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| The Lives of Others | 
 enlarge | Director: Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck
Actors: Martina Gedeck, Ulrich Muehe, Sebastian Koch, Ulrich Tukur, Thomas Thieme
Studio: Sony Pictures
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.94
Buy Used: $5.73
You Save: $14.21 (71%)
New (46) Used (33) from $5.73
Avg. Customer Rating:  247 reviews
Sales Rank: 1716
Format: Ac-3, Color, Dolby, Dvd-video, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: German (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), French (Subtitled)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 138
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: COLD17085D
UPC: 043396170858
EAN: 0043396170858
ASIN: B000OVLBGC
Theatrical Release Date: 2006
Release Date: August 21, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 humanity overcomes a evil system November 2, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
This movie is just fantastic. And on blu ray it shines and delivers
it's timeless story with even more clarity. The communist system with it's intolerance and inhumanity even in regards to the most minute aspect of peoples lives is depicted here with a knowing production. Each actor protrays their character in a light of reality and highly perfected skill.
The story is about a man whose whole life is based around violating others rights and hunting down enemies of the state with precision and robot like slavish duty. The secret police or stasi by 1984 was not the murder machine it was in previous decades yet it still killed the souls of it people and the robot like watcher only becomes a good man after he
spies on his intended targets. This movie won awards and delivers solid
drama and an very important story for the ages. The details need to be seen by the viewer but over 200 people took the time to write about how much they loved this movie and if you love solid dramas then this is the one for you.
Chillingly Instructive of the society we are becoming. October 29, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
The movie is excellent. It is a toned down reminder of the evil a state can perpetrate against individuals and a nation once absolute power is attained. It also illustrates that a police state can only succeed when it has accomplices in the population at large and in the media that controls access to the truth. I marveled at the efficiency of the Stasi and their system of obtaining and maintaining information on East German citizens. Imagine what could be done with today's technology to spy on and control citizens. Ultimately, the Stasi files themselves attest to the failure of communism/socialism. The files document those who were complicit in the Stasi evil while also documenting those unsung heroes that continued to yearn and work for freedom up to the point that they just disappeared in the night. Sadly, it seems that only those that have lived under the yoke of totalitarianism can truly appreciate the freedoms we American's take for granted. Today, as we see American citizens vilified in the press for taking contrary positions, or as we view the efforts of those in academia to indoctrinate rather that teach, one must ask, how much longer before the truth police will be knocking on our doors.
A simple, powerful and poignant film. October 28, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Rush Limbaugh recommended this film on his radio show and I came home and recorded it using the "On Demand" feature of Directv. This movie is a moving masterpiece about the survival of humanity in a Stasi (State police) apparatchik. Other have commented on the unlikelihood of such a character in East Germany, particularly one who had risen through the ranks of the Stasi who was so highly regarded he had an academic position at the Stasi academy. I believe such fundamental expressions of our humanity are indeed possible even under such brutal and tyrannical circumstances.
Regardless, this is an enormously moving film. Well directed, well acted and extremely well written. Too often, movies end prematurely leaving the viewer left to wonder. Sometimes, I think the director in this regard is too smart by half. This movie ended at exactly the perfect spot.
For me, the movie was about courage and the survival of human dignity even under unbelievably oppressive conditions. I cannot recommend this movie highly enough. Ignore the few negative reviews, do yourself a favor and get this movie! It is one of the best I have seen for over 5 years.
Requiem for a Good Man October 27, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I cannot rave enough about this movie. The Lives of Others is one of the most compassionate and compelling films that I've ever seen. The spiritual awakening and concomitant birth of empathy within secret policeman Gerd Wiesler was a joy to behold. There are many good men on display in these frames. My title statement could just as easily apply to the main character Georg Dreyman and the fallen director, Albert Jerska, who gave Dreyman the score to Concerto for a Good Man. This is historical drama of the highest order and I will recommend it to everyone I know. Its portrait of the STASI is chilling and undoubtedly accurate. No, they were not the Gestapo but remained horrific in innumerable ways. The nuance in the filmmakers' depiction of THE uber-police state was sterling. Simply by watching it, one gets the feeling of living under a Leviathan that wants nothing better than to eradicate the individual entirely. The auteur was most ambitious in his goals but he met every one of them.
gradifying October 7, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
"The Lives of Others" was the best foreign language film I have seen in a long time. Directed and written by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (in his debut, no less) and starring Ulrich Muhe, "The Lives of Others" is a quiet thriller set in the former Soviet Sector of East Berlin. Muhe, who plays a Stasi Captain assigned to monitor a would-be subversive playright(Sebastian Koch) and his live-in girlfriend (Martina Gedeck) via audio bug from their attic. Muhe, who soon discovers his assignment is less than as it seems, aids an unknowing Koch and Gedeck by creating mis-information to feed to his superiors, allowing the two below to freely construct a magazine article, politically devastating to the East. I'll try not to give away anymore, but the ending has one of the most moving double entendres the movies have to offer. (This includes all Bond films, by the way.)
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