Richter makes wonderful if obvious use of the wall and the tunnel as built-in metaphors for our struggle for human connection and dread of helplessness and change.
Comment
09/23/05
The Tunnel (2005)
83 %
Reviews Counted: 24 Fresh: 20 Rotten:4 Average Rating: 6.9/10
Consensus:
The Tunnel is both a tension-filled thriller and a riveting history lesson.
Runtime: 2 hrs 47 mins
Synopsis: Based on incredible true events, THE TUNNEL tells the story of Harry Melchior, a champion East German swimmer at odds with the Communist government under which he has already been imprisoned for his beliefs. Though required to remain in East Germany after his release from prison, Harry... [More]
Genre: Foreign Films
Starring: Heino Ferch, Sebastian Koch, Alexandra Maria Lara, Nicoleete Krebitz, Uwe Kockish
Reviews
It is the kind of superbly crafted, intelligent entertainment -- a classic suspense thriller -- that nowadays is as welcome as it is rare.
09/15/05
Top Critic
Richter gives a raw, frank but sophisticated account of the excruciating logistics of this great escape, and the appalling, inspiring blend of betrayal and courage that attended the group's herculean efforts.
09/15/05
A true story few people will know, and it's told with a warm, crafty efficiency that makes for wonderful entertainment.
09/02/05
It's a gripping great-escape yarn of the sort we don't see much anymore.
09/02/05
Either as history at its most inspiring or moviemaking at its most exciting, The Tunnel is a trip.
08/19/05
It's so well told that you'll be biting your nails until the film's final few minutes.
08/18/05
Based on a true story from the late 1950s, this thrilling drama looks at the extraordinary lengths taken by a group of West Berliners to dig a tunnel under the city's barbed-wire border with East Berlin.
06/10/05
Director Roland Suso Richter maintains tension for 2 1/2 hours, even though the resolution is almost surreal.
04/29/05
Richter's brisk direction keeps us riveted through the suspenseful finish of his vivid history lesson.
04/29/05
Genuinely gripping, balancing the travails of constructing the tunnel against the characters' stories with considerable skill.
04/29/05
Roland Suso Richter's darkly atmospheric film recounts the effort of a group of people to dig a tunnel under the Berlin Wall.
04/28/05
Top Critic
It's distressing to learn how much German television looks like a Jerry Bruckheimer movie.
04/26/05
The film picks up steam as the tunnel nears completion -- thanks, in part, to a Hollywood film crew that pays for the rights to the tunnelers' story, providing them with the money to finish the project.
04/07/05
Though its story is universal enough to leap across cultural boundaries, it's not deep enough to justify the leap to the big screen.
11/19/03
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