1976 · satire · comedy · political
Strongman Ferdinand
Directed by Alexander Kluge1h 31m1976
The clownish security chief of a West German business is obsessed with protecting his factory from fancied and real breaches, especially from groups such as The Red Army Faction. Ferdinand's paranoia and methods can't be contained by his company. The sympathetically-drawn Ferdinand's ludicrous actions recall those of the cynical, disastrous axis between fascism and big business in 1930's Europe: satire of the rise of private security.
Our read: Strongman Ferdinand (1976) reads as a neutral, steady, inventive satire · comedy · political entry — measured in intensity, mid-stakes in scope, cold in temperature, ambivalent in outlook, with a strong directorial signature.
Neutral, steady, measured satire / comedy, inventive in texture. Ambivalent, mid-stakes, cold.
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