Monday, September 12, 2005

My thoughts on Goodbye, Lenin!

Today on one of my favourite blog Singapore Ink, Izydata had posted an article on one of my favourite movie Goodbye, Lenin!. However I think he did not gave a complete picture of the movie, maybe because he had only caught bits of it. Here is my comments on the movie I posted on Singapore Ink. I hope that it will give readers another perspective on movie.

Here is my comments:

Good Bye Lenin is one of my favourite film. I highly recommend this movie as it is both thought provoking and very entertaining, but think some of the scenes were censored in the Vcd version.

What you said might have a point but my interpretation is different. To me the movie is not really the propaganda and glorifying of the past regime. It is about heightened hope and the subsequent disillusions.

Alex had high hopes about the reunification of Germany. He and many other East Germans had unrealistic hopes that once Germany is united again their lives would improve. However that is not to be. The lives of the East Germans did not improve as they expected in fact many got worse. Many was retrenched and remain jobless. Even now, after 15 years of reunification, East Germany unemployment rate is 18.6% - in many regions it tops 25%. People starts to wonder what went wrong and long for the past, when they at least had a sense of self-worth.

The news that Alex made isn't really about propaganda; they are actually his hopes for better days. It is his way of defying reality and perhaps as you had said what he wished had really happened to his country. (As in people of West Germany actually find the East better and prosperous and wanted to come.)

Here is a link on the woes of former East Germany.

posted by at82 @ 9/12/2005 12:22:00 PM

Locations of visitors to this page