Is it really that bad?

A film/TV-series without a message board here on IMDb is like a ‘dead’ film. I would try to resurrect this mini TV-series “Vir sind das Volk”. By sheer luck I found it dirt-cheap in an outlet bin in the video shop (yes, we still have some of these dinosaurs left, up here in Scandinavia).

Sure the directing and acting is definitely not top level, but is it really so incredibly bad so that not one, single, person in the whole wide world has something to say about it? Well, right now there is at least one such person – me.

The drama projects very personal relations on the large-scale political drama, which led to the fall of the Wall, back in 1989 in Berlin. At the end of the drama there are scenes showing the very turbulent situation at the gates into West Berlin, where East Berliners are violently and happily pushing forward to be let through the still closed gates (the military men haven’t yet been given orders to open the gates, but the people already know that they will be). One of the East German officers looks at the hysterically happy and celebrating crowd, and says to his friend: “Look at their eyes … socialism has failed”. Despite being a simple military man he still had the sensibility to correctly read peoples emotions in their eyes. He draws the wrong conclusion of course; it wasn’t Socialism, which failed – it was the perverted Soviet Socialism, which failed.

Now, here’s the choice: A bad, but reasonably correct, film about serious and important issues, or a well-executed film about pure nonsense? Must confess that I appreciate both kinds, but I really think that films like this one should be given some credits for dealing with important issues, also if the outcome is not great film art. To the best of my knowledge it’s also historically correct. I’ll watch it again later on; the mise-en-scène is not too bad, and is quite attractive to anyone interested in European and German history (and love stories of course).

If you’re into this kind of films, I have listed some more films like this on the board “Lists and recommendations”. See me there and maybe I have something for you and vice versa!


"Why is it that men are so much more interested in women than women in men?"
Virginia Woolf