MovieChat Forums > The Good German (2007) Discussion > Why was Emile Brandt killed. As a rocket...

Why was Emile Brandt killed. As a rocket scientist he was valuable alive

posted 15 years ago by teddyballgame
14 replies | jump to latest

[–] Fillumfan 15 years ago

I agree. Makes no sense.

[–] cut-4 15 years ago

D'oh.... the plot isn't that hard to follow.

[–] jennbeez1 14 years ago

The plot points were not that hard to follow, no. But the movie did require some thinking. Everything was implied and had to be worked out by the viewer.

The real problem is that the movie did not motivate the viewer to do the work. By the end of it, I would have applauded a stray bomb crashing into the plane that was to carry Ms. Blanchett away. Oh right, but the war was over.

There was no hope.

[–] Noir-It-All 14 years ago

I liked the relationship between the General and Tulley, a father/son situation, with an edge. It is a shame on one level that Tulley didn't live and could keep trading with the General.

"Two more swords and I'll be Queen of the Monkey People." Roseanne

[–] bartireid 13 years ago

I quite liked this but wrongly assumed that Brandt was being tracked for his notebook.

[–] anarCKyintheUK 15 years ago

Bettmann was the rocket scientist, Emile Brandt was his secretary. The Americans were interested in having Bettmann work for their rocket program. Emile Brandt knew about the attrocities committed by Bettmann at the Dora facility (slave labor, genocide). If Brandt went public with this information, Bettmann would be tried for war crimes and thus, not be a very savory person for the Americans to have in their employ. The Americans killed Brandt to keep Bettmann clean - they never had any interest in using Emile Brandt.

[–] teddyballgame 15 years ago

Thanks anarCKyintheUK. That clarifies it perfectly for me. I thought Brandt was also a rocket scientist. He was evidently the secretary who did the calculations to see how much food to keep the slave labor alive for a certain amount of time. Thanks again

[–] chewybeardog 15 years ago

But why was it Teitel's henchman who killed Emil Brandt? I would have thought that Teitel wanted him alive.

[–] aaronrich74 14 years ago

Maybe he wasn't really working for Teitel.

[–] johncanderson3 14 years ago

Teitel was turned by the General. He was allowed to prosecute other Nazis in return for helping cover up Bettman's attrocities.

[–] nick159 12 years ago

I agree with Aaronrich. Teitel was supposed to meet Elena and Emile at that location, but Teitel sold out to General Muller (under pressure and in exchange for 12 German war criminals). I believe that Teitel's personal bodyguard (the former German policeman) was "plan B" in the event that General Muller's plan failed. There is always the possibility that Teitel's bodyguard murdered Emile for some other reason but, since the storyline provides no details to support that, I strongly doubt it.

[–] Knecht_Rupprecht 12 years ago

Story is still *beep* Wernher von Braun was a well known *beep* Who kept his Penemünde project alive more or less only with jewish slave labour. And everybody know this and they still didn't gabe a *beep* At the start of the cold war (well nobody knew at this point that it will be cold) nobody cared of nazi pasts of scientists as long as they gave them a advantage.

[–] Strings101 11 years ago

As Ike (allegedly) said when informed that the Soviets had beat us into orbit with Sputnik: "But I thought OUR Germans were better than THEIR Germans!"... lol.

[–] blanche-2 11 years ago

Right, I aim at the stars, but sometimes I hit London.