deb tysall

Great movie about a topic that’s not universally known. Good performances. Great production design. For me watching it and realizing that the year was 1956, I kept thinking, well, you think it’s bad now, a walls about to be built and your lives will be changed forever. The story takes place in a town that’s a long way from Berlin though, in fact it’s close to the Polish border. Movies like this should be seen because it’s important to understand how a country can be taken into a dictatorship/fascist/authoritarian regime, whatever you want to call it, very quickly. Fear is always the key and whilst the movie starts off at a very a gentle pace, it turns very sinister and frightening very quickly. See this movie. It makes you think about the power of how a small act can cause ripples and changes. It’s very sad to think that whilst this incident is historically accurate, so much heartache is about to come to the people of Germany that will split their country in two, until the late 80s! It really just sets the tone for this move in my opinion and it’s something that I thought about constantly as I was watching it.

I think this is Scorsese's beat film. And Leo’s too. He is essentially playing two roles. I have never seen anyone play total fear as well as Leo. All he thinks of at any moment is, he will be killed. Brilliant.