The Golden Glove (2019)

When you read the book I think the movie will please you very much. You know about the plot, about the cruel details and Fritz Honka himself. I loved the cineastic elements, the use of music was incredibly good for example, every actor and every actress fit their character very well. The scene in which Fritz has a drink with Helga is heartbreaking, many scenes made me laugh and many more had me hold my breath. Yes, it was disgusting to watch sometimes. But this is the whole point of the movie, the book, and in the end of the real story of Fritz Honka.

Fmovies: This is a grotesque interpretation of a novel apparently inspired by a real-life 1970s serial killer. The film was hated by most critics, particularly in its festival debut, because it was considered too repellent and sensational. Conversely, I suspect mainstream horror fans won't like it because it's not crafted like a suspense film-the kills are presented in a depressing, banal rather than "exciting" way.

It's a tough movie to watch, but for reasons that I think are strengths: You rarely see this kind of bleak underside of life depicted accurately in movies. Even films like "Barfly" that purport to also be about alcoholic Skid Row types generally cast the most glamorous actors possible, and make their characters' poverty, self-destruction etc. look sort of "quirky" and "colorful." Here, even the (very few) attractive characters are presented in the worst 70s clothes and hairstyles (with terrible period German pop music in the background), while most of the figures here are old, ugly and conspicuously unhealthy. (It's kind of amazing afterward to look up the cast on IMBD afterward, and see all their nice, clean publicity photos-you'd swear they emptied out a homeless shelter for many of the roles, rather than using professional actors with long resumes.)

It's an incredibly bleak milieu that is its own answer to the question of why police didn't track down this killer sooner-he, and his victims (also drunks and/or prostitutes), were all people that German society had long ago given up on. No one cared about them, or whether they went missing.

You can fault the film for giving very limited "insight" into the protagonist or why he murdered. But he's clearly just a mentally deficient person just functional enough to support himself, so he did not fall into the hands of authorities that might have diagnosed and treated his considerable problems. The lead's performance is so convincingly repellent that I was stunned to see that he's actually a very handsome, young actor-here his age is indeterminate, and his physical acting/makeup is subtle enough that you really think you're watching a somewhat disabled and disfigured person rather than a clever performer's approximation of one.

Anyway, it's a thoroughly unpleasant movie whose characters are profane in the dumbest and crudest ways, whose sexual acts (when they can perform at all) are depicted with nasty vividness, who live in squalor and die in filth. Which, frankly, is probably a pretty accurate depiction of most serial killers' lives and activities. If watching that reality isn't exactly "entertaining," it's nonetheless pretty compelling if you can take it. I wouldn't want to watch a movie with this brutally misanthropic a vision like this very often, but once in a while, it acts as a sort of palate cleanser to remind you that most violence in real life is ugly and pathetic, not an exciting thrill ride.

Of course this is not the movie you invite your girlfriend to. 1970s Hamburg Reeperbahn was an ugly place with a lot of broken people... and this is what Fatih Akin reproduced... broken people on every level... the murder scenes are very hard and even if the movie has some kind of tragic comedy moments your laugher will stay in your throat ... Definately not for the faint of heart ... it is not a funny Akin Movie ... maybe it is also not a horror movie, but what he can reproduce is the uglyness and helpless life these people have... You really feel sorry for everyone of them .... Highly recommended if you have the stomach ...

The Golden Glove fmovies. This movie contains more detail and content than its average watcher will notice. I think the main goal of the movie is to broadcast the suffered soul of Germany after the second World War. Fatih Akin executed every detail very carefully in order to admit to its goal. Think about the music, chosen characters, all typical German behaviours, the drinks, the clothes, the haircuts and even the unobtrusive posters in backgrounds of scenes. Really great job over there! If you have the chance to compare the screen set with the original location you will definitly get suprised how well-executed this make-over is. I couldn't recognize any make-up on the face of the actor playing the lead role of Fritz Honka. Credits to the make-up team!

Back to the story.. Don't forget about the rising number of prostitution work during the war days. The soldiers coming over across Europe had to have some fun though. Most of those ladies ended up in a bad environments after the end of the war. Its basically a story about them as well. If you watch carefully you will see a lot of signs, traces, tattoos and srachtes of life on their skins. Akin tried to make us understand that those ladies had seen something in their past and they are probably not scared of anything what can damage them anymore.

Fritz Honka is a lonely man who hunts on those kind of woman. Probably because of his lack of socialability.

We can definitly say that this is one of the best German movies ever. Try to watch it with the right glasses on and understand the content of the movie before starting judging about the rough scenes.

Fatih Akin, keep going!

Just came back from the local cinema after seeing the German movie called The Golden Glove (Der Goldene Handschuh), probably my favorite 2019 movie so far, and felt like coming here to recommend it to all of you who likes violent and/or serial killer movies.

A couple hours after an amazing cinematic experience, I can say that the The Golden Glove is also one of my favorite serial killer movies ever. Being Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer my favorite number one.

The Golden Glove tells the real story of the serial killer Fritz Honka that used to live in Hamburg (Germany) during the 70s and killed four women that he met at a local pub called Der Goldene Handschuh (or The Golden Glove). Funny thing is that this place still exists.

Directed by Fatih Akin, The Golden Glove is now one more movie on my terror/thriller watchlist that made me feel dirty while I was watching it, in the same way as Jim Van Bebber's Roadkill and Vidal Raski's The Sinful Dwarf.

Both the characters and the locations where the plot is developed look nasty, unclean and filth. The same can be said about most characters's clothes and looks. I don't remember of seeing such hardcore alcoholism in a recent film. I guess the drug addicts from Lucifer Valentine's Black Metal Veins can't top the alcoholics of this film. Billy Wilder's The Lost Weekend came to my mind during the binge drinking scenes.

The kills are very well shot, performed, violent and disturbing. But curiously, Fritz Honka's face and voice look and sound uglier than any of the tumultuoes moments depicted on the film.

Actor Jonas Dassler plays Honka with heavy makeup and does a great job. Actually, all the cast have difficult scenes and characters to play and they all end up looking like real ordinary drunk and vicious people being savages and hotheaded. Kudos to everyone, from the cast to the casting director, and also to the director Fatih Akin who all made an excellent job.

The script is flawless and Fatih Akin did a master work of telling a very gruesome story that got an 18 rating in Germany, according to Wikipedia. Same as in Brazil.

If any of you have the chance of seeing it, just go see it. It is that great.

During the credits, they show(ed) pictures of Fritz Honka's attic, some of his weapons, bodies that he hid, and personal belongings of his victims.

Very well produced, but not for the mainstream public/audience. Those are/were my best 115 minutes spent in 2019, so far.

Well I never heard of Fatih Akin before but if all his movies are like this one then I will for sure watch others from him. Der Goldene Handschuh (The Golden Glove) is harsh and brutal but most important a perfect reenactment of the vile things the German serial Killer Fritz Honka commited. Also a great job from Jonas Dassler with his character of Honka. And big credits to the make-up artists that transformed all the characters into what they looked like. The whole cast acted well and gave this movie the perfect depressing state they're in. The scenes look like they are shot in the filthiest places of Sankt Pauli in Hamburg. Some scenes, well almost all of them, are really brutal, and that's how it should be when you make a movie about a serial killer. Honka was a deranged bully and sadist. To me The Golden Glove is one of the better movies about an existing serial killer. Not for everybody, but certainly well made.