Knockin' on Heaven's Door

Knockin' on Heaven's Door (1997) is a cult film of German cinema built on a simple idea: two dying men go to see the sea. Martin and Rudi are put in the same hospital room. Both have days left. That night they raid a cupboard, find tequila, and while drinking Martin says something: in heaven everyone talks about the sea, and you cannot arrive there without having seen it. Rudi has never seen the sea. Before dawn they steal a car. There is a million marks in the boot and the car belongs to the mob. So two terminally ill men become fugitives with the whole of Germany after them. What makes it work is that it takes the dying seriously. A comedy and a gangster story run in parallel while Martin's attacks come closer together, and no scene lets you forget it. Rutger Hauer has a small and memorable part. It opened at number one in Germany and was the highest grossing German film of the year, taking over twenty one million dollars domestically. Til Schweiger won Best Actor at Moscow. It was remade in Japan in 2009, where the characters became a twenty eight year old man and a fourteen year old girl. It runs 89 minutes. Good for: road movies, dark comedy, and nineties European cinema. Less good for: terminal illness is the central subject, and there is gun violence and strong language.