Set in East Germany from 1978-79, the film follows two men Peter Strelzyk (John Hurt) and Gunter Wetzel (Beau Bridges) who following the death of Josef Keller's (Ian Bannen) eldest son on a boarder crossing attempt and the toll it takes on Joesf and the rest of the Kellers both emotionally and through retribution of the East Germany government hatch a plan to cross into West Germany through use of a hot air balloon. As they two work on their plan, not only must they contend with typical trial & error as well as disagreements from family members, but must also elude suspicions from party loyalist neighbors and the Police.
Night Crossing is based upon the true story of the real-life balloon escape of the Strelzyk and Wetzel families from East Germany that occurred in the Fall of 1978. The story was discovered by the wife of Walt Disney Producer Tom Leetch who brought the story to her husband who in turn brought it to then VP of production Ron Miller. As both Strelzyk and Wetzel families ad watched Disney films via illicit West German TV signals when they had lived in East Germany, the families accepted Disney's offer out of five other potential investors. Both families were flown to Los Angeles where they recorded nearly 20 hours of interviews for producer Leetch and writer John McGreevey with filmmakers doing an extensive recreation of the East/West German boarder costing nearly $300,000 alone. Upon release the movie went mostly ignored at the box office making back only $8 million against it's $10 million budget and critical reception was mostly mixed with Siskel and Ebert disliking the film and even reviews that recommended the film such as Janet Maslin of the New York Times tended to preface their reviews by calling attention to some of the more hokey lines of dialogue in the film. While the movie isn't a flawless telling of this story, I think it does an adequate job in taking us through the major points so that you understand this event and the people involved in it.
In terms of the acting, much like other western productions of non-English speaking the film features a mixture of American and British actors speaking in English while playing German characters and german accents inconsistently applied to members of the supporting cast (usually the more antagonistic characters who are working against the two families). This boils down to a pet peeve of my where I feel if you're going to do this sort of thing where characters who aren't English are speaking English, just ditch the accents for everyone because as long as everyone's already speaking English, just have them use their natural voices rather than inconsistently applying accents because it only serves to break the immersion. I will say that for what the actors are called to do, John Hurt, Beau Bridges, Jane Alexander, and Glynnis O'Connor are all good in their roles and do well in the interpersonal drama, the only major sticking point is probably with the kid characters who are clearly trying their best, but there's that typical stiffness that comes from people writing children less as characters and more as idealizations of what people think kids are like such as the nadir scene where John Hurt's Peter is set to give up only for his son Frank to give a rousing bit of encouragement complete with team patches he made which is an example of the film trying to hammer its attempts at pathos a step too far.
I will say that from a technical point of view, Night Crossing does everything you hope for from a movie like this such as showcasing the building of the balloon, the tests of trial and error, and the paranoia of being found out with the fate of the Keller boy's ill fated boarder run using a hijacked bulldozer only to be riddled with bullets (possibly the reason this isn't on Disney+) periodically playing in the back of our minds as the looming threat of death or imprisonment hangs over us throughout the runtime. The two major ballooning sequences are well shot and filled with a mixture of tension as well as awe and wonder and coupled with a great score by the always reliable Jerry Goldsmith we're given both sweeping majesty and palpable tension.
Night Crossing has a number of flaws that often accompany these true story movies, but with a dedicated cast and crew and a fairly on point execution of the events, the movie is a decent way of experiencing this real life story. You're enjoyment will depend on your level of forgiveness for some of the hokiness or stiltedness that comes from Disney's approach to the material, but Night Crossing is a decent film.
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