The Lives of Others [Blu-ray]

Starring: Martina Gedeck, Ulrich Muhe, Sebastian Koch, et al.

This critically-acclaimed, Oscar(r)-winning film (Best Foreign Language Film, 2006) is the erotic, emotionally-charged experience Lisa Schwarzbaum (Entertainment Weekly) calls "a nail-biter of a... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Blu-ray
• Language: English
• UPC: 043396209480
• Release Date: May 1993
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Publisher: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
• Director: Florian Henckel Von Donnersmarck
• Starring: Martina Gedeck, Ulrich Muhe, Sebastian Koch, Ulrich Tukur
• Number of Disks: 1
• Other Video Info: ac-3
• Weight: 0.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.3" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

“The Lives of Others” will touch your life.

This is the story of a good man. Every once in a long while, a movie will come along that a top-star rating is just not good enough. This is one of those movies. Based on true events, you can immediately connect with the characters and the story. If you do not speak fluent German, it may take some time to get used to the subtitles; however, soon you do not realize you are reading; for others, you may notice that the subtitles may not quite match but are close enough that you just do not care. What you care about is what they are saying and doing. The date is 1984. The place is East Berlin. In an intolerable situation, people are committing suicide. A well-known playwright, Georg Dreyman (Sebastian Koch), after having a friend, Albert Jerska (Volkmar Kleinert), commit suicide, is compelled to tell the “western world” the truth about the situation. The Stasi (East German Spy system) suspects the playwright’s motives and keeps an eye on him. The person in charge of surveillance, Hauptmann Gerd Wiesler (Ulrich Mühe), is also under surveillance and gets involved with “The Lives of Others.” The playwright smugly thinks he is not being watched. However, we know he is not only watching him, but an unlikely guardian angel also helps him. This angel also learns about love and true friendship, of which he is personally lacking in the intolerable world of the DDR. For people interested in Blu-ray, many of the scenes were quite graphic. Not as much the blood and guts scenes as people’s faces and the face of the DDR. The filmmakers had to clean the graffiti off the buildings daily for the film. The film also shows actual locations. By the way, I heard the film commentary is in English.