History Film / TheDamned1969

%%* {{Zoom}}s: The film is full of them, purportedly to lend an uneasy and frantic air to the proceedings.

* AffablyEvil: Aschenbach is a trope codifier. Whether he's wooing Friedrich, threatening Sophie, or negotiating with the Army, he's [[PsychoticSmile constantly smiling]] and speaking in a friendly, even tone of voice. Which only makes him more menacing.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: The Night of the Long Knives compresses numerous disparate murders and arrests, spread over three days and across different parts of Germany, into a giant massacre of SA members at a single location in one, well, night. Not to mention Visconti's depiction of the SA staging a gay orgy just before being killed.[[note]]Ernst Röhm, the SA's leader, was notoriously gay, and one of his subordinates was arrested while in bed with a male lover. So while there's some basis for Visconti's depiction of the Brownshirts as [[DepravedHomosexual depraved homosexuals]], the specifics are obviously an exaggeration (Hitler had only tolerated Röhm due to him being high-up in the Party-when Röhm grew into a threat, he then used his homosexuality as an excuse to have him murdered). Nazi policies were extremely anti-LGBT, and such open homosexuality wouldn't have occurred. There's also no evidence anything but a tiny minority among the SA were bisexual or gay.[[/note]]

%%* PrettyBoy: [[EvilIsSexy Martin]] and Gunther as well.

%%* OedipusComplex: Martin's creepily close relationship with Sophie. And it's only the first of his (many, many) issues.

%%* OnlySaneMan: Herbert appears to be early on with his CassandraTruth speech, but his outspokenness borders on WhatAnIdiot considering he's lecturing people either indifferent towards or supportive of the Nazis.

* NoPronunciationGuide: Friedrich pronounces Joachim's name JOE-Ah-KIM (with the 'J' pronounced like a hard 'G'), while everyone else says YOE-Ah-KEEM (with 'Y' pronunciation for the 'J' and a longer 'e'). Technically both are correct, but given the character is German, it should be the latter. Which can be chalked up to Frederich's actor [[FakeNationality being a Brit.]]

%%* WidowWoman: Sophie, and does she resent it!

* AmbitionIsEvil: It will lead you to complicitness in the Nazi regime.

* BigScrewedUpFamily: It doesn't get more screwed up than blackmail, incest, murder, and currying favor with Nazis.

* TheChessMaster: Aschenbach masterfully manipulates everybody around him.
* CoolUncle: Gunther looks at Herbert as a father figure given his [[FantasyForbiddingParent Fantasy Forbidding Father]].
* TheCorrupter: Aschenbach, again, towards Friedrich and Gunther.
* CrapsackWorld: It ''is'' Nazi Germany, what did you expect?

* DecoyProtagonist: [[spoiler: Herbert's established as the OnlySaneMan and a virulent anti-Nazi, but he's framed for Joachim's murder and exits about a half-hour into the film. Friedrich also qualifies, since despite his early focus, his character arc becomes less important than Martin's.]]
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Aschenbach assures that [[spoiler: Martin's relationship with the little girl and her suicide won't be investigated at all because ''she was Jewish''. And of course because he's soooo rich and powerful...]]
* DevilInPlainSight: Aschenbach.
* DepravedHomosexual: The SA are depicted as such.
* DinnerAndAShow

* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: The Jewish girl who is raped by Martin. And at the end, Friedrich and Sophie.]]

* DumbStruck: [[spoiler: Sophie, after her son rapes her.]]
* EvilNephew: C'mon, Martin...

* GambitPileup: Among Friedrich and the Essenbecks, at least. Aschenbach proves a master of XanatosSpeedChess and takes advantage of their discord.
* HappilyMarried: Herbert and Elisabeth [[spoiler: until DiabolusExMachina comes.]]

* InadequateInheritor: Obviously old Joachim sees Martin as one.
* IveComeTooFar: Friedrich experiences this right before the Night of the Long Knives.
-->'''Friedrich''': I've accepted a ruthless logic and I shall never get away from it.

* NaziNobleman: [[spoiler: Martin at the end.]]
* {{Nazisploitation}}: An early and [[FollowTheLeader extremely influential]] example.

* OedipusComplex: Martin's creepily close relationship with Sophie. And it's only the first of his (many, many) issues.
* OnlySaneMan: Herbert appears to be early on with his CassandraTruth speech, but his outspokenness borders on WhatAnIdiot considering he's lecturing people either indifferent towards or supportive of the Nazis.
* PlayingGertrude: Creator/CharlotteRampling was twenty-two years old at the time, but plays a character with an 11-year-old daughter.
* ParentalIncest: [[spoiler: Martin and Sophie.]]
* PrettyBoy: [[EvilIsSexy Martin]] and Gunther as well.
* PsychopathicManchild: Martin... just Martin.
* ThePurge: The Night of the Long Knives.
* RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil: By Martin [[spoiler:against his niece, a young Jewish girl, and finally his own mother.]] Not that Aschenbach or the Nazi regime at large cares.

* SpiritualSuccessor:
** ''Film/TheNightPorter'' (1974), also starring Dirk Bogarde and Charlotte Rampling.
** ''Salon Kitty'' (1976), where Helmut Berger and Ingrid Thulin once again team up in a story about the depravity of German society in the early days of Nazism.

* TallDarkAndHandsome: Both Martin and Gunther.
* ThoseWackyNazis: A [[EnsembleCast whole cast]] of them.
* UncannyValleyMakeup: Sophie in the end.
* UnholyMatrimony: Sophie and Friedrich ''would'' be this, if only they could marry.
* VillainProtagonist: Martin and Friedrich definitely qualify.
* VillainousIncest: A particularly disturbing example, between [[spoiler:Martin and Sophie.]]
* WhiteSheep: Gunther[[spoiler: until he joins the Nazi party.]]
* WidowWoman: Sophie, and does she resent it!
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Aschenbach's attitude towards Friedrich and Sophie late in the film.
* {{Zoom}}s: The film is full of them, purportedly to lend an uneasy and frantic air to the proceedings.

Not to be confused with a [[Film/TheDamned1947 1947 French film]] or [[Music/TheDamned the British punk band]].

* BuryYourGays: The film takes this UpToEleven by showing the Nazi SA having a gay orgy, only to be massacred en masse by the SS the next morning.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: Several generations of the Essenbeck family make up the cast.

Set in the early days of UsefulNotes/NaziGermany, ''The Damned'' depicts the downfall of the Essenbecks, a prosperous German steel family. Patriarch Joachim (Albrecht Schoenhals) announces his retirement from the family business. Friedrich Bruckmann (Creator/DirkBogarde), an ambitious company executive, conspires with Joachim's widowed daughter-in-law Sophie (Creator/IngridThulin) and SS official Aschenbach (Helmut Griem) to murder Joachim and take over the company. This sets off a vicious power struggle between Friedrich, Sophie, Aschenbach, Sophie's son Martin (Helmut Berger), and Konstantin (Reinhard Kolldehoff), an SA leader. Caught in the middle is Herbert Thalman (Umberto Orsini), Joachim's vice president whom Frederick frames for Joachim's death, his wife Elizabeth (Creator/CharlotteRampling), and Konstantin's son Gunther (Renaud Verley).

* AmbitionIsEvil

* AbortedArc: One early scene alludes to Herbert stealing corporate documents during his flight from Germany, hence rendering him potentially dangerous. This however is quickly forgotten - it's not even mentioned [[spoiler:when Herbert returns]] - leading viewers to wonder what threat Herbert poses to the Nazis, or [[ShootTheShaggyDog why his family has to suffer]]. Aschenbach even [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this, saying that foreign industrialists "won't be able to make use" of Herbert's documents.
* AffablyEvil: Aschenbach is a trope codifier. Whether he's wooing Frederick, threatening Sophie, or negotiating with the Army, he's [[PsychoticSmile constantly smiling]] and speaking in a friendly, even tone of voice. Which only makes him more menacing.

* TheCorrupter: Aschenbach, again, towards Frederick and Gunther.

* DecoyProtagonist: [[spoiler: Herbert's established as the OnlySaneMan and a virulent anti-Nazi, but he's framed for Joachim's murder and exits about a half-hour into the film. Frederick also qualifies, since despite his early focus, his character arc becomes less important than Martin's.]]

* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler: The Jewish girl who is raped by Martin. And at the end, Frederick and Sophie.]]

* DumbStruck: [[spoiler: Sophie after being raped by her son.]]
* EvilNephew: C'mon Martin...

* FanDisservice: While the film is known to be sexually risqué, most of the sexual scenes consist of child molestation, a depraved homosexual Nazi orgy that ends in a bloody massacre, and a sexually explicit incestuous rape scene.
* FantasyForbiddingParent: Konstantin wants his son to stop fooling with violins and literature and learning the family's business.

* GambitPileup: Among Frederick and the Essenbecks, at least. Aschenbach proves a master of XanatosSpeedChess and takes advantage of their discord.

* IveComeTooFar: Frederick experiences this right before the Night of the Long Knives:
-->"I've accepted a ruthless logic and I shall never get away from it."

* LotsAndLotsOfCharacters

* PlayingGertrude: Creator/CharlotteRampling was 22-years old at the time, but plays a character with an 11-year-old daughter.

* PsychopathicManchild: Martin...Martin.

* RecycledInSpace: ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'' meets ''Literature/{{Buddenbrooks}}'' in UsefulNotes/NaziGermany with some Dostoevskij put in the middle.
* RotatingProtagonist: Frederick is the main character through the first half, but Martin overtakes him by the film's end.

** [[spoiler: Sophie and Frederick committing suicide after their wedding is an obvious one to UsefulNotes/AdolfHitler's suicide with Eva Braun.]]
** Aschenbach shares his name with the protagonist of ''Literature/DeathInVenice'', which Visconti would adapt two years later (and Aschenbach would be played by Dirk Bogarde, who played Frederick in this).

* UnholyMatrimony: Sophie and Frederick, if only they can marry.
* VillainProtagonist: Martin and Frederick definitely qualify.
* VillainousIncest: A particularly disturbing example.

* WidowWoman: Sophie and does she resent it!
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Aschenbach's attitude towards Frederick and Sophie late in the film.

Set in the early days of UsefulNotes/NaziGermany, ''The Damned'' depicts the downfall of the Essenbecks, a prosperous German steel family. Patriarch Joachim (Albrecht Schoenhals) announces his retirement from the family business. Friedrich Bruckman (Creator/DirkBogarde), an ambitious company executive, conspires with Joachim's daughter Sophie (Creator/IngridThulin) and SS official Aschenbach (Helmut Griem) to murder Joachim and take over the company. This sets off a vicious power struggle between Friedrich, Sophie, Aschenbach, Sophie's son Martin (Helmut Berger), and Konstantin (Reinhard Koldehoff), an SA leader. Caught in the middle is Herbert Thalman (Umberto Orsini), Joachim's vice president whom Frederick frames for Joachim's death, his wife Elizabeth (Creator/CharlotteRampling), and Konstantin's son Gunther (Renaud Verley).

[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lacadutadeglidei_855_hr_232.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:200:Yeah, a BigScrewedUpFamily of ThoseWackyNazis!]]

Set in the early days of UsefulNotes/NaziGermany, ''The Damned'' depicts the downfall of the Essenbecks, a prosperous German steel family. Patriarch Joachim (Albrecht Schoenhals) announces his retirement from the family business. Frederick Bruckman (Creator/DirkBogarde), an ambitious company executive, conspires with Joachim's daughter Sophie (Creator/IngridThulin) and SS official Aschenbach (Helmut Griem) to murder Joachim and take over the company. This sets off a vicious power struggle between Frederick, Sophie, Aschenbach, Sophie's son Martin (Helmut Berger), and Konstantin (Rene Koldehoff), an SA leader. Caught in the middle is Herbert Thalman (Umberto Orsini), Joachim's vice president whom Frederick frames for Joachim's death, his wife Elizabeth (Creator/CharlotteRampling), and Konstantin's son Gunther (Renaud Verley).

* BreakTheCutie: Gunther's arc from sensitive violinist to prospective SS recruit, as the bad things that happen to him kindle a hatred within him that allows Aschenbach to put his hooks into him.

* DevilInPlainSight: Aschenbach

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: The Night of the Long Knives compresses numerous disparate murders and arrests, spread over three days and across different parts of Germany, into a giant massacre of SA members at a single location in one, well, night. Not to mention Visconti's depiction of the SA staging a gay orgy just before being killed.[[note]]Ernst Rohm, the SA's leader, was notoriously gay, and one of his subordinates was arrested while in bed with a male lover. So while there's some basis for Visconti's depiction of the Brownshirts as [[DepravedHomosexual depraved homosexuals]], the specifics are obviously an exaggeration (Hitler had only tolerated Rohm due to him being high-up in the Party-when Rahm grew into a threat, he then used his homosexuality as an excuse to have him murdered). Nazi policies were extremely anti-LGBT, and such open homosexuality wouldn't have occurred. There's also no evidence anything but a tiny minority among the SA were bisexual or gay.[[/note]]

* AbortedArc: One early scene alludes to Herbert stealing corporate documents during his flight from Germany, hence rendering him potentially dangerous. This however is quickly forgotten - it's not even mentioned [[spoiler:when Herbert returns]] - leading viewers to wonder what threat Herbert poses to the Nazis, or [[ShootTheShaggyDog why his family .has to suffer]]. Aschenbach even [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this, saying that foreign industrialists "won't be able to make use" of Herbert's documents.

''The Damned'' is a 1969 film by Creator/LuchinoVisconti.