"Einer von uns beiden" or "One or the Other of Us" is a West German movie that runs for almost 100 minutes and came out over 40 years ago. The star here is probably the director, Wolfgang Petersen, who made this one while still in his 30s, about a decade before "Das Boot", his most known work and his star in that one is also in here: Jürgen Prochnow, even if it is arguable if he is the lead actor here too. At least he is not the one billed first in the cast. If you have seen some 1970s movie and I am really speaking more about American films here than German films, then you will realize that there are certainly many elements in here that you also find in the works of Gene Hackman from that time for example. "Einer von uns beiden" is based on a novel by Horst Otto Oskar Bosetzky and Manfred Purzer, still alive today (2016), is the one who adapted it. The movie received some awards attention at the German Film Awards: Peterson won for Best New Director and the cinematography won as well. Lead actor Klaus Schwarzkopf was "only" nominated for Lead Actor as the awards went to Gustav Rudolf Sellner for the Academy Award nominated "Der Fußgänger". But back to this one: Overall, I thought there were some good moments, but it just wasn't enough to keep me interested for 1 hour and 40 minutes and the story had some struggles in terms of realism, especially looking at the character's actions. And sadly, a problem that was frequent during that era, the issue of overacting, is also a factor here. I am not sure if you can blame the actor for doing it or the director for allowing it. That's why I believe that in the end the bad outweighed the good and I do not recommend the watch.
Review of One or the Other
