Liverpool Sound and Vision Ration 9/10
Cast: Matthew Beard, Juergen Maurer, Luise von Finckh, Charlene McKenna, Amelia Bullmore, Conleth Hill, Raphael von Bargen, Josef Ellers, Simon Hatzl, Miriam Hie, Robert Reinagl, Leonie Benesch, Ulrike Beimpold, Maria Köstlinger, Johannes Zeiler, Johannes Zirner, Stipe Erceg, Murathan Muslu, Stefan Pohl, Tobias Resch, Hagen Dürre, Larissa Fuchs, Rainer Galke, Rainer Wöss, Harald Taschner, Andreas Lust.
There should be mandatory lessons in the science and application of psychiatry to all as they turn to an age where they could be found being used by the system, by the covert machinations of the state and by the narcissistic intent of those seeking an agenda in which, if pushed, could see those same young people sent to a war they had no idea they were signing up to.
It is to the undercurrent, the almost unspoken thought at the back of Vienna Blood’s weighty narrative, that war is absolutely inevitable, that the events that would eventually be the spark that led to an onslaught of defining moment and untold millions across the whole of the first half of the 21st Century, are perfectly represented on screen, and never more in the epic two-part story, Mephisto Waltz.
One of the points of psychiatry is to be able to look back at the past, our own indelible footprints that surround mistakes and prejudices we may have held that impacted others, to make the future, if not better, then at least one that is stable, immersed in avoiding a seismic shock to the system. How then is war inevitable if we can foresee the results of our actions and be a better human being in the face of manipulation; and the answer is displayed with honesty, with gritted teeth as Juergen Maurer’s character of Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt faces the truth, that war is only possible because respectable people are silenced by their conscious in what they perceive to be the greater good.
Mephisto Waltz is carried for the most part by Juergen Maurer in a wonderful exercise of self-understanding and self-reflection for his character who finally comes to see that the world of assessing the dilemma in a way that exemplifies the psychiatric core, and as the complexity of the story, the knowledge that it is not money, nor strength that is power, but information, so the inevitable, the unavoidable truth is exposed, we are puppets to a machine run by psychopaths with unlimited money and a public relations team that keeps the engine running smoothly.
Vienna Blood is a series that is deeply intricate in its faithfulness to the science of psychiatry, but one that also has fascinating characters woven interestingly within its framework, and in this elongated tale that sees the First World War loom heavily on the horizon the strengths of Charlene McKenna, Matthew Beard, Raphael von Bargen, Leonie Benesch, and the aforementioned Juergen Maurer are very much to be admired and lauded.
Mephisto Waltz is a deal with a devil we know are always going to have to sign, that our deep-seated fears of war are not in our hands to avoid, but in which the results will be forever linked to the hubris of our existence.
Ian D. Hall