One fascinating angle makes Kastenberger an ideal subject for screen immortality: the thief was also a champion marathon runner. He trained in prison by running in a tiny compound, and upon his release won several major races. Some of these victories carried substantial cash prizes. Kastenberger had a girlfriend, his dignity and enough money to get by ... why did he rob banks?
The Robber doesn't attempt easy answers and instead opts to present this criminal for the intriguing puzzle that he was. Major details have been retained, although Kastenberger's name is now Johann Rettenberger. He wears a hoodie and a plastic mask during his robberies, but not the original thief's Ronald Reagan mask. Johan (Andreas Lust, of Revanche) betrays no overt mental disturbance yet is clearly a confirmed sociopath. He steals a getaway car on his second day out of prison and holds up a bank wearing his mask and brandishing a shotgun. Johann relies on raw speed to make his getaways -- he dashes through the sidewalks so quickly that nobody has a chance to react.
Johann's robberies increase in number and audacity. On one afternoon he robs a bank and then immediately dashes into another. While the police are rushing to the first alarm, he's sprinting to safety from the second. On his off days Johann competes in some of the biggest marathon races of the region, including a mountain course that earns him publicity as the racer known only as a name and an entry number. The self-contained Johann scrupulously avoids inessential human contact.
Soon after his release from prison, the runner-thief moves in with his old girlfriend Erika (Franziska Weisz). The movie depicts the alarmingly alienated Johann as an all-but uncommunicative zombie, and their lovemaking sessions as the meeting of two silent, passionate strangers. He stashes his loot in trash bags under his bed. It's clear that Johann's robberies are not about money, but are committed to satisfy some secret personal compulsion.
Later details of Johann's crime spree deviate from the facts of the real criminal. In the film he kills his probation officer (or the Austrian equivalent) when the man hounds him to abide by the rules of his prison release. The slaying is certainly an outrage, but it is pictured as an emotional overreaction, not a purposeful murder. But writer-director Heisenberg omits most of the real-life robber's violence. Kastenberger's one confirmed killing was committed with a gun, but he was suspected of several more ambush shootings. The film's Rettenberger seems to bear no specific grudge against anyone.
What we get instead is the spectacle of a superb athlete using his specialized talent to elude the police. While being processed in the center of a large police compound, Rettenberger simply leaps through a window and races for the exits. An immediate alarm closes a number of automatic doors, but Johann is so fast that he slips through and makes good his escape. His girlfriend is told that the manhunt won't be pretty, as Johann has killed a law enforcement man (the probation officer). Johann literally runs cross-country, out-pacing his pursuers and stealing more cars. High on a wooded hill, the exhausted runner discovers that hundreds of officers are sweeping toward him from two directions. He's like a rabbit on the run.
The film properly leaves its main character a big question mark. Johann doesn't retaliate against an old man who inflicts a wound serious enough to ruin his escape. He also refrains from taking a hostage when one is readily at hand. When all seems lost, Johann uses a stolen cell phone to call Erika one more time. As a wounded lone wolf, the man automatically gains our sympathy. The filmmakers know that a compulsive anti-hero is more commercial than a misanthropic mad dog.
Benjamin Heisenberg films The Robber in a reserved, almost clinical manner. We scan Johann's face for clues as to what he's thinking, and find no conclusive answers. The man doesn't even seem exhilarated after his capers. He's addicted to the danger for reasons known only to himself. As a side note, actor Andreas Lust was at least 42 years old during filming but is in superb shape. He convinces as a marathon runner and seems virtually inexhaustible when sprinting through traffic or bounding across uneven ground through the hills of Austria.
The Blu-ray of The Robber is another flawless new release from Kino Lorber. The HD encoding preserves Reinhold Vorschneider's naturalistic lighting. American viewers will take a look at the Austrian city streets, country roads and rural hillsides and marvel at how clean and trash-free it all looks.
Trailers are included for this film and several other Kino Lorber releases. The only other feature is a gallery of scene stills.
For more information about The Robber, visit Kino Lorber.
by Glenn Erickson
