Lives of Others / Christmas Day 5

Marin has been longing to see a movie for the longest time. We finally decided to get a movie, and stay up late for a change. We located "The Lives of Others" which her sister, Marisa, and others recommended.

It’s about East Germany in the 80's, with the Stasi (secret police) on one side, and a playwright, whom the bureaucrats decide to surveille, on the other. The playwright, Georg, has dissident friends, but he actually seems to believe, mostly, in the official idea of Socialism.

The film’s other focus is on the spook, Gerd, who listens in on Georg’s every conversation, who also is a straight arrow in the GDR. But Gerd’s colleagues, especially a supervisor who is using his position in the Stasi to force the playwright’s girlfriend to have sex with him, push Gerd to get some dirt on Georg.

The climax for me comes when a blacklisted (and therefore unemployed and unemployable) friend of Georg’s kills himself. This colleague was the playwright’s favored director, and Georg had sought to intervene to change his friend’s fate. At Georg’s birthday party, this friend’s gift is a piece of piano music. Stunned after learning of the suicide, the playwright sits down at the piano and begins to play "Sonata for a Good Man" (a piece apparently composed for the movie).

Gerd, listening in to the whole tragic sequence, hears the music and is changed. His own life, lived by himself in a faceless apartment, eating cold meals, watching state TV, calling in the occasional prostitute, is seen in stark contrast to the life of a man who has been surrounded by literature, by a community of artists, by ideas, and by beauty.

As the absurdity of the state’s claim on human lives and hopes, through the maddening power of small men, plays out, both Georg and Gerd are drawn inexorably into deeds of untold, but remarkable courage.

I read a breathtaking article yesterday about the parallels between Germany’s legislature’s inability to stand against Hitler when it was still possible in the early thirties, and America’s indifference to infringements on our Constitution and Bill of Rights when it’s still possible to register protest. Many on the left have written about how easily the "imperial presidency" which Bush/Cheney have managed to hew out (to the amazement of Richard Nixon, spinning jealously in his grave), could be used to jail anyone (including me for writing this) if another 9/11 came to pass. This story about citizens and their leaders sleepwalking into tyranny was neatly coupled with a rant I later read about those same citizens passively accepting absurd infringements of their rights whenever they enter American airports.

"The Lives of Others" shows one true believer in the "powers that be" being challenged to the core when he comes into contact with authentic human courage, and beauty, and hope. All of which the "system" (bureaucrats craving power in government) have no use for, and no understanding of. But who tend to rule us, and can hurt us, and our children to the third and fourth generation, as the bible says.

Think about the present Republican attitude toward citizens. They use the "religious" to win elections, but don’t help religious people figure out a way to live together as citizens in a diverse culture. They use the "military," making use of their courage and patriotism (think of how Bush manipulated and destroyed Colin Powell), but unable fully to comprehend the limits of militarism, and the vulnerability of the people involved, and unwilling to protect them. What Republicans seem to want, mostly, is unfettered capitalism, markets which are supported for the banks and investment firms, at the expense of the people. Haliburton, not health care. Or, if health care, then only via Kaiser Permanente.

I so long to play a role in the healing of our nation, our communities, and our world, as we lurch into the enormous, chaotic, tragic challenge of climate change together.

(Note, The Lives of Others is a foreign film, with subtitles. Some people don’t like when stories aren’t happening in English. Just a forewarning.)