NIGHT CROSSING
US, 1981, 107 minutes, Colour.
John Hurt, Jane Alexander, Beau Bridges, Doug Mc Keon. Glynnis O'Connor.
Directed by Delbert Mann.
A noble-minded Disney family film. Filmed on location in Europe, it has an international cast led by John Hurt and Jane Alexander. Hurt made this film just after his award winning performance as the Elephant Man.
The film is based on a true story of a family escaping by balloon from East Germany to West Germany in the late seventies. The atmosphere of East Germany is created, the preparation for the escape attempt, a false attempt and then final success. The film is reminiscent of the cold war films of earlier decades in the confrontation between Western and Eastern ideologies. Direction is by Delbert Mann, Oscar winning director for Marty and director of a number of serious-minded dramas in the fifties and the sixties. He later moved to more popular entertainment and a great number of telemovies.
1. The appeal of this kind of true story? A portrait of human nature and of human endurance and hopes? An adventure? A view of the differing life-styles of East and West? Successful as inspiring entertainment?
2. Disney production values? international cast? European settings and atmosphere? The special effects, especially for the making of the balloon and its flight? The musical score?
3. The atmosphere of authenticity; names and dates? The atmosphere of the late seventies? The atmosphere of East Germany? The sense of urgency, the facts given at the ending? Morale boosting story? Audience identification with the family and their escape?
4. The picture of life in East Germany; Drabness, poverty, harshness? The role of the police and their intervention? Spying? Loyalties? The future prospects for families and lack of prospects? The build-up for hopes for escapes? The human rights and dignity and freedoms in East Germany? The background of the Berlin Wall, the separation of East and West Germany? real and symbolic?
5. The picture of the families and their life-styles? Homes, shopping, school, work, positions, hopes, relations? Friendships and support? Parties, picnics, talk together?
6. The discussions about escape, possibilities, the young boy and his death at the Wall, the risks, the petitions and suspicions by authorities, the boy with his uniform and the earth mover and the pathos of his death, his photos and their being shown to his parents at the picnic? Josef and his attitudes, the picnic and the soldiers arrival, the arrest and torture, his return and feeling cut off from the other families?
7. The two families and their bonds, support? Ordinary way of life? Talk and hopes? Peter and his attitudes, his idea? Gunther and his support? The buying of the materials and the melodramatic aspects, the sewing, the mechanics of the balloon, the tests? The curiosities of neighbours? Doris as wife, mother? The children and their reaction? The build-up of the risks and Gunther wanting to withdraw?
8. Peter and his family, his son and his experiences, readiness, the visit of the mother? The attempt and the failure? So near? Coming dawn near the Wall? The walk and their return? Their ability to cover their tracks?
9. Gunther and his opting out, the attitude of his wife, his change of heart, the build-up of the new balloon, difficulties, the making of the balloon, the preparation for the attempt, dinner, the launching? The difficulties with the fires? The ascent, the trip, the searchlights? Their coming down and the exhilaration of finding they had escaped?
10. The background of investigations? The sentries, the wall? The Polish chief and his calculations, the officers? The search, the test, the clues, the materials, the investigation in the shop? The doctor and the addresses? The finding out of the family's identification? Their pursuit and the intercutting of the flight? Suspense?
11. The achievement of and ordinary family? Their future in the West?
12. Enjoyable inspiring story, moralising story?
