Night Crossing

The movie Night Crossing captures the feelings experienced by the vast majority of East Germans during the period 1961-89. I lived in West Berlin during most of 1967 and travelled through The Wall into East Berlin on a weekly basis. Why? Excitement, crossing a border into a Soviet governed country, experiencing the smells and the feel of East Germany, which is why Night Crossing is excellent, it captures that very feeling, and it is exciting. I was arrested by the Vopos in Checkpoint Charlie and accosted by a man in his leather coat and dark glasses I am led to believe was Stasi. When I watch the movie I can smell cheap diesel and cooking oil, I can see the outdated vehicles, the drab clothing the public wore and the lacklustre produce in shop windows. It brings back memories of realising just how lucky I was to live in a free country. In 1988, I toured the DDR from East to West, North to South. East Germany had changed little since 1967. The Trabants, constantly breaking down, were still the main mode of private motorised transport, the shops still featured nothing much to tempt me, uniforms were still commonplace, but the people, the ordinary people were open and nice once you had gained their trust. Watch Night Crossing, it's as close to the truth as any movie you will see on divided Germany, even closer than two other favourites The Spy Who Came In From The Cold and Funeral In Berlin.

I use this at school with my aviation class in our hot air ballooning unit. Students are now so far removed from the time of "The Iron Curtain" that they find it hard to believe this is a true story. Fortunately there are plenty of newspaper clips online to prove it. The balloon in the movie is very close to what they actually built.

This movie is well done, after the first 10 minutes the class sits very quiet and gets caught up in the suspense and action. Don't know if I would recommend it for young children because of some of the violence. But great for middle school and above, and a special treat for those of us who remember the day the wall came down.

I was surprised as I watched this movie, how much it had 'encaptured' me. No the actors didn't act like typical 'Hollywood' actors, but that's not always bad either, as this film proves. Quite different from the Disney standard, it is a refreshing turn none-the-less! They also give you a taste of what it was probably like without being 'educational'. A movie everyone should both see and enjoy. Many people love arguing over 'accuracies' in any movie of this type, but just getting the basic idea has plenty to offer. Mild gripe; East and West Germany, viewed on any map, would have West Germany on the left side, East to the right. The movie at times, sets you back slightly, because about half of the scenes have West Germany on the right side of the screen, and other times on the left side. Even during the same events, they shift back and forth. Perhaps, just a little more consistency would have avoided this mild distraction. Go See It!

Set in East Germany from 1978-79, the film follows two men Peter Strelzyk (John Hurt) and Gunter Wetzel (Beau Bridges) who following the death of Josef Keller's (Ian Bannen) eldest son on a boarder crossing attempt and the toll it takes on Joesf and the rest of the Kellers both emotionally and through retribution of the East Germany government hatch a plan to cross into West Germany through use of a hot air balloon. As they two work on their plan, not only must they contend with typical trial & error as well as disagreements from family members, but must also elude suspicions from party loyalist neighbors and the Police.

Night Crossing is based upon the true story of the real-life balloon escape of the Strelzyk and Wetzel families from East Germany that occurred in the Fall of 1978. The story was discovered by the wife of Walt Disney Producer Tom Leetch who brought the story to her husband who in turn brought it to then VP of production Ron Miller. As both Strelzyk and Wetzel families ad watched Disney films via illicit West German TV signals when they had lived in East Germany, the families accepted Disney's offer out of five other potential investors. Both families were flown to Los Angeles where they recorded nearly 20 hours of interviews for producer Leetch and writer John McGreevey with filmmakers doing an extensive recreation of the East/West German boarder costing nearly $300,000 alone. Upon release the movie went mostly ignored at the box office making back only $8 million against it's $10 million budget and critical reception was mostly mixed with Siskel and Ebert disliking the film and even reviews that recommended the film such as Janet Maslin of the New York Times tended to preface their reviews by calling attention to some of the more hokey lines of dialogue in the film. While the movie isn't a flawless telling of this story, I think it does an adequate job in taking us through the major points so that you understand this event and the people involved in it.

In terms of the acting, much like other western productions of non-English speaking the film features a mixture of American and British actors speaking in English while playing German characters and german accents inconsistently applied to members of the supporting cast (usually the more antagonistic characters who are working against the two families). This boils down to a pet peeve of my where I feel if you're going to do this sort of thing where characters who aren't English are speaking English, just ditch the accents for everyone because as long as everyone's already speaking English, just have them use their natural voices rather than inconsistently applying accents because it only serves to break the immersion. I will say that for what the actors are called to do, John Hurt, Beau Bridges, Jane Alexander, and Glynnis O'Connor are all good in their roles and do well in the interpersonal drama, the only major sticking point is probably with the kid characters who are clearly trying their best, but there's that typical stiffness that comes from people writing children less as characters and more as idealizations of what people think kids are like such as the nadir scene where John Hurt's Peter is set to give up only for his son Frank to give a rousing bit of encouragement complete with team patches he made which is an example of the film trying to hammer its attempts at pathos a step too far.

I will say that from a technical point of view, Night Crossing does everything you hope for from a movie like this such as showcasing the building of the balloon, the tests of trial and error, and the paranoia of being found out with the fate of the Keller boy's ill fated boarder run using a hijacked bulldozer only to be riddled with bullets (possibly the reason this isn't on Disney+) periodically playing in the back of our minds as the looming threat of death or imprisonment hangs over us throughout the runtime. The two major ballooning sequences are well shot and filled with a mixture of tension as well as awe and wonder and coupled with a great score by the always reliable Jerry Goldsmith we're given both sweeping majesty and palpable tension.

Night Crossing has a number of flaws that often accompany these true story movies, but with a dedicated cast and crew and a fairly on point execution of the events, the movie is a decent way of experiencing this real life story. You're enjoyment will depend on your level of forgiveness for some of the hokiness or stiltedness that comes from Disney's approach to the material, but Night Crossing is a decent film.

This movie has been enjoyed by our family numerous times. The first time, I stayed on the edge of my seat during the entire movie. Even subsequent viewings give me goosebumps and cause excitement and tears. I consider this movie to be one of my absolute top 5 favorites. It is very well written and the actors do a fine job of making you care about them. Families who would like their children to get a feel of what life was like in East Germany before the Berlin Wall came down should definitely see this movie.