A viewer is either on the same wavelength as the maker of this arty science fiction film or not. If he is not, then a viewer is in for a haul with Willi Tobler and the Decline of the 6th Fleet.
As best as I could decipher it, Willi Tobler and his family has fled a planet just before the Sixth Fleet destroyed it. This fleet of planet bombers are on a mission to destroy planets. Tobler arrives on another planet and abandons his family to throw himself into his work as third press secretary for the planet's leader. The unlikable Tobler is only interested in himself and his ascension. When the leader is overthrown, Tobler has to make a decision regarding where he stands.
The film's plot is difficult because most of the action is summarized through intertitles that fill the viewer in on everything he is not shown, which are usually the would be dramatic moments of the film. Instead, we are shown random scenes of a meeting, Tobler being demoted by his boss, a patrol shooting rebels, and the nude lover (actually a spy) of the world leader. Sometimes the intertitles are used metaphorically. For instance, at one point a character comments on being on thin ice, and the film cuts to illustrations of ice skaters.
I understand that Alexander Kluge is considered an inventive director, but I cannot say that I was impressed. Admittedly, I watched the film for its plot, and Kluge is far more interested in the film's form and style. In fact, the use of the science fiction and the spy genres here seem somewhat like the use of the comic strip by pop artists in the 1960's, a "serious" artist using motifs from "lesser" art forms (even if those lesser art forms could teach the serious artist about not boring his audience). That is what the film felt like to this viewer. Although I am sure it has its admirers, Willi Tobler and the Decline of the 6th Fleet is one of the worst films I have seen in quite some time.
