YMMV / The Captain

• Alternate Character Interpretation: The character of Herold was intentionally left as inscrutable for the viewers, something which frustrated his actor Max Hubacher. This leaves him quite wide open to interpretation: did he do what he did because he believed it was necessary to survive? Was he always a sadist and just never had the opportunity to indulge in his impulses? Did he truly believe those men deserved to die? Was he simply playing a game? Is the truth a mixture of all these factors? The real Herold confessed that even he didn't really know why he had all those people executed.
• Aluminum Christmas Trees:
  • Due to how terrible and abject his behavior is, Herold was presumed by some to be a made-up character, or at least exaggerated. He was very real, and even worse than portrayed in the film.
  • The ridiculous "trial" which the Nazis give Herold is so outrageous, it sounds like a poorly written caricature. The director used many lines from the transcript of the real trial. They really did believe that Herold did a fantastic job by initiating those mass-murders, and were enthusiastic about welcoming him back into the fold.
• Complete Monster
  • "Captain" Willi Herold starts out as a young German deserter during World War II who finds the uniform of a German officer and, exploiting the confusion of fellow deserters and soldiers who assume him to be real authority, steadily shows himself to be just as horrible as the actual Nazi captains he ends up with. Introduced miming himself gunning down a running victim as an early peek of the fantasies in his head, Herold graduates to real murder when he executes a looter to prove his gumption to the soldiers he's rallied, and soon after happens upon an Emsland camp, whereupon he swiftly moves to "solve" the dilemma of the overabundant POWs. In five days, Herold murders well over ninety people, having them tortured and gunned down by Private Kipinski en masse while psychologically torturing them himself, even forcing Freytag, the one soldier with a conscience, to kill a wounded soldier himself to break Freytag's spirit. When the camp is bombed to oblivion, Herold walks out of the dust with an utter lack of emotion on his face, briefly taking over a small town by killing its mayor before finally being taken before Germany's court—who decide to give him a second chance based on the sheer, tactical viciousness and lack of empathy he showed while impersonating an officer. Showing the snake he really is by once again deserting at the end, Herold perfectly represents the idea of a nobody who walks into the skin of a monster and gets utterly lost in the role.
  • Private Kipinski is a sadistic drunk who knows Herold is a fraud, but goes along to satisfy his sadism. Showing what kind of man he is by savagely and brutally beating a prisoner to death for no reason, he begins tormenting the other prisoners, mentally and physically torturing them while being Herold's chief executioner, all for the joy of murder. Growing increasingly unhinged, Kipinski relishes death and even delights in tormenting his fellow soldiers, even giving implied threats to Herold himself when he tries to beat one of his own allies.
• Tear Jerker: The entire film is at turns sinister, absurd and deeply upsetting but several instances stand out:
  • Freytag's heartbreaking reaction on being ordered by Herold to perform a mercy kill on a severely wounded prisoner.
  • A prisoner is offered the chance to join Herold's group if he shoots at a group of prisoners who had been tied together and forced to run. He fires a shot at the ground to make sure the gun works, and shoots himself instead.
  • The faces of the prisoners present at Herold's party as they overhear him talking about their deaths.
  • All of this could have been prevented if at least one official involved in the camp had done their job and demanded that Herold present his proof of identification. Instead, their disregard for human life enabled a mass murderer.
• Nightmare Fuel: The fact that the film is a mostly accurate representation of what really happened.
  • The ending scene, where Herold deserts and walks through a forest littered with skeletons. He stops for a moment, looks at the viewer, cold and sinister, and then disappears into the darkness of the woods.
  • At the end of the film, we witness Herold and his "quick justice" troop drive around a modern German city, demanding that random passersby present their papers and relieving them of their valuables. The actor who plays Herold recounts with some measure of astonishment how, although some of the passersby they harassed were paid actors, they tried to do the same with regular people and succeeded. Citizens of modern Germany identified themselves in front of a guy in full Nazi regalia and his band of soldiers. Shockingly, several passersby actually joined in and began asking fellow citizens to identify themselves. Perhaps not so much has changed after all...
• What Do You Mean, It's Not Symbolic?: Upon first meeting Freitag, Herold offers him an apple. In hindsight, it can be seen as the devil offering a temptation to an innocent.

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