Recently, German films based on the history of the split between East and West Germany ushered in a wave of explosions. The previous fat brother recommended the annual classic "No Master's Work", which tells the story of the artist who escaped from East Germany to West Germany for spiritual freedom, and traced the story of finding the truth and self-existence through his own works. Today, I recommend another German movie "Ballon" with better viewing experience and more commercial flavor .
The story takes place at the height of the Cold War in 1979. Gaunt and Peter in East Germany spent more than two years planning a "shocking escape" in pursuit of freedom. One of them is an electrical engineer and the other is a designer who can sew. With their strong professional skills, the two families joined together and used all resources to build a hot air balloon that could hold the two of them and cross the border from the air. Arrive at places that symbolize freedom and prosperity.
Movies first. The pacing of the film is excellent. The narrative is compact, the propulsion is powerful, and the characters' motives are reasonable. The movie starts off with a climax. The appearance of a rare wind direction indicates that they must start to take advantage of the "east wind" to escape. But Peter thought the time was immature, plus many personal reasons, the child was too young and the parents were old, he chose to give up. Gunter firmly believes that the opportunity must be seized. And so the escape began. The hot air balloons successfully took to the sky and reached a height where they could escape the machine gun fire, but because of the high humidity and the expected shortage of fuel supply, they did not fly over the border in the end. Fortunately, they fell uninjured and happened to be deep in the jungle, undetected at the time. But seeing that the border is only a few hundred meters away, and many people can fly for a few minutes to gain freedom, their mood is extremely complicated.
After the opening climax, the Gunter family has been torn between "staying" and "running away . " Failed, and left a lot of clues, the secret police began to search them, the form was imminent. Otherwise, choose to continue to pretend that nothing happened, destroy the evidence, and stop risking the lives of family members. What choice to make has always troubled them, because if they fail again, it is likely to make the whole family face the point of doom. But the choice is not so easy to make.
As a father, Gaunt must take every step properly, and if he is not careful, his family will be destroyed. Although he has the full support of his eldest son, his wife has lingering fears because of the first failure; as a son, although he supports his father, he has an infinite desire for freedom. But love has come to the fore, and when he is about to reap the wonderful love, he must give up everything, which is undoubtedly extremely tragic for a young man.
As a wife, her younger son needs to be taken care of. If she is caught, her son may be sent to an orphanage. She must weigh this again and again. The Peter family who chose to give up at the beginning needed to give up too many things. Peter's newborn son is still a baby, and his elderly parents can't leave with them, and if the escape is successful, he may never have the chance to see them again.
Freedom is beautiful, but the price paid and the risks taken are not low. Losing one's own life is not terrible, the most terrible thing is that it will affect the family and change their destiny. The second act of "Balloon" shows this struggle. Constant pressure is applied to force the characters to make choices. Seeing that the search operation of the secret police is intensifying, they may soon be tracked down. With no way out, the Gaunt family had to risk flying again. And this time, Peter chose to join. Learning from the previous experience, this time their plan is more complete, the hot air balloon is stronger, and all aspects are considered more fully. They must succeed, there is only one chance.
It can be seen that the important reason for the compact narrative of "Balloon" is that the film constantly pushes the characters to the final and only path through various events.
That sense of struggle gradually disappeared, and the audience could see that unless they were willing to wait to die and be caught, the only option for the Gaunt family was to fly across the border again. The third act of the film is very eye-catching. Classic Hollywood tactics continue to work. On both sides of the cross-narrative , the secret police are on the verge of finding their way home. On one side, Gaunt and the Peter family set off just before the police arrived.
Chase and escape, cross-cut, speed up the story and heat up the plot. The flame of freedom is lit, the hot air balloon soars high into the clouds, and the final adventure finally arrives.
Viewers unfamiliar with that history may question the behavior of the group, but as the movie says, the family's final choice is not a fuss, but the only choice. They are excluded because of the problems of the previous generation and cannot change the status quo of their lives through their own efforts. Not only that, their next generation will continue to be implicated.
After World War II , Germany was divided into two superpowers, the GDR and the Federal Republic of Germany. In the beginning, both sides created economic miracles, turning a ruined Germany into the economic center of Europe at that time in just five years. In particular, West Germany, after World War II, created the economic miracle of the Rhine for 15 consecutive years, and became the third largest economy in the world, following the United States and the Soviet Union. After five years, East Germany has become a "showcase of socialism" for the Soviet Union and a model for the entire Eastern European countries to learn from.
But superficial numbers cannot hide the gap between the two sides. East Germany is far smaller than West Germany in terms of land area and population. Throughout the 1960s, tens of thousands of people fled from East Germany to West Germany by various means. In order to save face, East German leaders began building the Berlin Wall in 1961 at the behest of the Soviet Union . This way of "covering one's ears and stealing the bell" not only announced the gap between the economic strength of East and West Germany, but also stimulated the people more.
After the construction of the Berlin Wall, more than one million people in East Germany, with a population of less than 17 million, fled to West Germany. And there are many elites from all walks of life. After West Germany survived the first economic crisis caused by overproduction in the late 1970s, its strength in all aspects took off again, leaving East Germany far behind. In order to maintain identity and face, East Germany began to develop a large number of secret police systems. At its craziest, one out of every four East Germans was a secret policeman.
In the film, Gaunt's neighbor is the potbellied secret police. They can use their power to open up many relationships that ordinary people can't reach. But ironically, as a symbol of East German power, they are secretly using various methods to listen to and watch West German radio and TV programs. There is no need for propaganda and slogans on both sides. It is up to the people to vote with their feet and go there.
Last but not least, the director of the film, Michael Helbig. In 1979, when Michael Helbig was only 11 years old, he saw this sensational hot air balloon escape on the news, and the event was adapted into a movie by American Disney three years later. This made him, who was only a child at the time, never forget the story and vowed to film it one day.
After embarking on the road of directing, he accumulated popularity and funds with many comedy films, laying the foundation for the filming of "Balloon". Later, he negotiated with Disney to buy the exclusive story adaptation rights, but he failed many times and still did not give up. Finally, with the help of Roland Emmerich, the famous German director of "Independence Day" and "The Day After Tomorrow", he finally won the shooting rights.
Although the Berlin Wall has long since been toppled, its remains are a constant reminder of the value of freedom. The news of that hot air balloon can be remembered by an 11-year-old boy for a lifetime, and finally guide him on the road of directing to realize his long-cherished wish to reproduce the year. This is the power of freedom. leap
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