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6 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :- A very gripping tale, 20 April 2004 Author: illegal_alien51
*** This comment may contain spoilers ***
*Spoilers* This is an in depth historic view (acuratly sticking to the known facts, but seemingly acuratly guessing the rest) on the true story of Kaspar Hauser who elegedly was the son of a very influencial family (the house of Baden?) in southern Germany during late 18th century.As a newly born he was switched for another baby and incarcerated until his teens when he was released and sent (on his own) to the nearest city. Not able to say more than one sentance he had to learn by heart and not having had any social contact with anybody he is understandingly disorientated and basically retarded. A scolar takes care of him, tries to teach him language and about the world. Kaspar slowly grows into a fragile, naive human being. He attracts a lot of attention, due to his very strange background. He becomes so famous that in the end he befriends a lord who continues to take care of him but also seems to use him to some extent for his own amusement... at least it seems to me like that. Things go from bad to worse, the people trying to eliminate him in order to take over his families power and status catch up with him.As I said, a very gripping tale. Masterfully played by the main actor. He absolutly becomes the fragile Kaspar and plays him with a devotion as if he really was him! The story itself is very dramatic but also provides some laughs, mainly I guess because it is just charming to see the young man Kaspar asking questions in a way a 4 year old would. But that is Kaspars nature, a very kind and simple nature. While watching him grow up in the outer world you always fear for his safety, for his well being and hope that he is not harmed by anyone in any way, may it even be by harsh words.The viewer gets sucked in and gets stuck in this historic must see, with great German actors, excellent costumes, props, scenary and language. If you can, watch it with english subtitles so that the original actors brillinat efforts are not in vain.Clear 10/10
3 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :- Sumptuous production, 25 May 2007 Author: Timothy Ault from United States
I must disagree with Alice Liddel (which by the way should be spelt Liddell). The story of Kaspar Hauser is a well known historical fact and Sehr's film presents one of the mooted explanations for the appearance and origin of the 'wildboy' Kaspar Hauser, a youth who had lost almost entirely the ability to speak or write due to more than a decade of mistreatment. Sehr's sumptuous production covers not only the experiences of Hauser, but the courtly intrigues surrounding his incarceration and attempted murder and is cast in the light of tensions between the States of Bavaria and Baden. The acting is superb, lighting and cinematography are exquisite.The previous reviewer's (Alice Liddel) comments in relation to the Nazi fascism and the 'cover-up' of Germany's past are frankly ludicrous.
11 out of 33 people found the following comment useful :- Herzog sleeps easily., 12 February 2001 Author: Alice Liddel (-darragh@excite.com) from dublin, ireland
Despite its title, this film isn't really about Kaspar Hauser. Like the underground prison into which he is thrown for years, kaspar is a black hole into which his story is sucked. The film is really about two connected themes, both reflecting German anxieties about its past. kaspar's treatment exposes the Enlightenment society that destroys him, just as his seemingly primitive characteristics (grunting etc.) undermine its insistence on artificiality, manners and wit.Secondly, a film set in Nuremberg, with a hero twice wrenched from his home and incarcerated, and who has his diary burnt, is clearly 'explaining' a more notorious past, that of the Nazis, showing how Germany would rather couch uncomfortable history in vague mythology.A comparison between this tricksy, paranoid, exhausting film, and Herzog's restrained enigmatic version of the same story would be instructive. The latter is a masterpiece.
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