The Lives of Others [Blu-ray]
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Movie Reviews of The Lives of Others [Blu-ray]
Movie Review: Das Leben der Anderer, one of the best movies I've seen in ages, I still can't get it out of my head....
Summary: 5 Stars
Other reviewers did a great job of telling the story of this fabulous work; simply an East German Stasi officer (Ulrich Muhe) goes through awakening and transformation while spying on a successful author (Sebastian Koch) and his actress/girlfriend (Martina Gedack).
I don't have much to enhance the retelling of the story. I found out by reading other reviews that Florien Hinkle von Donnersmarck is a first time director, which added to my fascination with this collectively successful work.
Aside from the magnificent performance by Ulrich Muhe, whose death is a big loss to cinema every where, I could not help but notice the smart selection of actors. Koch and Gedack are both attractive people who actually know how to act, which is a real change from the usual Hollywood package of beauty and scant talent. Cars, furniture, interrogation room and even monitoring equipment comfortably belonged to the era of the movie (5 years before the fall of Berlin Wall). I was amazed how similar the electrical wiring of the door bells to those in other parts of the world were totalitarian governments ruled.
Other reviewers understandably noted some unrealistic points, for instance, if Weisler/Ulrich Muhe was such a good person, he would not be a Stasi officer to start with, or how impossible it is to get away with what he did under such an oppressive regimen. I, on the other hand, think it is very understandable for somebody experienced with the system to know how to clean up after him self. The character, also, showed a loyal honest belief in the system that he swore to protect in addition to his strict and semi/robotic professionalism. Weisler's transformation did not materialize out of no where; he unlike his school friend/boss chose to be an educator(or so he thought) in the Stasi academy, He was opposed to spying on people for reasons other than protecting the system, and he also longed for love and passion (even with a prostitute). Weisler simply is every person, with good and bad qualities, who has the courage to question himself and make choices. In reality, similar totalitarian governments would not even try to dig for evidence against Dreyman, they could simply have him vanish, without explanation, to some prisons (hint, hint).
Irrespective of the director and writer's vision, I'm still saddened by how similar governments around the world pilfer good ideas and transform them into their own corrupt systems. Stasi was the East German name of a sick system that has different names in different parts of our world. If only Marx knew how his ideas would be used to help one group enslave another. If only we all understood that books and religions can be used to enslave us as well as free us.
I'm amazed by this movie, what adds to my amazement is how much this master piece has been understood and appreciated by so many people. It seems like there is still hope; I'm grateful I was introduced to this movie.
Movie Review: Hard Work
Summary: 2 Stars
Selective sub-titles drove me mad. I wanted to enjoy this after all the hype but afraid it just didn't do it for me. I have no criticism of the acting but there was a huge communication gap and it merely drove me to sleep.Movie Review: The Evils of Communism
Summary: 5 Stars
This superbly directed film by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck which clearly demonstrates the abominable lack of freedom which was the stark reality in 1984 behind the 'former' Moscow controlled, communist, Iron Curtain satellite of East Germany.
The very accomplished, but regretfully now deceased actor Ulrich M?he , himself born in the former East Germany, rivetingly plays the role of Gerd Wiesler, a East German secret police (Stasi) captain, eavesdropping on a celebrated playwright Georg Dreyman played by the wonderful actor Sebastian Koch, of 'Black Book' fame, and his live in girlfriend, portraying an accomplished GDR actress Christa-Maria Sieland, expertly delivered by Martina Gedeck.
This movie should not be missed!
The East Germany in this movie was where the current dictator of Russian was previously stationed as a KGB colonel, and now this neo-Soviet butcher is attempting to forcible reestablish his precious Soviet totalitarian empire by initially invading the small independent Caucasus country of Georgia. Which nation is next on the Kremlin's invasion list?
If Western leadership does not quickly awaken from its self-inflicted slumber and confront Moscow & their cohorts, many of us in the Free World shall be languishing in the very nightmare depicted in 'The Lives of Others', except this time the 'others' shall be 'us'!
Movie Review: Kudos to Ulrich Muhe
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the story of an East German Stasi officer sent to tape record the activities of a man so that he can be eliminated from the picture so that a higher party official can get his hands on the man's girlfriend.
However, thanks to the presence of the East German cinema's late Ulrich Muhe (who was himself followed by the Stasi) this movie is so much, much more. As the film progresses we watch as the dutiful Muhe receives his charge, begins to carry it out and becomes both disenchanted and ultimately noncooperative in the process.
To my eye, it would seem that in reality anyone with the gravitas that Muhe had wouldn't have been able to function as a Stasi officer in the first place. But movies are wonderful places where you suspend your disbeliefs along with your diet, eat the buttered popcorn and settle in to the movies alternate reality.
Like Run, Lola, Run and Goodbye Lenin, this is another extraordinary product of a German cinema that's finally ready to move on and make movies about events that occured after 1945 as well as those that occured before.
Movie Review: Totally excellent
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie, with excellent and easy English subtitles, is elaborate and subtle but totally clear. It is about a Totalitarian government (The GDR or "East Germany" before Reagan forced the USSR to tear down the Berlin Wall) which wants to KNOW EVERYTHING about you, ostensibly to protect the Socialist State against its enemies. The "Stasi" or state police, like all puffed up self serving bureaucracies, love to develop and maintain "files" on everyone and they see in this activity great potential for career advancement. The Stasi are the vilest of bureaucrats using any method to turn people against each other and to develop "informants" who in turn betray their friends, leading to personal and professional ruination or imprisonment. The heroes battle this system and the plot turns on the inner transformation of one of the Stasi officials. Great Movie.