Oliver Hartwin German Cannibal

 I just saw the movie Grimm Love which details the lives of Oliver Hartwin, a cannibal and his victim Simon Brombeck. It is based on the real life story of Armin Meiwes. This movie is considered a horror film due to it's grotesque story line however it falls into the category of a crime drama in my opinion.
The crime occurred in Germany roughly a decade ago and the movie has also gone by the names Butterfly and Rosenberg(spelled Rohtenburg).
It's a sick, twisted tale of two men and the woman who decided to study and do her thesis on this crime for her criminal psychology class.
Oliver Hartwin is the cannibal, the man who spent much of his life caring for his sickly Mother who appeared to be somewhat manipulative and controlling. His victim Simon Brombeck was the willing participant. Willing? You're probably wondering. Who would willingly participate in his own cannibalism? Simon Brombeck. His Mother committed suicide when he was nine years old after she saw him playing doctor with another little boy. Apparently she couldn't stand the thought of her son being gay. As it turns out he was gay. He spent his entire life blaming himself for his Mother's suicide.
Oliver Hartwin began looking for his first victim after his mother died. He went online and started visiting cannibalism sites to satiate his sick desire.
Soon he found Simon Brombeck. His willing victim. Oliver only wanted to eat the flesh and Simon wanted him to eat his penis first. In fact Simon had visited male prostitutes and begged them to bite his penis off.
Oliver Hartwin made a videotape of his actions which the college student later attempted to get and managed to. Needless to say she was horrified by what she saw and it probably changed her forever.
Oliver Hartwin consumed 51 pounds of Simon Brombeck and went back online to find another victim. This time people realized he was serious and he was soon captured and sent to a mental facility.

One of the questions that comes up in this film is the loneliness both men felt. Granted they both appeared to live very desolate lives. One with an imaginary friend that he never really seemed to get rid of and the other who was living with his partner but was still not satisfied. It seems he just wanted to die. Unfortunately in a very sick, twisted fashion. It seems hiring someone to kill him would have been a better option but perhaps he wanted to feel the utter pain and agony of being cut up rather than having a quick. far less painless death.
Nevertheless when does sick become too sick for even the most depraved individual?
As the old saying goes, "Sometimes truth is far stranger than fiction". Sometimes truth and reality are far sicker than any fictional horror story someone can write.

Another theme to the film was what makes us so different from them? Well, for one almost no one acts on a fantasy that sick but how many people fantasize about something so depraved that it blows the human mind? It is something so far beyond reality or so we think that our human minds cannot comprehend the depravity of it all.
Filmmakers put their depraved thoughts on the screen every day but it is for purely entertainment purposes and nothing more.

I did a little research online and found a blog that details movies. I was surprised to see how very different our takes were on the movie. While the other blogger goes into detail about the restricting lifestyles each man has and how this cripples them which it does I attack it from a far different perspective.
Once I started watching this movie while I thought it a little too depraved for my taste which is rare I was also fascinated by it.

It is based on the Armin Meiwes case. Surprisingly, the plot is very close to the movie adaptation of the characters. Mr. Meiwes published an ad online looking for a willing victim he could consume and Brandes came forward to be that victim. Brandes took a large amount of painkillers, alcohol and sleeping pills before becoming the ultimate victim. He insisted on having his penis severed by being bitten off but that didn't work so Meiwes cut it off with a knife and ate some of it and tried to feed some of it to Brandes but he couldn't eat it saying it was too tough. Meiwes then sauteed it in a pan with, salt, pepper, wine and garlic but it was inedible so he fed it to his dog. Meiwes eventually killed Brandes(by stabbing him in the throat) in a room he had built just for this purpose, a room he called the slaughter room. Meiwes read a star trek book while Brandes lay in a bathtub bleeding. After Brandes died he hung him on a meat hook. He even tried to grind his bones into flour.
Meiwes took great effort in preparing the room beforehand, getting everything needed and doing research into slaughtering a human being like an animal. It took ten months for him to completely consume his victim.
There is a video that journalists have reportedly seen but it has never been released to the public. I'm not sure anyone would want to see it or would be ready for it.
Meiwes was finally arrested in December 2002 after a college student saw new advertisements for more victims and called the police who then searched his home and found the videotape along with body parts.
Unfortunately, after the sadistic killing Meiwes was only convicted of manslaughter and sent to prison for eight years. But in April 2005 a German court ordered a new trial. This time he was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
There has been considerable debate over whether Meiwes should have been convicted at all being that Brandes agreed to his killing. Unfortunately, Brandes is not alive today to tell his side of the story and confirm or deny Meiwes story so we have only Meiwes side of it. If at any time after the butchering started if Brandes had wanted to back out would Meiwes have stopped? We will never know. Was Brandes in any kind of mental state to decide whether he wanted to live or die?
One thing is for sure, other victims had already backed out of his twisted fantasy so Meiwes must have been getting frustrated at this point that there had not yet been a willing victim. He wanted to satiate his sick desire and eventually I believe he would have done so whether the victim was willing or not.
Websites have been created honoring Meiwes with people looking for victims. Personally I think websites advertising for criminal activity should be shut down immediately and honestly they should never be opened in the first place. What kind of a web host allows such activity to go on without taking action against the websites owner?
It is estimated there are more than 800 cannibals in Germany.
I was quite surprised at how close the movie adaptation was to the real crime.

I've found a few websites out there who put a comical spin on the murder and while I found one of them somewhat amusing there is nothing amusing about killing someone even if that person says he wants to be killed. It is not our right to decide who lives and who dies.

The movie is called Grimm Love. I found it to be an interesting movie. It's subject line is of course very dark. If you are of the faint of heart then I do not recommend this movie. And let me repeat this is not suitable for children only adults in my opinion.
The movie stars Keri Russell and is out right now at BlockBuster.