The Lives of Others

Remember the Cold War, kids? Sure you do! Long before the Axis of Evil and the Patriot Act became the catchwords concerned with our national security (or lack thereof), an equally sinister threat to the American Way came from behind that place called the Iron Curtain. The memories of the Berlin Wall, missile buildups, and Mikhail Gorbachev's port wine stain on his bald head may be fleeting memories to most people today, but to a couple of generations the looming presence of Moscow's Evil Empire was felt on the veritable battlegrounds of military installations, diplomatic board rooms, and Olympic hockey rinks.

For millions of people, the Cold War was an inescapable, nonnegotiable reality that pervaded most, if not all, parts of their lives. Imagine a world where every action and word of yours is potentially under scrutiny by the powers that be. It's not George Orwell's 1984, it's Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's The Lives of Others. Set in 1980s East Germany, Gerd Wiesler is an officer in the Communist secret police who leads a distinguished, if humdrum, existence serving the ruling regime. He is called yet again to wiretap the apartment of the playwright Georg Dreyman, who is suspected of having pro-Western sympathies. Yet this will turn to be simply more than just another procedural operation too ostensibly ensure the integrity of the regime. Wiesler soon finds out that his work is driven by corruption and lustful self-interest from higher-ups. Moreover, in the midst of his surveillance, Wiesler finds himself moved as never before by Dreyman's very character and tastes in art and music. No longer is the police captain a cog in the machine, slowly sleepwalking his way to retirement; art has awakened him to his own humanity and of the world around him. Wiesler soon makes a dangerous choice that will not only jeopardize his work and future security, but also those he silently vows to protect.

This is a classic cat-and-mouse film for diehard suspense freaks. It is a heartpounding pursuit that is driven not by the Hollywood formula of explosions and car chases, but of good old-fashioned strategic chess moves and subtle emotional tides. Alas, it literally had me on the edge of my seat. Ulrich Muhe is equal parts coldly efficient and heartwrenching as Wiesler, his last major role before his untimely death. Sebastian Koch also stands out as the noble, sophisticated Dreyman. For a true thriller that the Bourne series would envy, peer into this dramatized look of our not-so-distant history. This modern fable's moral may well be that love, beauty, and creativity always triumph at the end of the day, even in a paranoia-rife Iron Curtain.