According to Sepp Herberger, the following sentence applies: People watch films and football games because they don’t know how it will end. A filmic representation of the decade in which FC Bayern Munich became the success machine it has remained to this day, despite a few crises, represents an enormous challenge for the director: Anyone who is reasonably familiar with German football history knows, after all, what rise Bayern experienced between 1964 and 1974; Even younger generation and non-supporters of the club are well informed about the results of the important games and the anecdotes surrounding the prominent players. Tension is different.
David Dietl nevertheless set out to film the story in a six-part series, based on the book “Good Friends: The True Story of FC Bayern Munich”, in which the long-time “Spiegel” journalist Thomas Hüetlin wrote in the style of narrative non-fiction (or, as the Americans put it more succinctly, creative nonfiction) bathes the alleged truth in the warm light of his empathy.
Nostalgia in rich colors
Dietl also prefers the rich and conservative colors of sentimentality. With great effort even in the smallest details, the time of social and football awakening is staged, the interior of the players’ mostly modest parents’ houses as well as that of the discos in which they later celebrate their successes. Dietl masterfully manages to embed contemporary photographs of Munich street scenes into his production just as seamlessly as original images of the most important games.
The fact that the actors only vaguely resemble the actors – Jan-David Bürger comes closest to the Paul Breitner he portrays – does surprisingly little harm to the matter. It was obviously all the more important to Dietl that a lot of Bavarian was spoken. The decision is understandable, after all there was a remarkable accumulation of players from the region in this team of the century. However, listening can sometimes be tiring for non-Bavarians. Dialect experts have to decide how authentically the coloring of the language has been achieved; In an FC Bayern forum it was complained that the actor playing Sepp Maier (Paul Wellenhof) lacked the special coloring from Anzing.
In the end these are just small things. What is more problematic is that even some of the main characters remain one-dimensional – above all, they have to embody the characteristics that made them important for the club’s rise. Breitner, the rebel on principle; Beckenbauer, the confident, light-footed leader and charming family man; Maier, the joker; Müller, the sincere, shy one. Their weaknesses, such as Beckenbauer’s tendency to arrogance and Maier’s anxiety before important games, are only briefly hinted at.
The fuss of amateur sports
Bayern President Wilhelm Neudecker (Michael A. Grimm) is hit hardest in the group of types. With his smile distorted by ambition, he seems like a parody of a patriarchal economic miracle entrepreneur who seems to know no other social aggregate than irascibility and greasy patronage. Things are only slightly better for the legendary Robert Schwan, who, to a certain extent, invented the job of Bundesliga manager. Maximilian Brückner plays him as an intelligent, vain, cunning, sarcastic, determined and eloquent man with considerable knowledge of human nature and an even higher level of alcohol consumption. With his instinct for marketing opportunities and the importance of investing in professional working and training conditions, Schwan laid the structural foundations for FC Bayern’s rise. For his own additional benefit, he took over the management from Franz Beckenbauer, built him up into an advertising figure and thus established the profession of player agent in Germany as “Mister 20 percent”.
With this figure, Dietl clearly demonstrates how the lying posturing of noble amateur sport forced the people involved to practice practices beyond the border of illegality. How the growing power of money is traced in football is one of the strongest passages in “Good Friends”. It fits that of all the characters, that of Uli Hoeneß is drawn in the most differentiated way. He stands at the interface between the brave kickers and the ripped off club management. Although the film exaggerates with references to the much later downfall due to tax crime, the highlight is how Max Hubacher portrays the intellectual sharpness of Hoeneß, whose populist streak, the hardness towards himself, the greed for money and the calculating nature still play in the cronyism of the six-part series.
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The egotistical Hoeneß showed up to the World Cup final with a serious cold he was hiding and promptly caused the penalty that gave the Dutch an early lead. His buddies Breitner and Müller ironed out the mistake with their goals, and Maier then held on to win, as the film tells it. The fact that the final was won was only the logical consequence of the fact that the Bayern players had found a friendly relationship despite their differences in character. And the club from Munich completed its mission at the national level in Munich. Supporters of other clubs, whose heroes have also played a key role, will have a few objections at this point. But the RTL series isn’t made for them either.
The first three episodes of Good friends – The rise of FC Bayern will be available to watch on RTL+ from this Saturday, the remaining episodes from November 22nd. The first three episodes will also be broadcast on RTL on November 22nd from 8:15 p.m
