Peter Thorwarth’s war actioner “Blood & Gold” has been streaming on Netflix since Friday. If you have already watched the film, you may have missed one small detail: Did you recognise the name on the gravestone towards the end?
Blood & Gold” by Peter Thorwarth (“Blood Red Sky”) has just been released as a Netflix subscription. In it, we find ourselves in the spring of 1945 and meet the German deserter Heinrich (Robert Maaser), who is about to be hung from the nearest tree by an SS commando. He is saved at the last second by the farmer’s wife Elsa, in whom Heinrich soon finds an ally in the fight against National Socialism.
Meanwhile, the small swastika squad has their hands full tracking down a Jewish gold treasure that is supposed to be hidden somewhere in the small village near which Elsa lives with her mentally impaired brother Paule (Simon Rupp). While the fanatical SS-Sturmbandführer von Starnfeld (Alexander Scheer) makes them turn over every stone twice to finally find the valuable ingots, Heinrich and Elsa get ready to give the Nazis a good telling off.
WHAT DOES THE NAME ON THE TOMBSTONE MEAN?
This is not the place to spoil, of course, but this much can be said: In the course of the plot of “Blood & Gold” it turns out that the gold treasure should actually be in a grave in the local cemetery. As it turns out, it is not only the Nazis who are after the precious commodity, but also some villagers who are pursuing their own goals. The name on the gravestone where the treasure is supposed to be deposited is a very special one: Walter Hill.
Of course, this is not just any random name. It is a homage that Peter Horwarth has deliberately included here. Walter Hill is one of the most influential American action directors, who was to leave his mark on the genre several times over with “A Man of Steel”, “Driver”, “The Warriors”, “The Last Americans”, “Streets on Fire”, “Red Heat”, “Only 48 Hours” as well as the sequel “And Again 48 Hours”.
With “Long Riders”, “Geronomi – A Legend”, “Wild Bill” or the often unjustly forgotten Bruce Willis smash “Last Man Standing” and “Dead For A Dollar”, which was only released this year, he has also repeatedly taken on the Western genre. Peter Thorwarth has also made a kind of World War II Western with “Blood & Gold”, which not only quotes Quentin Tarantino but also pays homage to the classic old-fashioned genre cinema that made Walter Hill great.
Stefan Barth, who wrote the screenplay for “Blood & Gold”, has also said that he always wanted to write a classic western and that with “Blood & Gold” he now had the opportunity to get up close and personal with the genre. Therefore, not only are classic Western motifs (such as the treasure in the grave) used here, but a major influence (Walter Hill) is also mentioned. A nice footnote that shows that Peter Thorwarth’s films are marked by a very primal passion for rough cinema. The old masters are not forgotten here.
