The day before July 4th I watched a German movie, The Tunnel. First
broadcast on German TV in 2001 and then shown as a feature film in
the US in 2005, I was unaware of the movie until it popped up on
Netflix as a recommended option. After long resisting Netflix, I
finally caved in two months ago and started at the second lowest
level, one movie at a time, unlimited movies per month. I figured
that if I watch one to two movies a week, that’s not a bad deal. I
probably never watched that many movies during the time I picked them
up at the local Hollywood movie store,but then that establishment has
slowly been going downhill for a few years now. The preview screen
tries gamely to interest people by broadcasting in audio only, but
when the staff changes in toto almost overnight to scruffy and
unfriendly scowlers behind the counter (even donning somber black
polo shirts) you know something is not right. In retrospect I should
have switched to Netflix sooner, as I can browse and select movies at
leisure, avoid the hassle of driving and spending 30 minutes in the
store picking out something decent and waiting in line, only for the
movie to be a complete waste of time.

Most of the movies in my “queue” are ones that I have heard of
beforehand, and am now finally getting around to watching. But The
Tunnel is different. When Netflix emailed me to say it was next on my
list, I could not remember why I had picked it. Then I read the
synopsis again. This is a movie about an escape from East Berlin
after the wall went up in 1961. But this tunnel did not start on the
east side, but rather from the west, with a small group of people
digging 142 meters by hand through clay and dirt to free almost 30
people living under the glorious communism of the German Democratic
Republic. You want an actual comparison between freedom and
totalitarianism? Look no further than the GDR. Split asunder by the
Soviets and Allies after WWII, Germany existed as two worlds, one a
western style democracy, the other a Soviet-inspired socialist state.
A few months after Joseph Stalin died early in 1953, East Germany
experienced a brief attempt at self-liberation, with June 17
uprising. Shut down by Russian tanks, the uprising had the effect of
creating the idea inside Soviet and East German leaders that the west
was corrupting and leading astray the people of the GDR, and they
needed to create a physical barrier between East and West. Work on
this wall started in 1961, and the wall itself lasted 28 years until
the bricks were torn out by hand and machine in the glorious and
bloodless revolution of 1989. While this wall existed, thousands of
people risked their lives to get to the other side, either going
through the wall, over the wall (in one famous instance, via
balloon), or under it. Hundreds of people died, killed while
attempting to escape the wonderful life in the GDR. Throughout the
building of the wall the western powers stood complicit in the murder
and imprisonment of those trapped in East Germany. Churchill feared
German re-unification. The US and other allies who had carved up the
country did little but stand by and state the could only protect
those in West Germany and West Berlin. Meanwhile, families and
friends were separated. Many escaped, while others either could not,
or were too afraid to make the attempt.

The Tunnel begins with a champion East German swimmer winning a
competition mere weeks before work on the wall begins. Called Harry
Melchior in the movie, he had spent four years in prison for
participating in the 1953 uprising as a student. He remains defiant,
refusing to shake the hands of the government official as he accepts
his medal. Two weeks later he dons a disguise and uses a forged
passport to cross over to West Berlin via Checkpoint Charlie; he made
this trip with Swiss passport, as this border crossing was restricted
to Americans and non-German citizens. There he meets up with his best
friend, Mattis, an engineer who also had managed to escape, although
in the attempt became separated from his wife in the sewers. Joined
by two other confederates, they hatch a plot to tunnel from the west
to the east to rescue friends and family. They rent an abandoned
factory just across from the wall, and begin digging. The tunnel is
seven meters below ground, and zig-zags under the wall and into
abandoned apartments on the other side.

The task appears monumental and daunting. How can four individuals
hope to accomplish this act? Even joined by a young woman who hopes
to free her boyfriend they face impossible odds. The East German
government employs a massive state spy agency which actively ferrets
out defectors and collaborators. Using a vast network of informers
and government resources, they hunt down and destroy attempts to
escape. This government agency, known as the Stasi, built up a vast
network of citizen informers, people who spied on their own
neighbors. Given almost no choice in some circumstances, as with two
people in The Tunnel, the risks of discovery were huge. Later on,
many famous East Germans were discovered to have worked for the
Stasi, which in some circumstances resulted in favors and better
living, as in the case of the ice-skater Katarina Witt. In The
Tunnel, both informers seem forced into their actions, and both
redeem themselves, though at great personal cost.

Death remained a constant risk. There is a famous photograph,
available to those who enter “Berlin Wall” in Wikipedia, of young
Peter Fechter, only 18 years old, who was shot at the base of the
wall and bled to death while those across the wall in the West
watched in horror, unable to help. Anyone who tried to reach over and
help this person would also have been shot. The movie captures than
scene and makes it personal, and no less powerful. As late as 1989,
shortly before the wall came down, the last person to be killed while
trying to cross fell under a hail of bullets. The guards responsible
for his murder received awards for their efforts, and even after
reunification received minimal sentences.

The movie runs around two hours and 43 minutes. To anyone who
experienced the fall of the Berlin Wall, The Tunnel is a powerful
movie, from the opening scene to the last act. I cannot recommend it
enough.