The Lives Of Others (swe-subs) - 1 - Exposing Moral

( english subs : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9J4v_El90U )

Deep down in the human nature is rooted a very strong sense of justice and fairness that makes us reject people who violate our moral values and sympathize with people doing "good".

This gives us a very important clue for creating characters. Revealing the personal moral standards of a character is one of the most important factors to determine the audiences opinion of that charachter. The moral impression we get tells us if he/she is one of the good guys, a person to root for, or on the opposite side, an enemy.

This aspect in the portraying of characters is very obvious if you study the german movie "The Lives Of Others" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0405094/

What is specially worth noticing is the complexity of the main charachter, the Stasi officer WIESLER, surveying the writer Dreyman and his wife. In the beginning Wiesler is shown as extremely efficient and merciless in carrying out his profession interrogating East Germany dissidents.

From this clip we understand that the special thing with Wiesler is his strong sense of loyalty to the idea of the communistic state. The scene shows very clearly how, inspite of his methods, Wiesler is driven by ideals, where his boss, GRUBITZ is only seeking advantages for himself.

In the next clip ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtdhFe5hy5s ) we will see more of Grubitz as he just for the pleasure of it uses his power to torment another member of the staff.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• scriptwriting
• screenwriting
• lives
• of
• others