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Why Does Herr R. Run Amok?

1970 · 1h 24m · Not Rated Drama
Directed by Rainer Werner Fassbinder , Michael Fengler

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Overview

Technical draftsman Herr R. is a dependable guy. He gets along with his colleagues although his boss wants him to go beyond technical cleanliness to problem solving. He's a dutiful husband; his wife's a social climber and pressures him to seek a promotion, but they also share sweet moments. He's a caring father, helping his son with homework. His parents visit; his mother criticizes his wife. Old schoolmates drop by, as do neighbours. Some comment on his wife's expensive tastes. His promotion may be a long shot, especially after he gives a dull and tipsy toast at an office dinner. But why would Herr R. run amok?

Director and cast

Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Top critics, in their words

All reviews
92%
Tomatometer
Fresh

Fassbinder and Fengler opt to impress upon us a sense of almost unbearable tedium, a strategy so effective that, when drama arrives in the film's closing minutes, the eruption of violence feels like a kind of relief.

Calum Marsh, Village Voice
Fresh

With a sardonic, scalpel-like technique, Rainer Werner Fassbinder and his co-director, Michael Fengler, calmly and gleefully flay the West German version of the American dream.

Richard Brody, New Yorker
Fresh

A revealing demonstration of how the style of a Fassbinder film becomes its subject.

Vincent Canby, New York Times
Fresh

Fassbinder navigates carefully between mockery and empathy, heightening the interior drama with his superior staging.

Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

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