took him into a completely different connection, one that went basically against everything that he believed in as a young man, the ideals of his youth.Another crucial aspect is the harmony in this film. Yes there are struggles when Erceg realizes the other two are in love, but at the end he can not only accept it because love is all that matters, but it also won't severely damage his friendship, especially to Brühl's character. And still, even if this film can not be called a thriller at any point, it is still a fairly tense watch. The scenes during which they break into the houses are pretty thrilling to watch and the moment we see Klaußner's character appear and catch them in the act is one of the best of the entire film. Also the scenes in the countryside with the characters' interactions were captivating to watch.Finally, you cannot really do anything wrong with the inclusion of "Hallelujah", even if the version used in here does not come from the master himself, Leonard Cohen. This was a truly nice way to end the film. I must say as strong as the direction here is, the heart and soul of the film is (except Klaussner's performance) the script. The comments about life happening and slowly turning you into somebody else in order to be able to care for a family for example was something that really stays in the mind. The film runs a couple minutes longer than 2 hours, so pretty long, but I must say it never dragged at all and I personally always like it when the cast of a film is very small, very essential and all the main characters are elaborated on properly. The only negative note I can think of is that the only one from the trio who still gives convincing performances in my opinion is Klaussner, which is really sad as the 3 young actors certainly looked very promising here. Brühl occasionally has a pretty solid performance like "Rush", but as a whole he basically always plays the same character. Back to this film here, though, I highly recommend watching it. Interesting political messages and a wonderful character study. Don't miss out.

As this film opens we see a family returning to their large and obviously expensive house; something is wrong though; all their possessions have been rearranged; nothing has been stolen though and a note has been left which states 'the days of plenty are over'; clearly whoever broke wanted to make a statement. We soon learn that the people who did it were two young radicals named Jan and Peter. Peter's girlfriend Jule knows nothing about these events until she tells Jan how she is almost €100,000 in debt because she crashed into a businessman's Mercedes while uninsured; Jan then tells her what he and Peter get up to. They are not far from where the businessman lives so Jule suggests they go and look at his house; when there is nobody home she suggests he should be the next victim and they do it there and then; rearranging items and even throwing a couch in the pool... Jule thinks it was great fun... until she realises she dropped her phone there! The two of them return but while they are searching Herr Hardenberg, the businessman, returns. Not knowing what to do they call Peter and the three of them kidnap Hardenberg and head to a remote alpine cottage. Here they discuss what they should do with Hardenberg; they also learn that he wasn't always a wealthy capitalist; once he was a radical just like them... but does that mean they can trust him when he says he won't report them to the police?When I started watching this film I wasn't sure what to expect; I knew it involved a kidnapping but had no idea how it would end; shortly after they got to their scenic hideaway I had a very good idea how it would all end... but it didn't! While the politics does seem rather heavy handed at times, we are clearly meant to sympathise with the trio, it doesn't spoil the film and much of the politics of the trio can be put down to their youthful naïveté. As well as looking at the morality of capitalism there is some sexual politics too as Hardenberg talks of his days of free love in the sixties but when he lets on that he knows Jule is involved with Jan it becomes clear that Peter is not happy with what he learns. While I don't speak German I thought the actors did a fine job keeping their characters believable in an extreme situation.

While the story kept my interest all throughout the movie, it still left a bitter taste in my mouth. The socialist crap those three youngsters were babbling all along was annoying. Unfortunately, the director is obviously on their side, because the only character who could have countered their opinions with facts and real experience was their kidnapping victim. But that poor fella just stays nice and is kind to them, for reasons not obvious enough to me (clearly he didn't want to get hurt, but once they are in nature's paradise, all three turn out to be quite tame). The victim never criticizes their childish and naive arguments, even though he was a guy who obviously was a "Been there, done that" (Generation 69, as people of his age are called when they were part of the Hippie and Protester Generation in Germany). It is true on the other hand that many people let go of their ideals along the way, and that adults settle all to quickly for the easy way. So the interaction during the kidnapping is quite intriguing. Spoiler coming: However, their conversations lead to nowhere, because not one character develops along the way, nobody shows a least a slight improvement. Or as the three characters state it delicately on a piece of paper: Some people never change. Sadly enough, Weingärtner didn't notice that the same accounts for his story telling and its lack of character development.

My class and i studied this film as our A-level focus film for our exam and we all loved it. all the girls thought the guys were really hot and the story line was amazing. we decided to read some reviews before posting our own and by the looks of things most people feel the same way as we do!this has been a very interesting film to study, however the ending shouldn't of been changed for us English viewers. we have come away form the Edukators with completely different morals then the rest of the world. can't wait to see what the exam question will ask about this film but believe me i won't be able to stop writing!