Is a very well-made movie about attempts to escape from the eastern part of Germany, where the Communist rain, to the free Alied Society of West Germany, due to the creation of a wall to teen years after the end of WWII. I have seen other movies on this topic, most memorably the 1981 TV movie "Berlin Tunnel 21" which appears to be about a completely different escape attempt. Nevertheless, the similarities and motives are very similar, and the cast, led by Don Murray and Christine Kaufmann, is excellent. Viewers will immediately recognize Werner Klemperer who comes in halfway through the film as a rather suspicious character, but fortunately turns out to be someone desperate to flee from the terrors of communism. The talented actor and artist had made a name for himself already on film, having appeared the year before in two films about the Nazi regime and their evils, "Judgment at Nuremberg" and "Operation Eichmann". Those expecting Colonel Klink in his performance will be sadly disappointed. To think that later he would go on to play a Jewish man harassed by Nazis in a successful revival of "Cabaret" shows the versatility of his talents, especially as a singer.
Every character here gets a chance to tell their story, giving an indication of why freedom is so important to them. This could have been a little more detailed and this a bit longer, and I wouldn't have minded. "Berlin Tunnel 21" was close to two and a half hours and I was never bored. The opening scene is fraught with tension, with a young man desperately trying to drive through the wall, making it out of his car which is on fire but being shot because he is covered in barbed wire. That sets the tone for the desperation of the 28 people who managed to make it through the tunnel. The filming of the escape scene itself seems to have been quite an event, even though the scene is done at night. Made wisely in black and white, that choice for the photography definitely adds the tension that this very well-made drama needs.
Every character here gets a chance to tell their story, giving an indication of why freedom is so important to them. This could have been a little more detailed and this a bit longer, and I wouldn't have minded. "Berlin Tunnel 21" was close to two and a half hours and I was never bored. The opening scene is fraught with tension, with a young man desperately trying to drive through the wall, making it out of his car which is on fire but being shot because he is covered in barbed wire. That sets the tone for the desperation of the 28 people who managed to make it through the tunnel. The filming of the escape scene itself seems to have been quite an event, even though the scene is done at night. Made wisely in black and white, that choice for the photography definitely adds the tension that this very well-made drama needs.