FREEDOM FIGHTER

UK, 1988, 95 minutes, Colour.
Tony Danza, Sid Caesar, Collette Stevenson, Geraldine James, David Mc Callum.
Directed by Desmond Davis.

Freedom Fighter is a film about the building of the Berlin wall - and the quarter of a century that it stood there. The film stars television's Tony Danza (Who's the Boss). He was also executive producer of the film.

It was made on location in Germany by a principally British cast and crew. The cast includes Shakespearean actress Geraldine James and David Mc Callum. Sid Caesar has a good cameo role as a bar keeper. The film was directed by Desmond Davis who made such interesting films in the 60s as The Girl with Green Eyes and I Was Happy Here. Later films were not so successful - they include Agatha Christie's Ordeal by Innocence.

The film is in flashback form, the Danza character visiting the wall in 1987. Much is made of the wall, the barrier in Berlin, the desire for it to be broken down. The film then goes back to the days when the wall was set up and the fierceness of feeling between East and West German at the time. It is ironic - and perhaps unforeseen by those making the film -that the wall was to come down only a year or more after the screening of this telemovie.

1. Interesting thriller? Memories of the Berlin wall? Berlin in the early 60s? The subsequent decades? The late 80s - in the period before the wail coming down?

2. The use of German locations, authentic atmosphere? The city of Berlin and its division? The musical score? The international cast?

3. The title, the focus on the Germans at the time of the partition by the wall? Vic as a freedom fighter for the Germans?

4. The flashback framework: Vic and his going to the wall, the memories over a quarter of a century old? The memories and their coming to life? His annual pilgrimage to the wall? His hoping to see Anna? The encounter with Helga and the discovery of Anna's history? Solidarity with Helga?

5. Vic in the early 1960s, the brash young American driver? In love with Anna? At Max's bar? The possibility of marriage? Anna going back into the Eastern Zone? Karl and his attentions towards Anna? The clashes with Vic? The period before the wall went up, growing tensions? The establishing of the wall? Anna's parents behind the wall, her staying out, her love for Vic, the affair? Max and his going back? The wall going up, the need to get Anna out? Vic and the confrontation with
Karl and the officers at the wall? The attempt to get Anna out, the leaping from the border building, Max's escape, Anna'a capture? His further attempts, joining with Rudi and Christa in the tunneling? His running risks? The note, the warning that Karl was pursuing him? Finally seeing Anna taken away? His meeting her again? Her letter and her love for him, given him by Helga? The portrait of the American freedom fighter?

6. Anna, young girl, in love with Vic, the wall cutting them off? Her staying with him, her going back to her parents? The possibility of leaving, the delay in leaping from the window and her being caught? In prison and tortured? Karl and his attentions, her refusal and defiance? Vic's further attempts to get her, the tunnel, the car? Her warning Vic? Her being transported? Her subsequent history?

7. Max, the genial friend, at the border, friendship with Karl, Karl and his animosity? The escape?

8. Rudi, the cycling champion, his being disqualified from the race? His relationship with Christa, the child? His escape? The tunnels and the underground? His risk taking? Getting Christa and the child out? The group at the tunnels, the
risks? Rudi getting caught, the irony of his death and his bid for freedom?

9. Karl, the officious officer? Putting up the wall, making demands, ideology? His attention to Anna and her rejection? Clashes with Vic, defiance? The pursuit of Anna, imprisoning her, trying to force her to love him? The attempt to catch
Vic? The embodiment of the severe repression exercised by East Germany?

10. David Mc Callum as the officer, questioning orders, the moral of the men, the clash with Karl? The young officer on guard at Christmas and his trying to escape? David Mc Callum going with him and their going to the west? The atmosphere of Christmas, the carols and the defiant stand of the West Germans?

11. Memories of the Berlin wall, the way it was visualised, the paintings and the graffiti? Its coming down in 1989?

12. The history of a divided Berlin, of divided Germany? The freedom of the west? The allies and their backing the west? The repression of East Germany? The film as a popular telemovie for the wide audience - but a memorial of a period?