Focus on R.W. FASSBINDER II: The American Soldier (1970)

Joss Whedon always gets smothered in storytelling kudos for his propensity to drop "Easter eggs" into series-spanning narratives. I, like many, have marvelled at his ability to build minor events into world-upending turning points years down the track. He's always worn the Easter egg crown.

But I had no idea he wasn't the inaugural Easter egg king.

Two decades before the "Buffyverse" was even conceived, Fassbinder dropped the Easter egg to end all Easter eggs. Half way through The American Solider, he lays out the entire plot of his 1974 masterwork, Ali, Fear Eats the Soul. Here I was expecting nothing more than a surreal conclusion to his "Gangster Trilogy" (which for the record, it is) and suddenly I'm listening to a spurned hotel maid sitting on the bed of her intended lover (hired German-American soldier/killer, Ricky) as he sexes another woman. Sitting there, front of frame, despairing, the maid recounts the love of Emmi and Ali, their unusual hook-up and their sad demise. End to end. Four years before it was to be released.

That's an Easter egg that produced a cinematic omelette for the world to feast on.

This is only a remarkable feature in retrospect, I guess. But it lifted The American Soldier considerably. Something about Fassbinder's very knowing weaving of a film-linking narrative when he already coheres his body of work so strongly, stylistically, thematically and with his cohort of re-purposed actors, makes the whole thing more beautiful.

At the time, of course, the only apparent links were to the director's previous two films, Love is Colder Than Death and Gods of the Plague, whose loose narrative this film concludes. Picking up with Jan George's crooked cop, The American Soldier sees Jan and two of his police buddies engaging the services of a Vietnam vet, Ricky, to knock off some undesirable enemies while they are ostensibly attempting his capture.

That's a loose summary though. Even more than the other two films in the trilogy, The American Soldier cares little for plotting. In its place, Fassbinder gets drunk on stylistic influence, taking gangster noir into ever more bizarre corners. It may not be cohesive but there are constantly scenes to marvel at. One minute we're doing lo-fi cabaret (back at the 'Lola Montes'), the next we're in some twisted Tennessee Williams gothic family horror. And that final scene, aflicker with projector lights, with our anti-hero slo-mo dying with his director is absolutely hypnotic.

I can't say that I'm not pleased that Fassbinder progressed beyond these black and white genre-slicked early works but they have certainly been something to behold.

Next up: The Niklashausen Journey...

This post contributes to Director Focus: Rainer Werner Fassbinder II.