The Lives of Others [Blu-ray]
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Movie Reviews of The Lives of Others [Blu-ray]
Movie Review: Excellent Film
Summary: 5 Stars
I could not be happier with this film! Without any expectations, I found myself completely enveloped by this film, enraptured at the edge of my seat until the credits started to roll (and then how disappointed that it was all over!).
Ulrich Muhe was excellent as Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler. The evolution of his interest and involvement in the lives of his subjects is so interesting. It is a slow paced film, but all the details flow rapidly making this film irresistible once you have started watching.
Although sad and heart breaking at parts, I thought this film was beautiful. The compassion and love humans can show to people is astounding--especially given the bleak setting for this story, it is even more astounding.
This is a must see for anyone interested in cold war politics, oppressive governments, post-war Germany, or those interested in a film about the complexities of the human spirit and the ability to overcome external oppression. Highly recommend.
Movie Review: Chilling dramatization of socialist paradise
Summary: 5 Stars
American college campuses overflow with devotees of Communism. The media are loaded with people who think Che Guevera was a hero and that the United States was wrong for resisting Communism.'
And then along comes a movie like "The Lives Of Others". Yes, it is a dramatization. No, the Stasi did not lavish two or more full time agents on a relatively minor dissident like the playwright here, Georg Dreyman. Yes, Communist bureaucrats did destroy the lives of others, as the Minister of Culture does here in pursuit of Dreymans girlfriend, Christa-Maria Sieland.
The hero is Hauptmann Wiesler, a Stasi Colonel. Tasked to nail Dreyman for something, anything, Wiesler becomes disillusioned as he realizes that his venal boss is so willing to destroy lives in order to curry favor with his higher-ups. Wiesler becomes sympathetic to his intended prey, which is unlikely to have happened in the real German Democratic Republic worker's paradise.
Bit by bit, Wiesler becomes a subversive himself as he discovers his own humanity.
The cat-and-mouse game between hunted and hunter, state servant and obsequious bureaucrat builds to somewhat predictable, but still suspenseful climax, as the Communist bureaucrats are flummoxed.
The end of the film plays out against the fall of the Wall and the dissolution of the German Communist state. Wiesler's Stasi is no more. The corrupt Communist leaders become ordinary citizens, stripped of their powers over the lives of others. Dreyman goes on to prosper in the new freedom, still haunted by his experience. Wiesler, once a godlike figure over his hapless victims, becomes a victim himself, but a noble one.
Overall, a chilling story and an honest metaphor for the horror that was a Communist nation where no one had a right to privacy.
Jerry
Movie Review: Low-key but effective creepiness
Summary: 5 Stars
Most films that deal with life in the Soviet bloc focus on the large and the loud -- escapes, car chases, beatings and close calls. "The Lives of Others" draws our attention to the small acts of oppression and resistance, cowardice and bravery that made up the lives of ordinary people during this sad era.
Grim-faced Hauptmann Wiesler (brilliantly played by Ulrich M?he ) is the chief of surveillance for the Stasi, the East German secret police. He is a serious and efficient true believer in the socialist state, devoted to catching and punishing those whose ardor for the government was insufficient. Eternally suspicious (usually for good reasons) he is given the job of surveilling Georg Dreyman, a successful playwright whose popularity in the West makes him suspect. But the corruption of GDR officials eats at him, as does his attraction to the beauty of the playwright's girlfriend, actress Christa-Maria Sieland (Martina Gedeck). Monitoring bugs planted in the playwright's apartment, he gains a peephole into the tortured world of artists under pressure form government to conform. Listening in on careful conversations and lovemaking, Wiesler begins to compromise his hard-line stance, getting caught up in the same skein of lies and evasions that has caught his targets.
The film is a masterwork of understatement, and intelligent look at a totalitarian system that controls less by outright violence than by threats of lost opportunities to attend college or work at one's chosen occupation. A chilling vision into a dystopic and very depressing political system, into the lives of those trying to survive in it, and of the awakening of conscience on both sides of the surveillance microphone.
Movie Review: Humanity blooms in Cold War Germany
Summary: 4 Stars
In Cold War East Germany, a Stasi spy, who at first glance appears to be lacking in humanity, listens in on the lives of playwright Georg Dreyman and his girlfriend, Christa, in an attempt to expose Dreyman as a subversive. In the process, however, the spy finds himself becoming more and more involved in the lives of Georg and Christa.
For the most part, I agree with what other reviewers have said about "The Lives of Others". Yes, this is a well made film that makes you truly understand what life was like in Cold War East Germany and I was fascinated by the character of Captain Weisler (Ulrich Muhe), the spy who listens in on "the lives of others". Watching Weisler's humanity bloom over the course of the film is a testament to how well this film is directed and to what a great actor Muhe is. However, for me, this film was let down by the fact that, even after 2 hours, I just didn't feel anything for Georg and Christa and didn't care whether they lived or died. I think this is in part due to the nature of the film. This is a film about voyeurism, and voyeurism is all about watching rather than participating. At the end of the film, I felt like I had watched Georg and Christa, but I didn't feel like I was a part of their lives. Then again, this feeling made me feel like I was in the same place as Capt. Weisler and I understood him all the more because of it.
Overall, this is not my favourite foreign language film of all time, nor is it the best that I have see - I'm not sure if I would have given it the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar if it was up to me. Nevertheless, it is an excellent film and worth watching at least once.
Movie Review: Beautifully Emotional
Summary: 5 Stars
What a wonderful film! Direction is so precise; the story takes surprise turns, and the ending makes you cry. I did not believe this movie would affect me this much. Moreover, art direction is superb. Characters are portrayed as REAL people, by gifted actors. I liked the language being German with subtitles. German movies with actors speaking English are totally phony. I'm glad Hollywood didn't make this film.