Must see film, Oscar well-deserved.

Rating: 10/10 (20 November 2011)

The Lives of Others stands out as a strong, moving, well-intentioned film. It has a lot to say about government corruption, about the perils of absolute power and about the complete carelessness of human life under repressive political systems. The main hero is a man named Gerd Weisler, a member of East Germany's notorious Stasi (secret police), and master interrogator who determines the specificity and overall direction of the film. Weisler doesn't start the movie out as a hero, however. In the first few scenes, he is portrayed as a typical Stasi, brutally evil and shamelessly sadistic. At the behest of the party boss, whose motives are shady and diabolical, he teams up with a fellow Stasi to spy on a prominent artist, Georg Dreyman, and his girlfriend, Christa-Maria Sieland. His purpose is to glean information intended to disprove Dreyman's loyalty to the DDR, East Germany's socialist republic. However, during the course of this surreptitious surveillance, we see Weisler reach a moral turning point as he comes to realize the cruel and corrupt nature of the Stasi cult, and begins to empathize not only with Dreyman and his girlfriend, but with all who suffer at the hands of a government with absolute power that is spiraling out of control. Weisler develops a conscience. Once a complex man driven by a mix of hatred and selfishness, he becomes simplified towards the end: a compassionate man who has learned the price of human life. The film, overall, maintains a sense of realism by not being overly sentimental nor overly exaggerated. The ending is quite moving yet leaves you wondering, to whom is this dedicated? Perhaps it's for the Weislers of that time who were able to show defiance in face of a powerful unrelenting system, or to men like Dreyman who made great leaps and put their lives on the line to fight for the overhaul of an unjust regime. Either way, the Lives of Others is a monument to the triumph of the human spirit. It is a must see film, Oscar well-deserved.