Tunnel 28

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)

This is a film about the essential value of freedom. It tells the story of how 28 people run away from East Germany to West by digging a tunnel under the Belin wall. Filmed shortly after the wall was built, the move succeeds not only in showing the oppressive, almost claustrophobic everyday life in Eastern Germany but also in telling a story in an interesting, almost noir way. As the story begins, we see how Walter Brunner (Werner Klemperer) tries to escape from East Berlin to West by crashing his truck against the wall. We also see how Kurt Schröder (Don Murray) tries to convince him not to do it. He feels fine in east Berlin (at least that's what he says) as he has a comfortable job working as a chauffeur to an east German officer. As the movie goes on we can see how people live in East Berlin (as American point of view). I have found some interesting points in this film that appear in a quite imperceptible and yet poignantly way. People is not only afraid of being controlled or spied by the government itself but also by their neighbors. Although this is not major developed, we can clearly seen how Schröder's neighbor watches almost every movement they make, or how fear the family is when Marga (Maria Tober) speaks with two German soldiers and the family thinks she is reporting them. When the Spanish civil war ended another civil war began: neighbors reporting neighbors to be republican to obtain a gain or simply because they hated them. Human beings at their worst but also at their best, which we can see by helping others and giving them the chance to escape. Having been left apart from Hollywood industry due to communist accusations, Siodmak did not want to make a political film and that's why he made it an intrigue one as well. And he hit it. Surprisingly (or maybe not so) the film was considered a minor one and not a success nor in Western German (where it was found too soft) nor in France (where it was found too propagandistic) but it was in the U.S.A.

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.

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

For some reason, Turner Classic Movies here in the UK keeps showing this film at 5 or 6 in the morning. It deserves to be more widely known. As another reviewer noted, although it was made soon after the events that inspired it, it's no exploitation film. It's a solidly scripted and acted story with multidimensional characters. I wish more movies made now which are based on headlines were as thoughtful and respectful.

That said, the film's story only resembles the actual escape from East Berlin in the way that it shows 28 people fleeing from a tunnel. The real Tunnel 28 (as it was called, and this was an alternative title of the film; in a 1960s poster for it I saw in the Museum in the House at Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin, it was titled Tunnel 28) was built in May 1962 from a in a street in West Berlin that was close to the Wall; the tunnel ended in a basement in a house in East Berlin. It was not a family but a group of students who constructed the tunnel. They hoped to continue using the tunnel but the night after the 28 people escaped it was flooded by a burst pipe. I've read that some East Berliners hoped to reuse this tunnel during the following winter, after the water froze, but I don't know if this is true. Several people were told about it and when they came to find the tunnel's entrance they were arrested by the East German police.

Interestingly enough, the tunnel's building was financed by NBC in exchange for rights to exclusive footage of the students working on its construction and footage of refugees escaping. I've always wanted to see this documentary but I've never found a copy of it. Some of the NBC footage is featured in a recent German documentary `Der Tunnel - Die Wahre Geschichte' that interviews the builders. While filming this documentary researchers found remains of the tunnel that they dug.

I don't know why the writers of `Escape from East Berlin' felt that they had to change the story. I suppose it was to make it more like a suspense and adventure film. I'm glad that the story they wrote is sympathetic with the East Berliners' point of view and it is unsensational: it must have been a terrific temptation at the time to drive home the horrors of the situation and the horrors of Communism. It holds up very well, aside from one thing that annoyed me. How could people escape from such a narrow and meandering tunnel so quickly holding suitcases and luggage (including china)? In the actual tunnel escapes the refugees were told what the neighbour tells Erica's parents: bring nothing. Besides, carrying suitcases through the streets would have alerted the Stasi's suspicions immediately.