The Lives of Others Review

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Number 55 on the top 1000 films of all time is this intriguing German political thriller, the Lives of Others (Das Leben Der Anderen.)

Set in East Germany, five years before the fall of the Berlin Wall, Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Muhe) is a high-ranking officer in the East-German secret police-the Stasi.  He is told by his superiors to conduct surveillance on a prominent German playwright Georg Drayman (Sebastian Koch), who is suspected of authoring anti-government propaganda.  However, Wiesler's loyalties become compromised when he begins empathising with Drayman, ultimately leading him to make a decision which costs him everything.

This was an interesting watch for me.  Beyond the living conditions, 1980's Germany is not a time period that I know a lot about.  However, its depiction here is bleak, poignant and striking.  Audiences have praised this film for its realism, which I would agree with.  From the muted colours to the dull costumes, this film successfully conveys the horrible living conditions that East Germans were living under.  What made this better was how subtle the film was.  Everything was quiet and understated.  I expected this film to be brutal, maybe on 1984 levels, but it wasn't and I think it was all the better for this.  Rather than pyrotechnics and explosions, good writing fuelled this film and pushed it forwards .  There were many layers of political intrigue to uncover and I enjoyed picking each one apart.

Honestly, I didn't know what to expect and this film did surprise me.  Whilst it wasn't the easiest to follow, it was gripping and engaging.  At heart, it is a character drama and a great exploration of how these political systems can destabilise a person's psyche.  Nowhere is this more obvious than the the brilliantly written Gerd Wiesler.  He is very much a character looking for redemption.  He begins the film as a dedicated state official, but as he becomes closer to Drayman, his faith in the system is shaken.

 In the end, he helps him to escape detection at the expense of his own career.  Under the guise of a new play, Drayman and a few other authors are planning to write an expose of the oppressive political system.  When Wiesler discovers this, he tries his best to hide it for as long as possible.  When his superiors eventually find out and order for his apartment to be searched, Wiesler gets there first and hides the expose.  His internal torment at lying to his government is one of the most touching and poignant themes of the film.  It was a stark reminder of how men are capable of change.  Some men are victims of their government and will try to redeem themselves for their past act.

At the other end of the scale, you get Drayman's ambitious girlfriend Christa-Marie.  She rats Drayman out to advance her acting career.  Whilst Wiesler is a bad character who redeems himself, Christa goes the opposite direction.  For her own purposes, she betrays her boyfriend.  This is another example of how well this film works as a character drama.  The primary characters are developed well, all with fatal flaws.  They are soft humans in an incredibly tough system.  It is interesting that after Christa-Marie rats out Drayman, she then kills herself, as she cannot cope with the guilt.  In contrast, Wiesler is demoted to the worst-possible job for doing the "right" thing.  Both characters are influenced by guilt to do different things.  Wiesler starts to identify more and more with Drayman and feels that by betraying him, he will be persecuting an innocent man.  Christa-Marie cannot live with the guilt of her betrayal and kills herself.

All in all, this is an understated, but powerful drama.  Its exploration of East Germany is subtle, but poignant.  It is a great character drama with lots of twists and turns, which do make it a little difficult to follow at times.  Although, I think this is what makes the film so awesome.  Perhaps not on the same scale, but at some point, everyone would have had their loyalties divided.  The film ends with the unification of East and West Germany, which laid the paths of glory that Germany has followed.