Das Millionenspiel

It's a game show version of The Most Dangerous Game, in which a man has to survive a week of being hunted by three killers on national television to win a million Deutsche Marks. This movie must have been an influence on Stephen King's "The Running Man"...it's a brilliant parody of reality TV, more than 20 years before reality TV existed, complete with artificially manufactured drama, tasteless emotional manipulation and vapid corporate sponsorship.

Granddaddy of running man - the original is fabulous and of its time. Great sarcastic takes on advertising and media and the various games they play are wonderfully over the top - and contrasted with the downbeat audience participation. Trust a German film to have one person saying they are just victims of the capitalists structure. Plenty of big questions to think about it.

Excellent parody but weirdly clinical and un-moving

Much of this movie has been done before, probably dozens of times (though mostly after 1970) but it didn't feel cliched to me. I think one reason is that while the satire is obvious, it doesn't get too heavy with the moralizing. The host & studio guys are sneaky & dishonest, but they're not cartoonishly evil or even unusually clever. We're on the "hero"'s side, but he's clearly a bit of a dweeb and doesn't give us anything to admire in terms of his character, intelligence or physical abilities.

Great production, ahead of its time!