Freiheit

Freiheit (1966)

*** (out of 4)

Good early short film from director George Lucas, which he made while being a student at USC. In the film, we see a boy (Randal Kleiser) running but from what we're not sure of at the start. We see him continuing to run when we realize that he's trying to get his freedom by going from East Germany and crossing over to West. For the most part this is a pretty good three-minute short, which certainly has a message to get across and the director is able to do that even with the short running time. I thought the cinematography was quite good throughout and Lucas really managed to build up a little tension. The use of the voices at the end was very effective as well. Fans of the director will certainly want to check this one out.

Another early George Lucas short - he's so serious about it he doesn't even go by his Christian name, goodness - and here it's basically just Randall Kleiser running, stopping, and then running some more before getting shot. Maybe it's this was Lucas's own warped take on the Richard Lester short (who was one of the director's early idols by the way) The Running Jumping Standing (etc) film. This could also be called the Running, Stopping, Panting, Running, Dying film. While it's title refers to the word 'Freedom' in German, it makes for an unsettling experience by how it's shot, by how little is explained (this was Lucas when he was in pure abstract-experimentation mode, discovering his voice through pure visual grammar, and any emotion came out of the force of the picture and editing), and that the voices in the last minute sound like they're taken from stock audio clips, not recorded by Lucas himself. It's certainly not terribly sophisticated as much as it thinks - it's a guy clearly being first given sight to the more heady concept of the 60's and post-JFK/Civil Rights era of thought - but the force of the filmmaking works in its favor, and Kleiser is an apt guy to personify it with his glasses and gangly physical demeanor.

"So of course freedom is worth dying for, because without freedom, we're dead."

Freiheit is the first short film from George Lucas where I feel like his main focus was writing. Especially the themes and somewhat character. Dialogues were pulled from recordings. I wasn't a fan of the score and sound design, but it was interesting for sure and I understand that in 1966 it was not easy to mix sound. The editing is good, except for one scene, where it's great. The cinematography introduces slow motion, which I haven't seen George Lucas do in his short films before, which also goes for the use of miniatures and matte paintings (in the opening titles). On the other hand I don't exactly know what the correct order is, since there aren't exact release dates for these shorts.

While looking at George Lucas's student films, it is easy to imagine the average person saying something along the lines of "Rather hard to believe that from these simplistic, brief movies one of the greatest filmmakers in cinematic history would develop". Yet given the context of the making of these shorts, I don't find it too difficult to project. The early independent movies of the infamous Lucas are indeed simple, with little or no plot, but they effectively feature some original and creative concepts, and showcase good craftsmanship to boot. "Look at Life" is brief but effectively edited with a nice music choice; "Herbie" makes use of some interesting cinematography and visuals topped with a pleasant jazz score. Not exceptional judging them from the standards of modern filmmaking, these two, but their ideas and the skills executed to show these ideas are top notch.

"Freiheit" is a great example of a student film from Lucas with a narrative to back it up. The story, in which a German student attempts to cross the Berlin border and reach safety, is short but is enhanced with the appropriate music choice, the solid acting of Randal Kleiser, and the camerawork that functions to add suspense. The finale is well-handled, and the voice-overs at the end that convey the theme on the importance of freedom is a wonderful finishing touch. I can well imagine Lucas's professor at the university being impressed with this work; for a student film, it is highly above the job an average person would do, and hence it is believable enough that the same man would go on to create on of the most popular film franchises in history. Sometimes all a film needs to be good is a successful point to drive home, and a decent story to bring that point across, and that's what this has.

I have not seen the complete movie, just the final minute available at USC website. It pretty much looks like an early version of "Electronic Labyrinth" (1967), and perhaps an early thought on the final moments of "THX 1138" (1971). It has never been clear to me what happens to THX after he goes to the surface. Like in this little short movie, you sympathize all the time with the quest for freedom of the main character, even if you don't know exactly what he is running from. In "Labyrinth" and "THX", you are not sure if he succeeds. In "Freiheit", it is clear what happens. May be the most interesting Lucas student film, after "Electronic Labyrinth".