Blood & Gold is a 2023 German film made by Netflix. In the spring of 1945 at the tail end of World War II a deserter Heinrich survives a hanging at the hands of an SS unit when he is rescued by farm girl Elsa. Now he and her, as well as her intellectually disabled brother, Paule, are hiding from the SS, who arrive in the nearby town to search for a rumored cache of gold.
Blood & Gold contains examples of the following tropes:
- Action Girl: Elsa proves to be this when Dörfler tried to rape her and showed she can use a gun against a subordinate of his after Heinrich joined in fighting him and his men. She even manages to learn how to use a Panzerfaust upon finding it in the climax. Sadly, her luck runs out when fighting Dörfler again and he would have killed her had it not been for Heinrich using a gold bar to kill him.
- Attempted Rape: Dörfler tries to rape Elsa early on.
- Chekhov's Gun: Irmgard mentions the dagger she uses for hunting and shows it to Elsa.
- Cool Old Lady: Elsa's family friend Irmgard. Near the finale, she gets a gun, gives another one to Elsa, and joins her in helping Heinrich against the SS men when they drag him to the church after he told them that was where the gold was.
- Destination Defenestration: The fate of one of the SS soldiers who tries to hang Paule.
- Even Evil Has Standards: One SS member who accompanied Dörfler in raiding Elsa and Paule's farm protested when the latter tried to rape Elsa, adding that they're not the Soviet Red Army.
- Evil Cripple: Wilhelm Reinboker, one of the individuals seeking the gold. He aided in eliminating the senior Lowensteins during Kristallnacht.
- Forbidden Love: Upon finding out the priest had the gold with him since the deaths of the senior Lowensteins, Sonja, Wilhelm Reinkober, and Wirtz capture him and claim they know he has an affair with Irmgard, adding that's why he hid the gold. While the priest hasn't admitted to this (and never gets to do so as he's shot by Dörfler later), Irmgard's reaction upon finding his corpse could add to Sonja's accusation.
- Karma Houdini Warranty: Sonja appears to be this as the only villain left alive who gets away with the gold, only to be blown up by a US armored patrol who take the gold for themselves.
- Handicapped Badass: Paule who has Down's Syndrome and kills two SS soldiers when they try to hang him from the church tower and sends the others into hiding with gunfire.
- Informed Attractiveness: In the first scene, the Nazis note that Heinrich has the looks of a famous actor.
- Iron Butt Monkey: Dörfler, doubling as a Karmic Butt-Monkey, who in the first scene gets a grazing shot to the head from Heinrich, and that is only the beginning of his torment including stabs, punches, more gunshots and boiling water thrown over him, but remains a persistent threat throughout the movie.
- Love at First Sight: A disgusting example with von Starnfeld staying where he was when Elsa tried to kill him to avenge her brother and not killing her when she wasted her P38's ammo. While keeping her as his prisoner, von Starnfeld removed his cover for his disfigured face, removing a wedding ring he intended on giving to his lover Rebecca before killing her (see Mercy Kill below for details), and propsing to Elsa with it while calling her "Rebecca".
- MacGuffin: The gold.
- Maybe Ever After: Heinrich and Elsa may have become each other's Second Loves, since Heinrich lost his wife in an Allied bombing run and Elsa lost her fiance Hans as he was a soldier. Adding to this, Elsa was the one who encourage Heinrich to not give up in reuniting with his daughter when he admitted to wanting to give up on it, him not caring about the gold save for using it as a bargaining chip to free Elsa from the SS's clutches, and that Elsa accompanied Heinrich to find his daughter.
- Mercy Kill: von Starnfeld treats his murder of his lover Rebecca, whom he tried to propose marriage to, as this as he didn't want his fellow Nazis to arrest her as she was a Jew..
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Paule returning to his farm to care for his cow Rita not only gets himself captured and killed but Elsa ended up captured because she and Heinrich tried to save him.
- Nightmare Face: The SS officer von Starnfeld is missing most of the left side of his face, including a gaping hole in his cheek through which his back teeth are visible.
- No Honor Among Thieves: Three of Sonenberg's residents, along with the mayor Robert Schlick, planned to steal the gold from the Nazi's noses ever since they eliminated the senior Lowensteins in Kristallnacht. The former three kill Schlick and nearly turned on each other had it not been for the priest unwittingly admitting he took the gold and hid it.
- Pinned to the Wall: Heinrich uses a pitchfork to inflict this on one of the SS soldiers attempting to rape Elsa.
- Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: Just before hanging him, one SS thug announced that Paule will be called the "The Hunchback of Sonnenberg". Paule starts fighting back by shouting "The hunchback had a hump, you moron", then causing the Destination Defenestration mentioned above.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Despite everything else... wrong about him, von Starnfeld does things calmly and professionally (for an SS officer, that is). It's implied he arrested and interrogated Johannes Lowenstein and his wife over their gold only for Dörfler to kill them for not restraining himself when he tortured them over it, chiding him about it. After arresting Elsa, he simply prevented her from getting anything sharp to use against him. Sadly for him, Elsa knew about his cyanide pill and made him bite it while pretending to kiss him.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- The SS minion who protested Dörfler's attempt in raping Elsa still attacked Heinrich when he appeared to save Elsa from Dörfler. He may have appeared to help Elsa but to the SS member, Heinrich was his enemy too.
- Paule's death is this, as he had no training to fight, much less in using an MP 40. As a result, von Starnfeld stood his ground and he only killed Paule when he turned his back upon seeing Elsa approach him.
- Cool for Elsa to learn how to use a Panzerfaust upon finding its instructions but by shooting the church's bell tower, not only did she and Irmgard had to hide from the debris caused by the resulting explosion, they had to enter the church through a different route.
- Sonja escaping with a military vehicle leads to her getting killed by a round fired from an M4 Sherman.
- To the Pain: Dörfler stringing up Heinrich is this, added with him describing, right up to the disgusting details, of how the latter will die.
