"Götter der Pest" is a West German 90-minute movie from 1970, so this one is already over 45 years old. It is from the earlier days of filmmaker Rainer Werner Fassbinder as he was in his mid-20s as he shot this one. There are three factors that are pretty frequent in his early works, namely the fact that this is still in black-and-white and also the runtime staying under 90 minutes. His works got longer as he grew older. And last but not least, crime-themed films were something he also did primarily in the first 5 years of his filmmaking career. This is one of these. There is lots of murder in here. A man leaves prison and as the film continues we find out about his relationship with his brother, with women and with an old friend who turns out pretty lusty. The latter is played by Günther Kaufmann, a regular in Fassbinder's films. But also lead actor Harry Baer and Hanna Schygulla (especially she) worked with Fassbinder on several occasions. Also in here are Jan George (brother of the late Götz), Ingrid Caven (Fassbinder's wife) and Margarethe von Trotta during her acting days and quite a while before she solely focused on shooting films herself. As a whole, I cannot say there were too many memorable or good moments in this film. To me it seemed as if Fassbinder was still a while back from his best years when he made the films I like the most from him. So I am not too surprised "Gods of the Plague" did not receive as much awards attention as some other works by RMF. My verdict is negative too. Watch something else instead.
Review of Gods of the Plague
