All governments are evil. Some are worse than others.
Governments are evil because of the harm they do to individual human beings. There are naïve people who try to claim that "we need governments to protect our rights"!
In fact, the number one enemy of human rights and individual liberty is government.
This generally well done movie is about a man whose "crime" is merely trying to live, to live as a free human being.
Peter, excellently played by Vittorio Gassman, is a refugee from communist-conquered Hungary. At age 25, he has spent 10 years in one camp or another, including the Nazi extermination camp at Auschwitz, and, after the war, in various displaced persons camps.
The usual disclaimer at the end of the movie says it is fiction. All the people and events, it says, are fictional -- but this is a real story in that such incidents happened again and again and again.
Following the end of the war, the evil governments of the United Kingdom and the United States conspired in one of the most foul and vicious acts of the era, not much less rotten than what the Nazis and communists did to people. It was called Operation Keelhaul, and it entailed forcing tens of thousands of former residents of Soviet-occupied countries to return -- even though many of them were marked for death as "enemies of the state."
Even a superficial Internet search can find the story of Operation Keelhaul, which is not, of course, taught in the government schools or mentioned by the U. S. "news" media.
"The Glass Wall" very much parallels Operation Keelhaul. The refugee, Peter, because of lack of paperwork, is about to be forced back to Hungary, and the inevitable death sentence. The immigration officer -- so beautifully played by great character actor Douglas Spencer, perhaps more famous for his role in the original "The Thing" -- seems heartless, married to and bound by "the law."
"The Glass Wall" is a moving story, dealing with sub-stories and tangential characters in addition to the saddening and infuriating central story, and all are plausible and well presented.
The movie is marred by far too many process shots, and by people supposedly driving cars but turning around to talk to other people instead of watching the road, something that silly Hollywood people, including directors and actors, fouled up often.
Try to ignore such stupidities, and concentrate on the real, or at least realistic, story of a single human being having to fight the soul-less bureaucracy. If you still have a soul, you will be moved to anger, to tears, and you will hope and hope until the end.
Obviously I recommend and hope you get a chance to view "The Glass Wall."
Governments are evil because of the harm they do to individual human beings. There are naïve people who try to claim that "we need governments to protect our rights"!
In fact, the number one enemy of human rights and individual liberty is government.
This generally well done movie is about a man whose "crime" is merely trying to live, to live as a free human being.
Peter, excellently played by Vittorio Gassman, is a refugee from communist-conquered Hungary. At age 25, he has spent 10 years in one camp or another, including the Nazi extermination camp at Auschwitz, and, after the war, in various displaced persons camps.
The usual disclaimer at the end of the movie says it is fiction. All the people and events, it says, are fictional -- but this is a real story in that such incidents happened again and again and again.
Following the end of the war, the evil governments of the United Kingdom and the United States conspired in one of the most foul and vicious acts of the era, not much less rotten than what the Nazis and communists did to people. It was called Operation Keelhaul, and it entailed forcing tens of thousands of former residents of Soviet-occupied countries to return -- even though many of them were marked for death as "enemies of the state."
Even a superficial Internet search can find the story of Operation Keelhaul, which is not, of course, taught in the government schools or mentioned by the U. S. "news" media.
"The Glass Wall" very much parallels Operation Keelhaul. The refugee, Peter, because of lack of paperwork, is about to be forced back to Hungary, and the inevitable death sentence. The immigration officer -- so beautifully played by great character actor Douglas Spencer, perhaps more famous for his role in the original "The Thing" -- seems heartless, married to and bound by "the law."
"The Glass Wall" is a moving story, dealing with sub-stories and tangential characters in addition to the saddening and infuriating central story, and all are plausible and well presented.
The movie is marred by far too many process shots, and by people supposedly driving cars but turning around to talk to other people instead of watching the road, something that silly Hollywood people, including directors and actors, fouled up often.
Try to ignore such stupidities, and concentrate on the real, or at least realistic, story of a single human being having to fight the soul-less bureaucracy. If you still have a soul, you will be moved to anger, to tears, and you will hope and hope until the end.
Obviously I recommend and hope you get a chance to view "The Glass Wall."