Fuga de Berlim Oriental

I watched the Berlin Wall come down in 1989. This film brings back some haunting memories. The despair of people realizing that they are trapped in the cage called East Berlin. And what we know about the Stasi--the East German secret police--makes me cringe realizing how everybody was spied upon.

Yes, the movie has a happy ending. But, while 28 people found freedom through the tunnel, think of those who lived out their days behind the wall.

I recently saw this movie on television and it was of interest to me because back in August 2006 I visited Germany for the first time and went to Berlin. I was accompanied by German friends who live in Hamburg. One of them was working in Berlin when the Wall fell in 1989.

While in Berlin I toured the Wall museum and of course visited Checkpoint Charlie. I am a baby boomer who grew up during the Cold War and I well remember the TV footage of the Wall and of people trying to escape. Escape from East Berlin may seem rather old-fashioned today but I thought it was a gritty, true-to-life type of film, even if liberties were taken with the actual events of Tunnel 28.

It was interesting that while my German friends and I drove through Berlin, they would constantly inform me "now we are in The East" or "now we are in the West"...the same thing when we were on the Autobahn...apparently Germans still refer to "East" and "West"...it will probably take a generation of two more before East and West Berlin and East and West Germany are relegated to history in the minds of the German people.

Elaine Clearwater FL

It's 1962 and the Berlin Wall has recently gone up. Kurt Schröder is the driver to East German Major Eckhardt and his wife Heidi. He witnesses his friend Günther Jurgens' failed crossing. Erika Jurgens starts looking for her missing brother Günther. She is also desperate to escape. After a misunderstanding with Kurt, she assumes that her brother escaped to the West when in reality, he died in the attempt.

This is a ripped-from-the-headlines story. It's an interesting premise. I don't know any of these actors. This movie might actually have some German content. The tunnel digging is not the most compelling except for the phone line issue. In the end, it's not the most intense movie, but it has a few interesting ideas.

After Berlin built the wall that divided Germany into East and West. A desperate young woman tries to cross and is stopped in time by a young man who prevents her from being shot by the guards, hiding her in his house, which is located right against the wall. The family devises a daring escape plan by digging a tunnel under the wall. The risk is deadly since if they are discovered they will be shot. Some neighbors aware of the plan join in working on the construction of the tunnel or carry out distractions for the soldiers who guard it. This is a great little movie. It is clear that its budget is modest but the director manages to load it with great suspense at times distressing. The cast is perfect in their roles, the music accompanies very well and the rhythm is dynamic. A film that has perfectly withstood the passage of time and continues to be one of the best in reflecting those sadly famous moments in history.

Based on the true story of an actual escape under the Berlin Wall, "Escape Form East Berlin" is a sometimes slow moving film that does manage to capture a bit of the atmosphere of the time. It was, of course, the height of the Cold War, with the Communists having built a wall dividing the Soviet occupied East Berlin, from the rest of the city, which was occupied by the British, French and Americans. The viewer certainly gets the point that paranoia is called for in East Berlin. There are guards and soldiers everywhere, and people have to be careful who they talk to and what they talk about. Even one's own family isn't necessarily going to keep confidences. The opening scenes are of an attempt to smash a truck through the wall, and the fate of the driver leaves us with no doubt that the Communist guards were quite willing to kill to ensure that no one escaped their socialist paradise. That atmosphere was captured well, although there was surprisingly little direct political commentary, aside from a few sarcastic comments on the lips of some of the characters about the "benefits" of a planned economy.

The movie mostly revolves around the effort to build a tunnel from the basement of a house near the Wall to the West. The main character is Kurt (Don Murray) - the driver to an East German major and his wife - who befriends the sister of the man killed in the opening escape attempt, and who (not realizing that her brother is dead) wants to join him in the west. Others find out about the plan and join in, and eventually there are 28 people who want to make their way through the tunnel. The last few minutes of the movie are quite suspenseful, as East German authorities try desperately to stop the escape attempt.

This is certainly a propaganda film. That much is obvious. It's also obvious that it was made pretty quickly. The actual escape on which it's based had only taken place a few months before the movie had its debut. Aside from Murray and Werner Klemperer, most of the cast are better known for their work in European films. It's a little bit uneven, but it's also an interesting portrayal of life behind the Berlin Wall. (6/10)