THE BIG LIFT
US, 1950, 120 minutes, Black and white.
Montgomery Clift, Paul Douglas, Cornell Borchers, O.E. Hasse, Bruni Lobel.
Directed by George Seaton.
The Big Life is a semi-documentary about the raising of the siege of Berlin in 1948. Britain, France and the US had to save the citizens of Berlin from starvation when Josef Stalin blocked off the city from contact and from West Germany.
The film incorporates action from a lot of the American captains themselves as well as personnel from the other nations involved in the lift. Montgomery Clift and Paul Douglas portray two ficticious characters who symbolise the attitudes of the Americans in the Big Lift. Paul Douglas portrays the tough veteran of World War Two who is resentful of his treatment by the Germans. He is abrupt and abrasive with them – even to making a moral decision about the money at the end of the film. Montgomery Clift, on the other hand, is a more heroic figure – but, as he pursues a German widow, he discovers some of the effects of the experience of hunger and lying for ordinary citizens during the war.
Paul Douglas was a solid character actor at this particular time – and it is said that he declined the role in Father of the Bride for The Big Lift. Spencer Tracy took the role. Montgomery Clift had appeared in Red River and The Heiress and was soon to appear in A Place in the Sun. Cornell Borchers made a number of American films including The Divided Heart, Never Say Goodbye and Istanbul. However, her career was mainly in German films of the 40s and 50s.
The film was directed by George Seaton, a writer-director who had made a number of significant films including The Miracle on 34th Street. He mainly made light entertainments until the mid-50s with Little Boy Lost and the Oscar-winning The Country Girl. He returned to World War Two themes in The Counterfeit Traitor, 1962, and Thirty-Six? Hours, 1965. One of his final films was the pioneer of the disaster films, Airport, 1970.
While the film is dated, it is an opportunity to have actual footage of eastern Europe in the 1950s as well as a perspective on the beginnings of the cold war and the actions of Stalin on Berlin.
1. The focus of the title? The impact of the film in the situations of 1950? The impact now?
2. The deliberate documentary style? Its impact then? As a piece of historical research now? Black and white photography? European locations? the few actors? The use of military personnel and the cast at the end? The background of the issues as real? The explanations of Berlin after the war and the nature of the Blockade? The documentary aspects of the flight into Berlin? The details of military organization? How interesting and impressive?
3. The humane interest for audiences in the film? The blockade of a city and the relief of it? The large-scale aspects? The human themes of the personnel involved?
4. How important for communicating these messages was the detail of the flight side of the film? How real? life details, the nature of the interviews for the American Press?
5. How well integrated was the personal side of the film? The story of two typical Americans? The Berlin women?
6. Comment on the attitudes to World War Two as seen in the light of 1950. Helping Germany and its rebuilding? The memories of the past, concentration camps? Some Germans being greedy? The heritage of the S.S. and the atrocities? Both sides having to learn? The good and bad in each side? Compromise?
7. The picture of the two Americans - one as too soft and the other as too hard? How interesting was the detail in the contrast of the characters and their experience?
8. The Pole and the Gerda and their conflicts and discussions? His prejudice, his bitter experiences of the war? Gerda and her comments on the Russians and his explanation of American democracy? The 1950 comments on the American way of life versus the Russian?
9. Dan and his story? The gentle American? His falling in love? The genuineness of this? The interrogation in the restaurant? The fear of her being discovered? The letters and the revelation of the trick? How strong the trick? The consequences?
10. The character of the spy and his counting the American planes? His integral role in the discovery of the truth?
11. The film as a message film and a morale-booster? Important and successful? The success of the film as a post-war film?
