Editorial Review:Description:Anti-communist East German swimming champion Harry Melchior (Heino Ferch) narrowly escapes the Communist regime just after the Berlin Wall is completed, and is determined to rescue his beloved sister, whom he was forced to leave behind.
Amazon.com:A gripping escape plan provides the narrative spine to
The Tunnel, an exciting Cold War story. This film fictionalizes the true story of the digging of a 430-foot tunnel running under the Berlin Wall in 1964, as tunnel rats on the west side labor to find a way out for friends and family in the Communist East. The principals are led by a famous German swimmer (the excellent Heino Ferch, sort of the German Bruce Willis), whose sister is trapped in East Berlin. Juicy characters abound, including some compromised East Berliners and unlikely heroes on the West side. Also incorporated into this story is an American TV news crew shooting the digging as it goes along. Director Roland Suso Richter shot
The Tunnel for television and if it is somewhat artless, it still grabs the viewer in irresistible suspense--and sustains the tension for 167 minutes. Like its heroes, this film is dogged and emotionally committed.
--Robert Horton
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"We build too many walls and not enough bridges"
In August 13, 1961, the German Democratic Republic erected the Berlin Wall, closing the border between the communist and democratic parts, and demarcating East Berlin from West Berlin. In barely ten days, residents of East Berlin were barred from entering West Berlin and every escape route had been blocked. The film "The Tunnel (Der Tunnel)" depicts the story of Harry Melchior (played by an outstanding Heino Ferch), a swimming champ of the GDR, who fled to the West side and heroically came back through a tunnel to help his sister escape. It is loosely based on the experiences of Hasso Herschel who, for many years, helped over a thousand people escape East Berlin.
One day before the wall's construction and aided by a disguise and a fake tourist passport, Harry enters West Berlin and hooks up with his best friend, Matthis, an engineer. Together with several other men and later, a young woman, they dig a tunnel five meters deep and 145 meters long from the West to the East that will serve as an escape route for their families who were left behind. Harry's goal is to get his sister, Lotte, and her daughter out. Using picks, shovels and a jackhammer, their progress is slow and delayed by lack of funds. By a stroke of luck, one of the crew strikes a deal with NBC, which at that time was filming in West Berlin. In exchange for rights to film a documentary of the tunnel building and the eventual escape, NBC would fund the crew's operations. I'll stop right here for to go further would be grossly unfair.
This is an intense and suspense-filled story that moves at rapid-fire pace, underscoring the urgency of the crew's task. This is like "Mission: Impossible" without the gadgetry (or "The Great Escape"), where one mistake could undo months of digging and timing the escape down to seconds could mean the difference between life or death. There are many threats that could foil their plans--the danger of discovery by the Stasi (State Security), betrayals, logistics of tunneling with rudimentary tools, and orchestrating the escape of their families under the watchful eye of the East. The film has its moments of grief and frustration, but also small triumphs along the way. **(Possible Spoiler)** There's a particularly riveting and heartbreaking scene where their female crew member, Friederike, is on one side of the wall and her fiancée, who was attempting to climb the wall, on another. He's shot by the Stasi and bleeding to death, she talks to him from the other side. This scene is shot from high up, emphasizing the helplessness of the German people amidst a political tragedy foisted on them. **(End of Spoiler)** There are also moments of brief joys such as when Harry and Friederike are dancing to 1960s German rock-and-roll, or when the crew celebrates their first Christmas together, hopeful that the Christmases to come will be with their families.
At 2 hours and 47 minutes, "The Tunnel" is a longer film than most, but there are no pointless fillers or tricks here. Every scene contributed to a better understanding of the political and personal ramifications of the Berlin Wall. The Wall, described as "the most potent symbol of European division," and "the defining achievement of socialism" stood for twenty-eight years. It's worth remembering how ordinary people, caught in a political maelstrom not of their making and beyond their control, can find in themselves the heroism and guts to save others. This is a superbly-acted and powerful film with high production values that's well worth the viewing time.
(Language: German with English subtitles. DVD extras include the "Making of..." which includes commentary by Herschel.)
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The Tunnel, time capsule
This was as though I had taken a time machine back to when the Berlin Wall was just being built in 1961. Now if you have a problem with subtitles be advised this is how you find out what they are talking about if you don't know German. I found it interesting as I have seen other films in black & white like "The Spy Who Came in From the Cold" back around the time the wall first went up and a few years after. This is wonderfully created new color film about a championship swimmer from East German Republic or GDR, getting out on forged papers and then planning an escape for his sister and others and enlisting his friends help to dig a tunnel from West Berlin to East Berlin. Quite an immense job, especially with the highly suspicious police in East Berlin. A must see for anyone that enjoys a good drama or wants to know what it was like before Germany tore down the Berlin Wall. I highly recommend it. Good quality DVD and replayability. - C. Luster
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Good enough to watch
A good movie and interesting but I suggest that you get the Comedian Harmonist before you get this one. Also, Die Flucht is good too but careful, no subtitles on Die Flucht so know your German.
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Highly recommended
This is a wonderful film about a true story. The production is excellent, the drama unrelenting, and the characters believable. The good and the bad in humanity is demonstrated by the heroic determination of Harry and friends, as well as by the flawed, compromised, but ultimately redeemed Carola and Theo. Highly recommended. German with English subtitles. Note that there is some profanity and a non-explicit sex scene so parents should review the film to determine its suitability for their family. Great!
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freedom dig
In the 1960s there were dozens of tunnels dug underneath the Berlin Wall that was erected in August of 1961. This docu-drama tells the story of one of the first and more famous tunnels. Hasso Herschel (renamed Harry Melchior in the film) was a famous swimmer in East Germany who walked across Checkpoint Charlie in disguise and with a fake passport on August 26, 1961, just two weeks after the wall was built and he had become a national sports hero. Having spent four years in prison already, he had had enough. That much is made clear in the first fifteen minutes of the film. The next two hours-plus recount how he and his companions dug a tunnel 15-20 feet deep and 500 feet long back into East Germany, and then helped more than a thousand people escape to freedom in the next twenty years. Each person has their own story of fear, compromise, accommodation, regret, and bravery, including the ominous Stasi agent Herr Kruger. At 167 minutes this film is way too long, but it's a grim reminder of political oppression and the human will for freedom and family that it provokes. In German with English subtitles.
