= main character or one of the main characters / = secondary part /= mini-appearance

Silverton Siege

This is about the "price of freedom". Set in 1980, the MK freedom fighters Calvin, Terra and Aldo had planned to sabotage an oil depot in Pretoria, not knowing that the plan has already been leaked to the police in person of Captain Langerman, who tries to ambush them. Chased by the police, the trio ends up in a bank, where they take the employees and customers hostage. While Langerman tries to solve the situation with as less civilian casualties and as smoothly as possible, a brigadier from the National Guard rolls in with military force. The trapped MK - fighters soon realize that their lives are worth nothing, and plan to bargain for the release of Nelson Mandela in exchange for the hostages (and the bank's money). However, all attemps of finding any solution are thwarted by the brigadier, who does not even see the black people as "humans". Their sacrifice becomes the starting point of the "Free Mandela - Movement".

 

 

 

 

Movie rating:

A great and intense movie, amazing filming and script. All characters are believable and very well portrayed, especially Calvin from the MK - fighters. The use of all the different languages (or rather, language barrieres, in that case) gives an additional bonus, even though one needs subtitles. Two of the best scenes: the conversation of Calvin and Langerman through the mail slid - as if through a prison door; and the conversation between Calvin and the albino girl.

Rating for Arnold:

Awesome performance for this character. We see the transformation from a police captain on the hunt for the state enemy to someone who realizes that his opponents fight for justice, and that the "price of freedom is everything".

With "Griekwastad" 2020 finally a movie where he can show his talent.

On the set in Pretoria

 

Interview in "The Citizen" from April 28th, 2022, by Hein Kaiser:

 

Condor's Nest

American WW II-Veteran Will Spalding hunts down Nazis in South America to finally take revenge on the SS - Colonel that shot his bomber crew during the war. On the way, he teams up with a hotheaded Israeli Mossad agent and a weazly German atom-bomb expert.

 

 

 

 

Movie rating:

This was not very good, to put it mildly. The main reason: the AWFUL German with false intonation etc. It took the pace out of the scenes and was at best ridiculous for a native speaker. I had to turn off the sound and stuck to the subtitles, because it was not bearable. Surely the actors did their best, but PLEASE take native speakers or make the thing in English! The plot idea was interesting, but not the realization. It could have been good as a psycho drama about a traumatized veteran seeking revenge and truth. Sadly it was not. It was not even exciting enough to be an adventure movie. No character development, a lot of boring lengths (bar scenes, the 20 min entrance, that could have been told in a flashback), contrivances and finally the skull hunting Nazis close to a bad comedy (in bad German).

Only two good scenes: on the boat, when Spalding flatly states, dropping the atom bomb in Japan was "different, because we are the good guys". And the confrontation with Colonel Bach.

Rating for Arnold:

Well, he only shows up in the entrance scene (the only good thing about those 20min), and a little bit in the last third before the final confrontation.

It was a solid and believable perfomance, conveying greatness even though the character was of course the bad guy.

 

 

A part of the "Confession"

 

Interview with Arnold (January 2023)