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The American Friend

Play trailer Poster for The American Friend 1977 2h 7m Mystery & Thriller Play Trailer Watchlist
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88% Tomatometer 25 Reviews 80% Popcornmeter 2,500+ Ratings
American expatriate Tom (Dennis Hopper) treats Hamburg, Germany, like it's the Wild West and makes a living by hawking art forgeries, but decides to take part in a murder plot for extra cash. All Tom has to do to earn his share is find a potential assassin who won't do any talking, and he has the perfect man: Jonathan (Bruno Ganz), a dying cancer patient desperate to leave his family an inheritance. Jonathan begrudgingly accepts, but he's no gunman, and the scheme quickly goes sour.
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The American Friend

The American Friend

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Critics Consensus

The American Friend is a slow burning existential thriller that does justice to the Patricia Highsmith source novel.

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Critics Reviews

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Pauline Kael The New Yorker 09/18/2023
Wenders uses densely detailed imagery, his pacing is weighted, and there are no insights that relate to the characters -- the film drags along on secondhand alienation. Go to Full Review Steve Erickson RogerEbert.com 02/15/2018
... only a filmmaker as humane as [director Wim Wenders] could recognize there's no way out of the story's moral corruption. Go to Full Review Gary Arnold Washington Post 05/05/2017
An absorbing but rarefied, introspective variation on traditional thrilleer motifs, it's probably not the synthetis between the personal and traditional that Wenders needs but it's a fascinating compulsively watchable experiment. Go to Full Review Rene Jordan El Nuevo Herald (Miami) 01/18/2024
The American Friend is something else. It's accessible, visually beautiful: a perfect mechanism with two notable performances: Hopper, the hysteric, and Ganz, the stoic. [Full review in Spanish] Go to Full Review Jesús Fernández Santos El Pais (Spain) 08/01/2019
Wim Wenders evinces an extremely refined style that is much more effective here than in his previous films. [Full Review in Spanish] Go to Full Review Sean Axmaker Seanax.com 03/30/2017
The cool, cunning sociopath of Highsmith's novel becomes a restless international hustler, selling art forgeries and brokering deals (some of which may actually be legal) while travelling back and forth through Germany, France, and the United States. Go to Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Jim N @RT88410809 Feb 17 Wim Wenders, Bruno Ganz and Dennis Hopper involved in a weaving plot dilemma shot in glowering chiaroscuro. What more do you need to know? Jim Newcombe See more thiago s @Thiagostone Sep 1 Filme fraco, o roteiro é fraco, as cenas são fracas, a história é fraca, o elenco é fraco, e ninguém ajuda a melhorar o filme, os personagens são fracos, e o filme deveria ter cenas bem melhores e relevantes, para fazer o filme ser bom See more Insomniac X @RT03001349 03/28/2025 Bruno Ganz brings a humane warmth to this laconic neo-noir thriller as a terminally ill family man who breaks bad. The film's slow pace is punctuated by sequences which feel almost unbearably tense, and plain, naturalistically styled moments of violence. Dennis Hopper's notorious Mr. Ripley is cool, enigmatic, and charming. See more Sams K @RT65506530 10/10/2024 Very good movie, i really liked it! Great story and acting. Wim Wenders is such a master of directing. See more dave s @RT68722908 09/29/2022 Jonathan Zimmerman (Bruno Ganz) is dying of cancer. In order to provide for his wife and son, he is coerced by Tom Ripley (Dennis Hopper), a mysterious art dealer, and Raoul Minot (Gerard Blain), an equally mysterious criminal, to commit a murder in exchange for a large sum of money. What starts out as a pretty standard thriller quickly evolves into something more complex – a film about existential angst as Zimmerman comes to terms with the consequences of his actions and the long-term impact on all involved. Director Wim Wenders does an excellent job delving into Zimmerman's character and motivation, turning The American Friend into something quite different than expected. Despite the baffling and unlikely climax, it is a very satisfying thriller that asks as many questions as it does provide answers. See more Shioka O @RT54204327 09/21/2022 It's mostly in German and sometimes in English, so I need to switch/follow the subtitles... otherwise good film. See more Read all reviews
The American Friend

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Cast & Crew

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Wim Wenders

Director

Dennis Hopper

Tom Ripley

Bruno Ganz

Jonathan Zimmermann

Lisa Kreuzer

Marianne Zimmermann

Gérard Blain

Raoul Minot

Nicholas Ray

Derwatt

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The American Friend

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Movie Info

Synopsis American expatriate Tom (Dennis Hopper) treats Hamburg, Germany, like it's the Wild West and makes a living by hawking art forgeries, but decides to take part in a murder plot for extra cash. All Tom has to do to earn his share is find a potential assassin who won't do any talking, and he has the perfect man: Jonathan (Bruno Ganz), a dying cancer patient desperate to leave his family an inheritance. Jonathan begrudgingly accepts, but he's no gunman, and the scheme quickly goes sour.
Director
Wim Wenders
Producer
Joachim Von Mengershausen, Wim Wenders
Screenwriter
Wim Wenders
Production Co
Bavaria Film
Genre
Mystery & Thriller
Original Language
German
Release Date (Streaming)
Dec 15, 2015
Runtime
2h 7m
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