23

A well researched accurate but still fast-paced movie.

This movie is of some significance to the history of computer hacking. Karl Koch may have been the loonie the movie presents, and I'm not sure he invented the concept of a Trojan, but the depiction of BBS/hacking/phreaking in the late eighties is nice and nostalgic.

The acting really works, very believable. Also reminiscent of cold war madness and fears. The "illuminatus" aspect is a bit of a sideshow, maybe true to what really happened, but it's not so certain. Who knows what really went on between these crazy Germans?...

An intriguing portrait of a young man drifting away from reality. And since that young man was a famous hacker with an unhealthy interest in conspiracies, the movie has got to be about conspiracies, right? Wrong. But that's exactly what the ads would like you to think. Very bad marketing for a very good movie. And beware: it can bring you to tears!! (Just thinking about that PDP in the rain makes me weep ... *sniff*)

I watched this movie because some articles made me curious ... the film is very thrilling and full of sophisticated humor. i felt 15 years younger, it was like leafing through a diary. I was born in 1964 so the time of Karl Koch's youth was the time of my youth, too. I have, however, never been a hacker. I think it was the first scene: Karl Koch takes his key and walks to his car, "accompanied" by "Child In Time". From that beginning I was in the film and I loved it. I also love "mathematic tricks" and "mathematic obsessions", just like Karl Koch. If the Americans would have made this film there would have been a love story and maybe also a happy-end. 23 is a great European film.

In Fact, there are quiet many German movies which have brought the evidence to establish themselves as classics. In general these movies are dramas or comedies and very often they provide the viewer with historical informations of a certain time and area. However, what is often missing is suspense. Allhough German television is full of good crime stories and thrillers this Genre is hardly found in German cinema.

At least this is one reason why I like this movie so much. 23 allows to enter the mind of a burnt out, intelligent but unloved son, who tried to break out of his boring life by rebelling against his dominant father and the establishment of the mid 80th. Where as his protest uses to be more like coming out of a group behavior which is based on ideals his intention during the movie changes completely and ends up in a computer spy environment heavily connected with a continuous downward development of his mental and physical condition.

In one sentence: This movie is one of those that shouldn't end because you want to know more about everything,the whole thing, so deep you will place yourself into the plot and you don't want to leave it. 23 changed my life. Afterwards, I had another opinion about reality.

Check it out yourself, I extremely recommend this movies

23 is a 1998 German drama thriller film about a young hacker Karl Koch, who died on 23 May 1989, a presumed suicide. It was directed by Hans-Christian Schmid, who also participated in screen writing. The title derives from the protagonist's obsession with the number 23, a phenomenon often described as apophenia. Although the film was well received by critics and audiences, its accuracy has been vocally disputed by some witnesses to the real-life events on which it was based. Schmid subsequently co-authored a book that tells the story of the making of 23 and also details the differences between the movie and the actual events.