Lives of Others, He Said

If you aren't afraid of the "Patriot Act" possibly you should see the film "Das leben der Anderen" (Lives of Others). Of course, most of us will say that it can never happen here and this is just one more reason why communism failed in the Soviet Union, but than the German people in Eastern Germany never thought they would live like they did either.

The film opens in Eastern Germany during the waning days of the Soviet Union. The Stasi, the East German secret police, have spies everywhere. It seems that everyone is spying on everyone else. The price for merely being suspected of disloyalty is high since all privilege comes from the state. The state controls where you live and what kind of a job you can have. It dictates the education you and your children can get. In general most people act and admit, if to themselves if no one else, that they are being watched.

Some are living in a home that has been completely wire tapped, where every thing they do or say is recorded and reported. some are being followed and observed constantly. Our unlikely hero is a hardcore Stasi operative, Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler. He is assigned the task of wiretapping and observing the states golden boy playwright, Georg Dreyman and his lover, Actress Christa-Maria Sieland. While he is suspicious of Dreymen his boss, Oberstleutnant Anton Grubitz, is not until, Minister Bruno Hempf tells them to observe and get something on Dreyman. Hempf's motivation is less than being the "Sword and Shield of the State." Hempf is infatuated with the Actress Sieland, he feels with Dreyman compromised he can convince Sieland to be his lover.

Wiesler invades Dreyman's apartment plants his bugs and begins listening in on their activities. What he observes is the conversion of Dreyman from a loyal servant of the state to a subversive of the first order. What catalyses this conversion is Dreyman's realization of how corrupt the state has become and how it is stifling the creativity and production of talented and good people. The irony is that as Dreymean is being turned so is Weisler.

This film is funny in a black humor sense of such things, but we are laughing at tragedy in order to cover our own concerns. We can always look at the Lives of Others and say it will never happen to us, but we can never be sure. Giving up individual rights, we have inherited from people who fought and died for those rights is a responsibility not simply a right