Un hold-up sans précédent

If only police, politicians and press had known what they were doing back then - 1988 when this incident happened - as well as director Kilian Riedhoff in fact knows his job! Nothing like this would have happened! Smart and sharp edged his work is keeping the spectator in the sniper position, always observing the hostage-taker through a virtual telescope never looking away, constantly ready to fire. A brillant thriller/drama/document about a sad and disturbing true story.

The film is certainly one of the better German productions, and almost all the other reviews here are right about its positive aspects. It's shot brilliantly and the 80's production design is spot on. Sascha Alexander Gersak as Hans-Jürgen Rösner is simply incredible. Otherwise I never completely agree with most of my fellow Germans about good acting; personally I think in many cases there is a fakeness, something too staged about the way many German star actors speak. But that may be a matter of taste and it's not my point. My grievance is about the ending. Maybe I have seen some cut home entertainment version and the TV version was longer, but the decision to not continue telling the story in the same denseness than the first 85 minutes of the film and simply rushing to the end feels like a cheat. Yes, I already know the director's and producer's explanation: Everybody knows what horrible end the crisis took, everybody has seen the images of this first media-covered (in Germany) hostage crisis, so why repeat them here? Very simple: Because A) not everyone has seen the images and B) as many, many other re-tellings of real life happenings have shown, there is an indisputable fascination to seeing familiar images from a different angle never before seen. The series 'Chernobyl' comes to mind. Don't get me wrong: I don't need to see the hostages getting shot, but watching this rushed ending after sitting through nail-bitingly thrilling 85 minutes left me hollow. I also found the decision astounding: Why did they shoot all those scenes and then only use them in such a compendious way? It seems the broadcasters or producers forced the director to do so. I can't imagine he wanted it that way. Just my 10 cents.

As a Dutch national living in Hamburg, I am not a big fan of German TV-drama. Most productions are unrealistic, melodramatical or far too psychological. Gladbeck however is a great exception. I can only confirm other reviews, that this movie shows what actually happened, how strange the events may seem. I remember the hijacking very well, because it partly took place in the Netherlands too. The acting is superb, the production design is (almost, with just some minor errors) perfect. It shows how much fear the authorities had to take responsibilty and move to action. I hope this will set the standard for coming German TV-productions. Very good indeed!

A story that is tragic, excruciating, devastating, gobsmacking and unforgettable.

A lesson for police and the media that in some circumstances trying to achieve a peaceful resolution to a hostage siege can place the lives of innocent people in even more peril.

This two-part drama tells the tale of the 'Gladbeck hostage crisis'; a shocking event which began on 16 August, 1988, with two gunmen attempting to rob a bank in the German town of Gladbeck. Those inside are taken hostage as the police surround the building. Wishing to avoid any violence the police allow them to leave with two hostages, they then pick up one of the gunmen's girlfriend. As they are in a car fitted with a tracker the police follow. As soon as the news of the event gets out the media descend on the story. The action then moves to Bremen where the kidnappers abandon their car and hijack a bus. As they wait for police negotiators they give interviews to the press who are free to film everything. The police response is very confused with different forces claiming overall command and the men on the ground being left waiting for orders.

This drama really is quite shocking; if it weren't based on real events it would be impossible to believe. The competence of the senior officers is clearly lacking, as an example they don't even have an ambulance on standby. If anything the media response is even more shocking; they surround the hijackers, interview them, obstruct the police and even board the bus to take photographs.

As a piece of entertainment this was very effective. It was filmed in a way that felt very real and the actors gave natural performances. Knowing it was based on real events, but not knowing details before watching, made it very tense at times as we can't work out the 'designated survivors' as one might in a fictional thriller. There are of course some fictional elements as the creators give us there idea of what happened behind the scenes; these scenes were necessary to give more depth to characters and explain some of the things that were happening. Overall I'd definitely recommend this drama.

These comments are based on watching in German with English subtitles.