La ville écartelée

Just saw The Big Lift. Bought the DVD for 3 dollars. Out-dated since it was filmed on location in Berlin in 1950 at the beginning of the Cold War. However, the camera work, the on-location shots, the use of real military people as actors, and the out-standing performances by Monty Clift and Paul Douglas make this an entertaining night at the movies.

The acting is so good, it doesn't seem like a film at all. Somewhat slow in parts, but overall pretty good. Even a surprise ending. Paul Douglas steals the movie & there is one very disturbing scene in the film in which he is fantastic. Also, you get to see how really handsome Monty Clift really was before the car accident and party-life style aged him way before his time.

Spooky airlift film in which the bad seem good and visa versa. This movie was made in 1950. As such, Berlin is accurately portrayed as a destroyed city. Portrayed is perhaps the wrong word. The reason is because the city was still a giant rubble pile. Great dialogue and excellent story make this the premiere film concerning the American and British airlift to save Berlin from the Soviets. The malevolent opportunism demonstrated by the German locals, lend a tragic, yet realistic touch to this movie. Lovelorn American servicemen eat up female German desperation, and thus the stage is set for tragedy.

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.

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.

Montgomery Clift had made his screen debut in 1947 in The Search and in the short period of four years made some films considered now as classics. He was also in Red River. The Heiress, and A Place in the Sun. The Big Lift doesn't belong in that category.

Still it's an intriguing idea that George Seaton. With only five actors in the plot, have the rest of the film be actual army personnel and German civilians. And the amateur cast does fine playing themselves. I guess it saved a whole lot salary. It gives the movie a documentary feel to it.

Monty and Paul Douglas are two American GIs participating in The Berlin Airlift. This was America and it's allies Great Britain and France in a joint effort to airlift supplies into Berlin after Stalin closed off ground access to Berlin in an effort to force the other three occupying powers out of Berlin.

It was a great propaganda victory for the west at the beginning of the Cold War. Fed a hungry city at the same time calling Joe Stalin's bluff. One Harry Truman's best decisions as President, a win/win for sure.

The story involves Clift and Douglas and their interaction with some German civilians they hooked up with. Clift is a sensitive soul as he always is and Douglas is the rough hewn, but kindly type he usually is. They have differing views about the Germans from fighting them in the late War which was only five years old at the time The Big Lift was made.

Let us say that both of them learn something from their experiences by the time the film ends and the Berlin Airlift is officially over.

Not in the pantheon of great films for Clift and Douglas, but an interesting and in this case historical piece of cinema.