An Air Affair: Herbig Revisits Gdr Getaway in Strait-laced Thriller
German director Michael Herbig, best known for his comedic films in his native country, makes his first international splash with period thriller Balloon, a 2018 title at last landing stateside two years after its premiere. Based on the true story of two East German families who flee to the West via a hot air balloon, Herbig is reclaiming a national escapade previously filmed by Delbert Mann in 1982’s Night Crossing starring Beau Bridges and John Hurt. While Herbig doesn’t employ any surprising or lavish stylization to a rather straightforward rendering of the communist stranglehold on East Berlin, it’s an often taut and efficiently paced thriller intent on maximizing its potential, even if that means employing cliché to heighten suspense.…...
German director Michael Herbig, best known for his comedic films in his native country, makes his first international splash with period thriller Balloon, a 2018 title at last landing stateside two years after its premiere. Based on the true story of two East German families who flee to the West via a hot air balloon, Herbig is reclaiming a national escapade previously filmed by Delbert Mann in 1982’s Night Crossing starring Beau Bridges and John Hurt. While Herbig doesn’t employ any surprising or lavish stylization to a rather straightforward rendering of the communist stranglehold on East Berlin, it’s an often taut and efficiently paced thriller intent on maximizing its potential, even if that means employing cliché to heighten suspense.…...
- 3/5/2020
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
On paper, the plight of a pair of families fleeing 1979’s East Germany in a hot air balloon sounds like fabricated fodder for a spy novel. But as implausible as it sounds, this “The Mysterious Island”-esque grand escape from Deutschland’s then walled-in, oppressive slice really did happen. And nearly four decades after being the subject of Disney’s “Night Crossing,” it is now a tale told in small-screen comedian Michael Bully Herbig’s “Balloon,” a competently made political thriller that sadly mines for suspense in all the wrong places.
Still, “Balloon” is decent entertainment to a degree, and that is mostly thanks to its handsome production values. The quaint environs and row houses of Thuringia as well as the era’s eye-popping costumes by Lisy Christl — well-tailored clothes and floral-heavy fabrics with traces of ’70s cool — are admittedly easy on the eyes. But considering the film’s stretched...
Still, “Balloon” is decent entertainment to a degree, and that is mostly thanks to its handsome production values. The quaint environs and row houses of Thuringia as well as the era’s eye-popping costumes by Lisy Christl — well-tailored clothes and floral-heavy fabrics with traces of ’70s cool — are admittedly easy on the eyes. But considering the film’s stretched...
- 2/21/2020
- by Tomris Laffly
- Variety Film + TV
Movies about 20th-century Germany tend to focus on, well, you know. 30 years after East and West reunified, however, “Balloon” serves as a reminder of what the country went through once World War II gave way to the Cold War — and why it still matters.
Unfortunately, Michael Bully Herbig’s film — telling a story previously dramatized in the 1980s Disney movie “Night Crossing” — plays out with such unconvincing drama that you might be left wondering whether its based-on-a-true-story subject matter would have been better served by a documentary.
It begins on Youth Dedication Day, when eighth-graders in the East are loosed upon the world after pledging their allegiance to socialism, and quickly reveals the title’s significance as a handful of floating blue balloons alert a family of would-be defectors that the time has come. Herbig treats it as a given that anyone living in the Soviet-controlled East would risk their lives to escape,...
Unfortunately, Michael Bully Herbig’s film — telling a story previously dramatized in the 1980s Disney movie “Night Crossing” — plays out with such unconvincing drama that you might be left wondering whether its based-on-a-true-story subject matter would have been better served by a documentary.
It begins on Youth Dedication Day, when eighth-graders in the East are loosed upon the world after pledging their allegiance to socialism, and quickly reveals the title’s significance as a handful of floating blue balloons alert a family of would-be defectors that the time has come. Herbig treats it as a given that anyone living in the Soviet-controlled East would risk their lives to escape,...
- 2/19/2020
- by Michael Nordine
- The Wrap
This story originally appeared in the Nov. 17, 1980 issue of People.
His Roles May Veer Far from the Straight and Narrow, but John Hurt Acts on a Fast Track
Only one part is now out of the question: Husband.
A depraved Roman emperor, a brilliantly outrageous homosexual, an eccentric junkie convict, a tortured student murderer, a pitiable sideshow freak, an astronaut who has his chest ripped open from the inside by an alien monster… Hardly everyday folk, but 40-year-old British actor John Hurt—who has portrayed them all—is no mundane talent. “I don’t believe there is any such thing as an ordinary person,...
His Roles May Veer Far from the Straight and Narrow, but John Hurt Acts on a Fast Track
Only one part is now out of the question: Husband.
A depraved Roman emperor, a brilliantly outrageous homosexual, an eccentric junkie convict, a tortured student murderer, a pitiable sideshow freak, an astronaut who has his chest ripped open from the inside by an alien monster… Hardly everyday folk, but 40-year-old British actor John Hurt—who has portrayed them all—is no mundane talent. “I don’t believe there is any such thing as an ordinary person,...
- 1/28/2017
- by peoplestaff225
- PEOPLE.com
Ryan Lambie Dec 7, 2016
Space horror in The Black Hole. Animated death in The Black Cauldron. Ryan looks back at a unique period in Disney's filmmaking history...
When George Lucas started writing Star Wars in the early 70s, the space saga was intended to fill a void left behind by westerns, pirate movies and the sci-fi fantasy of old matinee serials. "Disney had abdicated its rein over the children's market," Lucas once said, according to Peter Biskind's book, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, "and nothing had replaced it."
See related Close To The Enemy episode 4 review Close To The Enemy episode 3 review Close To The Enemy episode 2 review Close To The Enemy episode 1 review
Indeed, Disney was one of many Hollywood studios that Lucas had approached with Star Wars and they, just like Universal, United Artists and everyone other than 20th Century Fox boss Alan Ladd Jr, had turned it down flat.
Space horror in The Black Hole. Animated death in The Black Cauldron. Ryan looks back at a unique period in Disney's filmmaking history...
When George Lucas started writing Star Wars in the early 70s, the space saga was intended to fill a void left behind by westerns, pirate movies and the sci-fi fantasy of old matinee serials. "Disney had abdicated its rein over the children's market," Lucas once said, according to Peter Biskind's book, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, "and nothing had replaced it."
See related Close To The Enemy episode 4 review Close To The Enemy episode 3 review Close To The Enemy episode 2 review Close To The Enemy episode 1 review
Indeed, Disney was one of many Hollywood studios that Lucas had approached with Star Wars and they, just like Universal, United Artists and everyone other than 20th Century Fox boss Alan Ladd Jr, had turned it down flat.
- 12/6/2016
- Den of Geek
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