Der Amerikanische Soldat (The American Soldier, 1970)

A rather brief and inconsequential film, The American Soldier is also one of Fassbinder best-known early works. Bringing a new, German angle to the crime noir of Hollywood, it tells the story of a young man returning home from Vietnam to Munich, where he is hired as a contract killer, and the three bent coppers who hire him then try to destroy him.

The film makes typical use of Fassbinder’s sparse dialogue and set design, suggesting a certain amateurism that makes the true professionalism seem all the more remarkable – the key factor that makes Fassbinder’s early films so accessible yet impressive. A good representative of his early genre films but certainly not one of his best.