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Dennis Hopper, Bruno Ganz, Lisa Kreuzer, Gérard Blain, Nicholas Ray ... see more see more... , Samuel Fuller , Peter Lilienthal , Daniel Schmid , Lou Castel , Jean Eustache , Rosemarie Heinikel , Sandy Whitelaw , Rudolf Schündler , Wim Wenders

Wim Wenders' mines Dennis Hopper's real-life experience as a painter and collector in this existential take on the American gangster film based on a Patricia Highsmith novel featuring the notoriously ... read more read more...sociopathic Tom Ripley. Hopper stars as the eponymous American, currently a middleman selling the work of American painter Derwatt (Nicholas Ray), who has feigned his own death to increase the value of his paintings. While auctioning this work in Berlin, he meets art restorer Jonathan Zimmerman (Bruno Ganz), who he learns is suffering from an incurable blood disease. When a shady friend (Gerard Blain) requires Ripley to find a "clean" non-professional to do a contract hit in order to pay off a debt, even he is reluctant. But he quickly realizes that the physically vulnerable Jonathan would be perfect for the job, and tries to get him to accept by employing various subterfuges to persuade him that his condition is even worse than it is. For his part, Blain guarantees the restorer that his family will be financially secure for life, and a deal is struck. As usual, nothing works out quite as expected. ~ Michael Costello, Rovi

Flixster Users

79% liked it

4,369 ratings

Critics

88% liked it

16 critics

Unrated, 2 hr. 7 min.

Directed by: Wim Wenders

Release Date: September 29, 1977

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DVD Release Date: January 7, 2003

Stats: 218 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (218)

  • rubystevens
    February 26, 2009
    rubystevens
    beautifully shot and atmospheric thriller based on ripley's game with a great performance by bruno ganz. i admit i found it hard to imagine hopper as ripley but he was quite good too. and
    it seems to be making a statement about u.s vs. europe. don't trust the americans? hmm...
  • harrycaul
    January 28, 2009
    harrycaul
    A brilliant art house noir by Wim Wenders, adapted from Patricia Highsmith's Ripley's Game. Bruno Ganz plays Jonathan Zimmermann, a picture framer with an incurable blood disease, whose precariousness of health is manipulated by Dennis Hopper's Tom Ripley, a sociopa... read morethic art dealer seeking to recruit a contract killer for a gangland associate. Eager to provide his wife and son with some financial security before his 'imminent' demise, Zimmermann is sucked into the criminal underworld.

    Wenders' presentation is dazzling enough to prevent us from scrutinising the rather implausible plot too closely. There are a couple of artsy digressions - unfortunate, because Robby Müller's stunning photography ensures that the film would have been just as aesthetically pleasing without them - but, happily, Wenders doesn't let them get in the way of the story. I could have done without some of Hopper's trademark nutty behaviour - he's Dennis Hopper, right! I'll buy the fact that he's crazy sight unseen - but it's fun to see him playing opposite Nicholas Ray, the director who gave him an early break with Rebel Without a Cause. Curiously, the protagonist here is called Zimmerman(n) and the film closes with Ripley mumbling the lyrics to Bob Dylan's I Pity the Poor Immigrant. Coincidence?
  • tsigur
    April 15, 2008
    tsigur
    Like a lot of Wenders' stuff, I love the way this movie looks, but am still trying to figure out what the fuck was going on in some scenes.
  • SarahG1988
    March 11, 2007
    SarahG1988
    I watched this film as it was part of the German expressionim era and starring Dennis Hopper. Plus, a young Bruno Ganz as the German picture framer.

    What I loved was the use of the locationswith the atmospher of the film. From Hamburg to the far end of Germany this creates a u... read morenqiue film for me. I enjoyed the use of language withing the film. You have Tom Ripley( played by Dennis Hopper), American and will only speak English but German on some occasions. You also have Bruno Ganz's character and the frenchman( Gerad Blain talking English which i found made the film more familiar to English-speaking countries and certainly you'e able to realte to the character more. Also, you start to understand the impact of the english language, not just through England and America but through Europe.

    Certainly the plot is done very well in this and the cross- pollination of the two speaking countries is effective in the story progressing. Overall i recomend this movie to people who wouldn't nessacerily watch a foreign film and hopefully they will watch more in the future. A great thriller to watch filled with suspense, intrigue.
  • Dracula787
    November 27, 2009
    Dracula787
    Most audiences were first made familiar with the character of Tom Ripley from the 1999 film The Talented Mr. Ripley, but the character really originated in a series of novels by Patricia Highsmith which date back to 1955. The aforementioned film was an adaptation of the first no... read morevel, this 1977 Wim Wenders film is an adaptation of the third novel, Ripley?s Game (which would be adapted again in 2002).

    The film mostly follows a character named Jonathan Zimmermann (Bruno Ganz, who would go on to play Hitler in Downfall), who has been diagnosed with a terminal blood disease. He encounters and befriends an American named Tom Ripley (Dennis Hopper) who has connection with the criminal underworld. Soon enough, Tom convinces Zimmermann to take part in a pair of crime assassinations in order to pay for his medical bills.

    This film?s depiction of the Ripley character differs greatly from the depiction in the Anthony Minghella film which I?ve long been fond of. In that film Matt Damon played Ripley as a bit of a dork, albeit a psychotic dork so desperate to be someone more glamorous than he was that he latched onto and eventually murdered an American playboy on vacation in Italy. Here, well? he?s Dennis Hopper, and he takes on most of the mannerisms you expect Dennis Hopper to have. Gone are the goofy, yet oddly disturbing grins and the creepy stares, in their place is? Dennis Hopper, in a cowboy hat. The performance isn?t completely without its charms (I particularly liked a scene where he lays down on a pool table and takes pictures of himself with a Polaroid), but as a whole I found this Ripley significantly less interesting than the one I was used to. It?s kind of like Going back to the movie Manhunter and seeing Brian Cox play Hannibal Lecture after having scene Anthony Hopkins dominate the role in Silence of the Lambs.

    Really, I have to say I feel the same way about the rest of the movie, it?s a pretty decent thriller but it didn?t strike me as remotely as interesting as The Talented Mr. Ripley. There is sort of a perverse friendship at the center of it all, but for the most part this is less of a psychological thriller and more of a Hitchcockian thriller and it works at its best during a pair of suspenseful set pieces. Wenders handles these scene very well, though I was surprised at just how pedestrian his style was here, this isn?t anything like the lyrical camera work of his more famous works Wings of Desire and Paris, Texas. I also found aspects of the plot fairly confusing, particularly the workings of the crime syndicate that?s trying to make things happen.

    So overall, this is a nice little movie that I enjoyed watching, but I don?t think it will stay with me.
  • jjb3332003
    May 13, 2011
    jjb3332003
    I wanted to like this, but it was just a bit too confusing and nonsensical at times; remade as Ripley's Game with John Malkovich.
  • hossein13
    July 23, 2010
    hossein13
    June 2010 - I had a hard time following the movie. I definitely prefer Minghella's adaptation of the same novel and the weakness of the characters in this one, was perhaps the main reason why I was quite bored. The action scenes are unimpressive and there was also the strange thi... read moreng that everyone was speaking in English. Perhaps the only significance of this one was the darkness compare to the other adaptation.
  • bristowjoelmcfly
    October 10, 2006
    bristowjoelmcfly
    Dennis Hopper goes CRAZY, and America gets a pre-von Trier kick to the balls. It's the quietest of thrillers, but not at all the meekest.

View All Der Amerikanische Freund (The American Friend) Reviews

Critic Reviews

Roger Ebert
October 23, 2004
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

There's something cheerfully perverse about filming a thriller and then tossing out the parts that would help it make sense, but Wim Wenders has a certain success with the method. Full Review

Dave Kehr
January 1, 2000
Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

Gripping 1977 American thriller from Wim Wenders that turns back on itself with deadly European irony. Full Review

Kim Newman
October 22, 2007
Kim Newman, Empire Magazine

By refusing to explain Ripley, this gets closer to Highsmith's character than any other film version. Full Review

October 22, 2007
TV Guide's Movie Guide

A gripping Hitchockian thriller based on a novel by Patricia Highsmith. Full Review

David Nusair
December 21, 2006
David Nusair, Reel Film Reviews

...a slow-moving yet occasionally thrilling adaptation... Full Review

Emanuel Levy
November 5, 2006
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com

Moody and intriguing, this is one of Wenders' most accessible films, effective as a Hitchockian thriller (Strangers on a Train), existential character study, and allegory about the corruptible yet irr... Full Review

Tom Milne
February 9, 2006
Tom Milne, Time Out

Superb adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's novel Ripley's Game, with Hopper as her amiably cynical hero. Full Review

Pablo Villaca
March 22, 2004
Pablo Villaca, Cinema em Cena

Enquanto Hopper cria um Tom Ripley inacreditavelmente ridículo, Ganz rouba o filme, que conta com uma direção irregular de Wenders.

May 24, 2003
Film4

A lovingly crafted exploration of friendship and desperation. Full Review

Forrest Hartman
March 21, 2003
Forrest Hartman, Reno Gazette-Journal

One of those movies that offers a nice viewing experience, but it definitely plays better when you're watching than when you sit down for analysis.

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