craigmaramilan What can I say about this film other than the narrative is one of the most exciting in film history...and based on a true story! Being old enough to remember the Berlin Wall when it was still used to contain a country, this film gives you a dark insight into the grim incarceration of East Berliners, and their desperate attempts to escape, no matter what the cost. The film follows the lives of two families , who decide to escape using a hot-air balloon manufactured by themselves. Forever fearing arrest by the authorities, under scrutiny by neighbours, they have to calculate a plan to reach the other side of the wall. A tense & thrilling story of courage and determination which truly pays homage to all those who succeeded and failed the treacherous journey to West Berlin and freedom.

Nazi_Fighter_David 'Night Crossing' is about an enormous barrier designed not to keep enemies out but to keep its own people in…'Night Crossing' is about a very long border fencer equipped with silent alarms and automatic firing systems…'Night Crossing' is about the denial of the basic human rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness…'Night Crossing' is about the fear and pain that afflict so many families…'Night Crossing' is about one attempt to risk a crossing through the border zone…'Night Crossing' is about a loving father whose only desire is to give his boys what should never have been taken away from them…'Night Crossing' is about a disturbed mother who wants her babies and her husband alive…'Night Crossing' is about a caring husband who wants his family to be together but in a better place…'Night Crossing' is about children who want to be free to reach at anytime the sky…'Night Crossing' is about a hot-air balloon handcrafted and built by two families… 'Night Crossing' is about a balloon which could go just high enough to crash or catch fire and explode…'Night Crossing' is about two determined men who want their family to climb into a hot air balloon and float away to 'liberty'…'Night Crossing' is about the fear of getting caught by an evil regime…'Night Crossing' is about a sensible man who can't let bad dreams stop him…'Night Crossing' is about an icy policeman who wants every lookout tower on full alert…With exquisite music by Jerry Goldsmith, Delbert Mann's 'Night Crossing' makes us realize the true value of freedom…Final thoughts: There are a few moments in everyone's life, certainly in public lives, that can define a person...For those of us old enough to remember the Reagan presidency, seeing the clips again in the wake of his death makes it seem like those events happened just yesterday, or last week. The voice, the expressions, are all so familiar. But for a large percentage of people, these events might as well have happened fifty years ago, if not more. They are part of the distant past. President Reagan is a name, and not much more. President Gorbachev is another name, and not much more. So how can we remember these two men who had such a huge impact on their country?Reagan and Gorbachev worked together to tear down the Berlin Wall and to steer their superpower nations away from nuclear confrontation

saddletreeranch This movie has been enjoyed by our family numerous times. The first time, I stayed on the edge of my seat during the entire movie. Even subsequent viewings give me goosebumps and cause excitement and tears. I consider this movie to be one of my absolute top 5 favorites. It is very well written and the actors do a fine job of making you care about them. Families who would like their children to get a feel of what life was like in East Germany before the Berlin Wall came down should definitely see this movie.

kelvis Few surprises from Disney in the tale of two East German families who escape to the West in a homemade hot air balloon. Director Delbert Mann gives sometimes slack pacing to what could have been a taut thriller, and the dialog is at times stilted. Still, the players give fine readings of what they have to work with, excepting possibly Doug McKeon (familiar as On Golden Pond's recalcitrant teen), whose performance smacks more of the San Fernando Valley than Saxony. Mann doesn't skimp on East Bloc clichés like spying neighbors and a scarcity of fresh produce, but it is frighteningly effective when the police start throwing their totalitarian weight around. Of course, the movies are full of mean, authoritarian Germans who, regardless of their ideological leaning, dress neatly and shout orders in heavily accented English; Günter Meisner, who plays the chief communist baddie, gave much the same performance in The Winds of War miniseries as a famous anticommunist, Hitler. Still, even if a lot of this is B-grade stuff, the flight sequences are beautifully filmed, with the usual Disney flair. This also is interesting as one of a series of adult-themed films Disney produced in the late 70s and early 80s (The Devil and Max Devlin, The Watcher in the Woods), as the studio struggled to define itself in the post-post-Walt (but pre-Michael Eisner) years.