The Lives of Others

One of the things I did in between studying and writing was watch the movie Das Leben der Anderen (released with English subtitles as The Lives of Others). While such a statement from me is problematic due to how few movies I watch, I’ll say it anyway: it was one of the best movies I’ve seen in a long time. I think my feelings on it are correct though, because it seems that it has scored well across the board, both with critics and everyone else. At Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 93% (!) rating.

The movie takes place in the early 80s in East Germany, beginning, indeed, in 1984. Whether that was a coincidence in plotting or a nod to Orwell, I don’t know. The plot focuses on the Stasi, and specifically on one agent, Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler, spying on a playwright and his girlfriend. Why is the Captain spying on them? Because one of the top dogs in the Stasi hierarchy wants his girlfriend, and so wants the playwright out of the way. As Georg, the playwright remarks at one point, “To think that people [like that] ruled a country.”

I won’t give away how the plot progresses or how the movie ends, because I’m hoping that you’ll rent it and watch it. I know that many people dislike watching a movie with subtitles, which is what you’ll have to do if you don’t speak German, but it really is worth the trouble. Ulrich Mühe did a truly amazing job in portraying the almost soulless agent, the “little gray man” as Ebert called him. While the other actors and actresses were all good, Mühe made the film; without him, it probably wouldn’t have worked.

Not only was the movie excellent entertainment-wise, with some of the most tense moments I’ve experienced while watching a film, it also opened my eyes to German history beyond the Nuremberg Trials. In my interest obsession with World War 2, my advancing through German history stalled and eventually stopped. I knew that Berlin had been split between the Western Allies and the Russians, and that East Germany was communist, but that was about where my post-WW2 German history knowledge stopped. The movie has led me to start looking into later events, particularly in regards to East Germany, and I must say: it’s not pretty. I’ve not read a huge amount on the Stasi, by any reckoning, but what I have read is pretty awful. Simon Wiesenthal, the famed Nazi hunter, once remarked that, “The Stasi was much, much worse than the Gestapo, if you consider only the oppression of its own people.”

Poking into the history of the Stasi, however, will be saved for a later post; for now, take my advice. Go out, rent Das Leben der Anderen, and watch it. If you’re disappointed with it, you can come back here and yell (or type in all caps) at me. I won’t mind. (Not that it’ll happen, mind you - you’ll enjoy the movie.)