"The lives of others"

[galtgulch]

I believe that this movie just won Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards.

My wife and I saw it with friends who had grown us under Hitler in western Germany and they loved it too.

The film opens in a classroom where the lecturer is instructing on matters of interrogation. It is gripping and one can imagine the daily experience of fear in anyone who questions anything about the system.

I recall my reluctance to even read We The Living because of my childhood dread of totalitarian dictatorships. This movie confirms all my fears about such a state but it is endurable. The transformation of the instructor is startling and hard to believe.

Even harder to believe would be for Hollywood to ever make such a movie. Do not miss this one. The Lives of Others

galt

[Chris Grieb]

Galt; Hollywood didn't make the film. It was made in Germany. As I pointed out in another post anti-Communist films are being made in the former Soviet bloc countries. Anti-Communist films are not being made in Hollywood. I think some people in Hollywood wish the Soviet Union were back.

Edited March 20, 2007 by Chris Grieb

[Reidy]

Just want to second all the praise this movie has been getting on the O-web. When people started recommending it I feared it was another boring political lesson that Objectivists don't need to learn anyway. It is in fact a masterpiece of dramatic art, fully worthy of its critical and commercial success.

[Robert Jones]

I saw it and loved it. It was especially better in the original German (which I speak fluently), as the subtitles didn't pick up on the shades of difference between German and English. Ulrich Muehe's performance was a real tour-de-force!

[galtgulch]

Grieb, You said:

>>>"Galt; Hollywood didn't make the film. It was made in Germany. "<<<

I thought I made it clear in my post that I knew it was not made in Hollywood. My comment that "Even harder to believe would be for a film like this to ever be made in Hollywood" clearly meant that Hollywood is so sympathetic to and apologetic for totalitarian socialism that it is beyond making a movie of this kind. I think you must have read my statement too fast and misunderstood it.

I agree with your comment about the appeal of this movie to the general population. It has tremendous psychological and dramatic power in its portrayal of individuals struggling to be free to exercize their own judgment and to criticize the gang in power.

The attraction of the Hillary Clinton Big Brother uTube video adds plausibility to the contention that such appeal exists in this country, moreso by the younger generation.

The opportunity for a pro freedom candidate to get elected at any level lies ahead.

galt

Edited March 21, 2007 by galtgulch

[Ross Barlow]

I finally got to see *The Lives of Others* tonight. I had to go to a seedy old theater in downtown Bangkok to catch it, but I’m glad I did. I absolutely loved it.

I wish Ayn Rand could have lived to see this movie. I highly recommend it. It portrays a Stasi officer in East Germay before the end of the Cold War who watches his system work its corruption and ruin on real people. We see the lives of intellectuals and artists who are trapped within a society of “actually-existing socialism.” Can good men preserve their goodness in such a brutal world? Socialism sucks.

Try to see this movie.

-Ross Barlow.

[Robert Jones]

I finally got to see *The Lives of Others* tonight. I had to go to a seedy old theater in downtown Bangkok to catch it, but I’m glad I did. I absolutely loved it.

I wish Ayn Rand could have lived to see this movie. I highly recommend it. It portrays a Stasi officer in East Germay before the end of the Cold War who watches his system work its corruption and ruin on real people. We see the lives of intellectuals and artists who are trapped within a society of “actually-existing socialism.” Can good men preserve their goodness in such a brutal world? Socialism sucks.

Try to see this movie.

-Ross Barlow.

Ross: Be careful. Islamocommunism coming to a town near you in Thailand. Keep five years, Rob't.

[John Dailey]

~ Haven't seen it...yet. Will look for it.

~ From all I've read of this thread so far, can't help but think of how Einstein (and, ergo, pretty well ALL people, including 'us' Americans) see political systems. Clearly, most peoples of the world (including 'US'), especially Eastern Europe, saw (and still do) things this way. There're ONLY '2' types of political systems (let's not get lost in technical 'definitions'): there's 'fascism' (rule-by-one-'boss' [contemporary version of 'monarch']), and, there's 'communism/socialism' (supposed 'temp'-rule by a committee). The single boss version decides what's 'good-for-the-whole' whereas the committee-version decides...the same; either/both employ methods that neither would avoid and both would agree necessitates ignoring the needs, ergo 'rights' of any/all individuals for 'the(ir) greater vision,' and capitalism is merely a society-based hampering influence.

LLAP

J:D

Edited March 22, 2007 by John Dailey