# The American Friend
**The American Friend** (German: *Der amerikanische Freund*) is a 1977 neo-noir thriller written and directed by [Wim Wenders](https://www.edgepedia.org/wim-wenders), adapted from [Patricia Highsmith](https://www.edgepedia.org/patricia-highsmith)'s novel *Ripley's Game*, in which a terminally ill Hamburg picture framer is manipulated into becoming a hit man by the conman [Tom Ripley](https://www.edgepedia.org/tom-ripley). It was a West German-French co-production starring Dennis Hopper as Ripley and Bruno Ganz as Jonathan Zimmermann, and it became Wenders's international breakout.[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/28763-the-american-friend) • [2](https://wimwendersstiftung.de/en/film/the-american-friend/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director and source | Written and directed by Wim Wenders, based on Highsmith's *Ripley's Game* (1974), with elements of her *Ripley Under Ground*[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/28763-the-american-friend) • [3](https://www.filmnoirfoundation.org/noircitymag/Patricia-Highsmith.pdf) |
| Lead cast | Dennis Hopper as Tom Ripley, Bruno Ganz as Jonathan Zimmermann, Lisa Kreuzer as Zimmermann's wife, Gérard Blain as the gangster Minot[2](https://wimwendersstiftung.de/en/film/the-american-friend/) |
| Production | West Germany/France; shot 18 October 1976 to 11 March 1977 in Hamburg, Paris, New York, Munich, and Bavaria Studios; cinematography by Robby Müller[2](https://wimwendersstiftung.de/en/film/the-american-friend/) |
| Release | Premiered at Cannes on 26 May 1977; German premiere 24 June 1977 in Berlin[2](https://wimwendersstiftung.de/en/film/the-american-friend/) |
| Runtime | 126 minutes per the Criterion Collection; other listings give 127 minutes (Roger Ebert) and 128 minutes (BFI)[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/28763-the-american-friend) • [4](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-american-friend-1977) • [5](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/big%20screen%20classics/2025/08/05/american-friend/) |
| Awards | German Film Critics Award 1977; German Film Award in Gold for Best Director and Best Editor, and a Silver award, 1978[2](https://wimwendersstiftung.de/en/film/the-american-friend/) |
| Critical standing | Metascore 79 (generally favorable), with 10 positive and 1 mixed review out of 11 counted[6](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-american-friend/critic-reviews/) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
Jonathan Zimmermann, a Hamburg picture framer, believes he will soon die of leukemia. Tom Ripley, an American dealing in forged paintings, learns of the illness and exploits it: he introduces Zimmermann to the underworld figure Minot, who offers to hire the dying man as a professional hit man so that he can leave money for his wife and their child. According to the A.V. Club's account, forged medical records are used to persuade Zimmermann that he is on death's door and that killing alleged thugs on commuter trains will provide for his family.[2](https://wimwendersstiftung.de/en/film/the-american-friend/) • [7](https://www.avclub.com/the-american-friend-is-a-tom-ripley-movie-that-doesn-t-1798186176)
A friendship develops between the two very different men, and it ultimately leads Ripley to intervene when Zimmermann proves incapable of carrying out an additional murder.[2](https://wimwendersstiftung.de/en/film/the-american-friend/) Roger Ebert described the story as a triangle in which the American becomes a middleman between a French gangster and the German framer, and noted that the friendship, with its uneasy possibilities of danger and death, recalls the relationship between the [Orson Welles](https://www.edgepedia.org/orson-welles) and [Joseph Cotten](https://www.edgepedia.org/joseph-cotten) characters in *The Third Man*.[4](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-american-friend-1977)
## Adaptation of Highsmith
Wenders secured the rights to *Ripley's Game* while the novel was still an unpublished manuscript, with the author's personal blessing, and the film also draws on elements of Highsmith's *Ripley Under Ground*.[8](https://www.screenslate.com/articles/american-friend) • [3](https://www.filmnoirfoundation.org/noircitymag/Patricia-Highsmith.pdf) The adaptation is loose: the BFI's program notes describe the film as faithful to the spirit rather than the letter of the novel, compressing more than a third of the book into about five minutes near the end.[5](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/big%20screen%20classics/2025/08/05/american-friend/)
Highsmith's Ripley is a cool, calculating sociopath, a type far from the tense, impulsive persona [Dennis Hopper](https://www.edgepedia.org/dennis-hopper) brought to the role. The writer was initially dismayed by Hopper's portrayal, though she eventually came around to respecting and liking the film.[9](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/3866-the-american-friend-little-lies-and-big-disasters) Critics have continued to debate the casting; the A.V. Club argued that neither Wenders nor Hopper seemed to have a settled idea of who Tom Ripley is, while judging the film "often a first-rate Zimmermann movie."[7](https://www.avclub.com/the-american-friend-is-a-tom-ripley-movie-that-doesn-t-1798186176)
## Style and themes
**Visual approach.** The film is a homage to Hollywood film noir, mixing West German and American film flavors, with Robby Müller's cinematography creating what the BFI notes call an irreproachable film noir ambience, including the ornate, polythene-wrapped mansion Ripley uses as a lair.[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/28763-the-american-friend) • [5](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/big%20screen%20classics/2025/08/05/american-friend/) Ebert placed the film in the tradition of New German Cinema's expressionist inheritance, with extremes of color and lighting and a self-conscious use of the camera, and called it one of the most visually rich productions of the movement.[4](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-american-friend-1977)
**Friendship and America.** The BFI notes read the film as a continuation of Wenders's exploration of the unsatisfactory nature of male friendships, making it more a Wenders film than a Hitchcockian or Highsmithian one; Ripley's remark that "friendship isn't possible" marks the point at which he has destroyed Jonathan's innocence by turning him into a hired killer.[5](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/big%20screen%20classics/2025/08/05/american-friend/) The essayist Francine Prose observed that Wenders was fascinated by America throughout his career, and that casting Hopper, a Stetson-wearing Ripley humming a [Woody Guthrie](https://www.edgepedia.org/woody-guthrie) ballad, makes America appear as a "rather dim beacon": a not very intelligent psycho with a gift for intimidation.[9](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/3866-the-american-friend-little-lies-and-big-disasters)
**Thriller construction.** Wenders deliberately omits chunks of plot in favor of atmosphere; Ebert wrote that he "tosses out the parts that would help it make sense" while challenging viewers to admit they watch thrillers as much for atmosphere as for plot.[4](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-american-friend-1977) Both murder sequences are singled out in the BFI notes as classics of their kind: the first, on an underground train, plays coolly absurd, with the novice assassin's gun protruding from his raincoat pocket, closed-circuit television observing him, and an escalator running the wrong way; the second is "absurdly chilling," with automatic doors and a flurry of mismanagements producing the intended result.[5](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/big%20screen%20classics/2025/08/05/american-friend/)
## Cast and crew
The supporting cast is unusual in that many gangster roles are played by fellow directors: Gérard Blain as Minot, with guest appearances by [Nicholas Ray](https://www.edgepedia.org/nicholas-ray), Samuel Fuller, Peter Lilienthal, Daniel Schmid, Jean Eustache, Sandy Whitelaw, and Lou Castel.[2](https://wimwendersstiftung.de/en/film/the-american-friend/) Lisa Kreuzer, who plays Zimmermann's wife Marianne, was Wenders's own wife.[2](https://wimwendersstiftung.de/en/film/the-american-friend/) • [10](https://parallax-view.org/at-home-on-the-road-wim-wenders-interviewed/)
The crew included Robby Müller as director of photography, Peter Przygodda as editor, Jürgen Knieper as composer, and songs by [The Kinks](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-kinks); the Film Comment essay on Highsmith adaptations notes that Wenders's use of The Kinks nearly alone qualifies him as one of Highsmith's most insightful adapters.[2](https://wimwendersstiftung.de/en/film/the-american-friend/) • [11](https://www.filmcomment.com/adaptation-patricia-highsmith/) Production companies were Road Movies Filmproduktion (Berlin), Wim Wenders Produktion (Munich), Les Films du Losange (Paris), and [Westdeutscher Rundfunk](https://www.edgepedia.org/westdeutscher-rundfunk) (Cologne).[2](https://wimwendersstiftung.de/en/film/the-american-friend/)
## Reception and legacy
The film won the German Film Critics Award in 1977 and gold in two categories of the German Film Prize in 1978, and it is now considered a cult film.[2](https://wimwendersstiftung.de/en/film/the-american-friend/) Critic Dave Kehr, author of *When Movies Mattered*, noted that it was the first New German Cinema film to get a theatrical run in Chicago.[12](https://www.rogerebert.com/streaming/film-noir-for-the-baby-boomer-generation-wim-wenders-the-american-friend) In an interview during its release, Wenders reported that in its first three months of German theatrical exhibition it had already drawn three times more spectators than his previous film *[Kings of the Road](https://www.edgepedia.org/kings-of-the-road)*.[10](https://parallax-view.org/at-home-on-the-road-wim-wenders-interviewed/)
The film's success attracted the interest of [Francis Ford Coppola](https://www.edgepedia.org/francis-ford-coppola), who in late 1977 asked Wenders to direct *Hammett*, his tribute to film noir.[13](https://www.goethe.de/resources/files/pdf74/Wim_Wenders_-_A_Film_Journal_-_VIEW.pdf) On the review aggregator Metacritic it holds a Metascore of 79, with Michael Wilmington of the [Chicago Tribune](https://www.edgepedia.org/chicago-tribune) calling it "a Wenders masterwork" and J. Hoberman of The New York Times comparing it to *Taxi Driver* as "a new sort of movie-movie, sleekly brooding, voluptuously alienated and saturated with cinephilia."[6](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-american-friend/critic-reviews/) Ebert, by contrast, gave it a reserved three stars, judging that Wenders had great style but knew his people better in *Kings of the Road*.[4](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-american-friend-1977)
The film has been adapted to home video in a director-approved Criterion Collection edition (Spine #793), presented in its original 1.66:1 aspect ratio from a 4K restoration.[1](https://www.criterion.com/films/28763-the-american-friend) • [2](https://wimwendersstiftung.de/en/film/the-american-friend/)
## References
1. [The American Friend, The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/films/28763-the-american-friend)
2. [The American Friend, Wim Wenders Stiftung](https://wimwendersstiftung.de/en/film/the-american-friend/)
3. [Everyone Is Guilty: The Films of Patricia Highsmith, Film Noir Foundation](https://www.filmnoirfoundation.org/noircitymag/Patricia-Highsmith.pdf)
4. [The American Friend movie review (1977), Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-american-friend-1977)
5. [The American Friend, BFI Southbank Programme Notes](https://bfidatadigipres.github.io/big%20screen%20classics/2025/08/05/american-friend/)
6. [The American Friend Critic Reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/the-american-friend/critic-reviews/)
7. [The American Friend is a Tom Ripley movie that doesn't need Tom Ripley, The A.V. Club](https://www.avclub.com/the-american-friend-is-a-tom-ripley-movie-that-doesn-t-1798186176)
8. [The American Friend, Screen Slate](https://www.screenslate.com/articles/american-friend)
9. [The American Friend: Little Lies and Big Disasters, The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/3866-the-american-friend-little-lies-and-big-disasters)
10. ["At Home on the Road" – Wim Wenders Interviewed, Parallax View](https://parallax-view.org/at-home-on-the-road-wim-wenders-interviewed/)
11. [Adaptation: Patricia Highsmith, Film Comment](https://www.filmcomment.com/adaptation-patricia-highsmith/)
12. [Film Noir For the Baby Boomer Generation: Wim Wenders' "The American Friend", RogerEbert.com](https://www.rogerebert.com/streaming/film-noir-for-the-baby-boomer-generation-wim-wenders-the-american-friend)
13. [Wim Wenders: A Film Journal, Goethe-Institut](https://www.goethe.de/resources/files/pdf74/Wim_Wenders_-_A_Film_Journal_-_VIEW.pdf)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Film noir and neo-noir films › Released 1977 to 2022*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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