-
4. Long Day’s Journey into Brecht: The Ambivalent Politics of The Lives of Others
- The University Press of Kentucky
- Chapter
- Additional Information
4 long day’s Journey Into BreCht The Ambivalent Politics of The Lives of Others Paul A. Cantor Once is enough. Didn’t we say that everything could be made right again if only one person were found who could stand up against the world, only one? —Bertolt Brecht, Der gute Mensch von Sezuan Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s 2006 film Das Leben der Anderen (The Lives of Others) was widely, and justifiably, praised as a cinematic masterpiece almost from its first release. The movie was especially celebrated as a political statement, as a scathing indictment of communist tyranny, specifically a long overdue exposé of the horrors of the East German regime, the so-called Deutsche Demokratische Republik (the DDR, the German Democratic Republic). Surprisingly, until The Lives of Others, no German film had attempted to portray the brutal nature of the communist regime in East Germany. If anything, by the early twenty-first century, a sort of nostalgia had been developing in German popular culture for the days of the DDR, a tendency epitomized by the success of the film Good Bye Lenin! (2003). The cultural acceptance of tyrannies of the Left but not of the Right is always puzzling—one might legitimately wonder whether an equivalent film with the title Good Bye Goebbels!would have been tolerated in Germany, or any other country for that matter. Thus The Lives of Others was hailed for its willingness to confront what many Germans seemed content to let slip down the memory hole of his83 84 Paul A. Cantor tory. Using all the power and resources of cinema, above all a remarkable set of performances from his first-rate cast, Donnersmarck told a tale that deeply needed telling. With surgical precision, he anatomizes everything that was wrong with the DDR—the corruption of the regime, the bleakness, sterility, and regimentation of daily existence it brought about, its suppression of political dissent and artistic creativity, and ultimately the spiritual emptiness of life under communism. With the story opening in 1984, the movie inevitably calls to mind George Orwell’s great novel, and, indeed, The Lives of Others already seems destined to stand with 1984 as one of the most chilling evocations of the nightmare of twentieth-century totalitarianism. As such, many conservative critics welcomed the film and hoped that it might herald the beginning of a new trend of anti-communism in popular culture. Reviewing the film in the Weekly Standard, John Podhoretz wrote: “Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck found a great story to tell with a great setting and he told it with peerless skill. . . . Maybe he will be followed by other young filmmakers and writers who can bring fresh eyes and a new perspective to the great struggle of the second half of the 20th century.”1 But as is usually the case in cultural criticism, praise for The Lives of Others was not universal. A number of commentators raised serious doubts about the film. They questioned the historical accuracy of many of its details, and even of its basic take on the East German regime.2 Given the left-wing political orientation of most cultural critics, it is surprising that the film has frequently been attacked for not being anticommunist enough. Given the enthusiasm of so many conservatives for the film, it comes as a bit of a shock to see The Lives of Others condemned for painting too rosy a picture of the DDR. Donnersmarck has been accused of glossing over the true horrors of communist tyranny and in fact creating a sentimental story out of what shouldhavebeenamoresystematiccondemnationofEastGermany.According to somecriticsof The Lives of Others, Donnersmarckfundamentallyerred in supplying a happy ending to what should have been an unrelievedly bleak story. He is criticized for having given a Hollywood treatment—complete with a love story and a tale of personal redemption—to what should have been a chronicle of pure inhumanity and utter despair. This kind of criticism of The Lives of Others focuses on the central figure of Gerd Wiesler (played so perfectly by Ulrich Mühe). Critics charge Donnersmarck with creating too sympathetic a portrait of this captain in the infamous Stasi, the East German secret police. At the beginning of the film, Wiesler seems to stand for everything that was wrong with the East German [44.200.230.43] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 23:49 GMT) Long Day’s Journey into Brecht 85 regime. He is a staunch and committed supporter of the DDR and a...