La ville écartelée

This is film is one of the best true-life adaptations of an historical event - The Berlin Airlift. It was made on location in Berlin with the full cooperation of the US Military who actually played minor acting roles with the exception of the principal actors. The movie does an excellent job in portraying the bleak situation that the Berliners had to endure as a result of the Soviet blockade along with all the wrecked structures all of the city and the hording of black market staples such as coffee and coal. The most interesting portrayal in this film is the Paul Douglas character of that of an American seargant who has no love for the Germans and goes out of his way to be rude and act like a true "occupation" taking revenge out on a former Nazi prison guard that tormented him while he was a prisoner.

Its probably the most realistic portrayal of an American soldier after the war when technically the US Army was an occupation force along with the British and French. In addition, the portrayal of the German widow who really hated the Americans was probably realistic as well. These characters seemed more than stereotypes which was common in films portraying the political situation at the time. It does a good job in showing how ordinary soldiers and people can have divided loyalties and wrestle with the adverse situation that befell them in Berlin at the time. Truly a time capsule of Postwar Berlin.

Part docu and part drama--it's a look at life in post-war Germany. It's entertaining and educational. Clift made this and "The Search" while in Germany in the late 1940s. Seeing Berlin as it was then-is shocking and eye opening. Then look at Syria, among other places today, and see how far we haven't come....

The shooting of the film on location in Germany is what makes the whole film work and memorable. The story in itself is not really that great, but probably it grasps our attention because of the surroundings: the ruins, the gloomy statues and the simple and down-to-earth life of the common people. Had it been a Hollywood stage production, there wouldn't have been much to it, but once the movie enters Berlin it gets to another level. The same goes for the acting. Acting among the local population with only two brought-in American actors in the cast ( the main characters ) must have been an inspiration.

This movie surprised me a little bit. From the title and the description of the movie on the DVD jacket, I was expecting to find almost a quasi-documentary about the Berlin airlift. There is some interesting stuff about the airlift. The challenges of flying in and out of Berlin in the era seem to be well documented, and there was what seemed to me to be a wholly authentic picture of American military life in that era, heightened by the fact that aside from Montgomery Clift and Paul Douglas, all the military personnel portrayed played themselves. Having said that, the movie really turned out to be more of a slice of life depiction of what it was like to live in Berlin during these post-war years, and especially during the airlift.

The movie focuses really on the budding relationship between Sgt. MacCullough (Clift) and a German woman he meets and falls in love with (played very well by an actress named Cornell Borchers.) As we watch their relationship develop we are introduced to the situation in Berlin - a city still largely in ruins 5 years after the end of World War II, food and electricity in short supply, hopelessly divided into the different zones of occupation, some Germans struggling with a Nazi legacy, others co-operating with the Russians just to survive, and (in the greatest irony of all) a people totally dependent on the Western allies (who had so recently been their enemies) for their survival. Douglas offered a pretty good portrayal of an American soldier (Kowalski) who had been held in a German POW camp during the War and who struggled with his anti-German feelings all the way through. After being a bit taken aback to discover that this movie wasn't what I had expected it to be, I ended up getting quite caught up in the story. As a very early piece of Cold War movie-making propaganda, it obviously glorifies the American ideal, but it's pretty well put together and enjoyable all the way through. 7/10

To say that a film is dated because it was shot on location in 1950 (which, I suppose, is history for most of us now) is pretty inadequate. If anything makes this film still interesting it is BECAUSE it was shot on location in 1950. As a young German who only knows a wealthy comfortable democratic Germany I find the very setting the most intriguing, as is the case with the more serious "Germania anno Zero" by Rosselini. The film has its values, however, but is, admittedly, more on the entertaining side. Nice to spot later Haimatfilm and TV favourites in a Hollywood production. If you like Berlin and don't mind an "old" look, watch Billy Wilder's "One, Two, Three", shot 10 years later. To me as funny as "Some Like it Hot", and that means VERY funny.