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The German Doctor

Play trailer Poster for The German Doctor PG-13 2013 1h 33m Mystery & Thriller Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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75% Tomatometer 63 Reviews 63% Popcornmeter 2,500+ Ratings
An Argentine family unknowingly lives with Josef Mengele, and a young woman falls in love with him.
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The German Doctor

The German Doctor

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Critics Consensus

The German Doctor applies a refreshing level of restraint to its intriguing premise, and boasts solid performances from a talented cast.

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Critics Reviews

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Bill Stamets Chicago Sun-Times Puenzo's initial premise is more promising, though, than her sensational tone. Rated: 2.5/4 Aug 15, 2014 Full Review Ben Sachs Chicago Reader Quietly unnerving. Aug 14, 2014 Full Review Jonathan Romney Observer (UK) Wakolda lies somewhere between a suspense thriller and a delicately atmospheric art film, but is properly effective as neither ... Rated: 2/5 Aug 10, 2014 Full Review Lisa Wright NME (New Musical Express) ...gruesome nature is drawn out at a gradual, subtle pace and the result is more glacial thriller than shield-your-eyes horror... Rated: 3.5/5 Jun 16, 2021 Full Review Julian Lytle Punch Drunk Critics Overall this film is really solid and good. It's worth seeing especially if you're looking for something to see that isn't all loud, CGI-heavy, and full of cartoon characters. The German Doctor is really good, just not great. Rated: 3.5/5 Jan 11, 2020 Full Review Nicholas Bell IONCINEMA.com A simple and straightforward tale that manages to build a sinister simmer. Aug 30, 2019 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Mary M Gripping despite it being obvious who the German doctor was. I don't know if this story was true or not, but either way, watching the doctor manipulate people to his ends was chillingly fascinating. Scenery was gorgeous. Now I would like to find out more about the postwar Nazi presence in Argentina. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 12/19/23 Full Review Audience Member Una película que está muy bien dirigida y tiene una trama sólida. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/16/23 Full Review Audience Member A very interesting take on Mengele although it seems to consider him as a compassionate, nice guy - which surely cannot be right. A great film though. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review Audience Member The beautiful scenery of Patagonia is captured in this film. The storyline is very interesting without diluting the horror of the Second World War which is left out. It concentrates on the present [1960] and Mengelaâ(TM)s ability to live a relatively good life albeit wanted as a war criminal. Very atmospheric drama well acted and directed with a convincing storyline and period setting. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/19/23 Full Review Frances H This is a film of many layers with a true portrait of a monster who is inhuman--like the dolls that the father in the story makes, he is without a heart, and so feels nothing. Unlike the monster in the horror film the children watch, his monstrosity is not seen outwardly, but comes from a lack of conscience. Like Dr. Frankenstein, his goal is perfection, but like the Goya print, The Dream of Reason Produces Monsters. As in the book Frankenstein (how ironic that the name seems Jewish) the creation looks perfect without life, like the dolls, but when they live, the unnatural force that gave them life makes others shun them. The mother and father who seem good parents ultimately fail their children, the mother from the desire that her children be perfect, be like other children without difference. The German Doctor also trades on the trust that patients have in doctors and science to do what is best for the patient, when the scientist is coldly concerned only with his experiments. The father gives in to his dream and so accepts the doctor's money, but also accepts the idea that his dolls (who emerge from ovens in pieces of body parts) be perfect in their sameness (just as Menegle is trying to do to humans) and "spotless," instead of individually created as he had done before. Their hearts that beat are just clockwork machines that feel nothing and can not make the perfect dolls alive. I remember when Eichmann was caught and his trial in Israel, where he was kept separated from normal humans in a bullet-proof glass witness box, like Snow White's coffin (which was prophetic of his coming death, a foregone conclusion) standing upright, or like someone in quarantine like the disease of Nazism that he was. What a pity they were unable to put Mengele into a similar death trap! He certainly deserved it! Because he was a doctor and had taken a Hippocratic oath to "Do no harm" perhaps he deserved it even more!, Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/26/19 Full Review Audience Member Slightly insubstantial but not unwatchable imagining of post war episode in Mengele's life which rather ends in bathos. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/27/23 Full Review Read all reviews
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Cast & Crew

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Movie Info

Synopsis An Argentine family unknowingly lives with Josef Mengele, and a young woman falls in love with him.
Director
Lucía Puenzo
Producer
Lucía Puenzo, Luis Puenzo
Screenwriter
Lucía Puenzo, Lucía Puenzo
Production Co
The Stan Jakubowicz Co., Hummelfilm, Historias Cinematograficas Cinemania, Wanda Visión S.A., Pyramide Productions, Moviecity
Rating
PG-13 (Thematic Material|Brief Nudity)
Genre
Mystery & Thriller, Drama
Original Language
Spanish
Release Date (Streaming)
Dec 1, 2015
Box Office (Gross USA)
$414.9K
Runtime
1h 33m
Aspect Ratio
Scope (2.35:1)
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