In 1984 East Berlin, an agent of the secret police, conducting surveillance on a writer and his lover, finds himself becoming increasingly absorbed by their lives. The Lifes of Others or also known as Das Leben Der Anderen is a movie that i was not excited for and to be honest it's not for my taste. Some people will like it for sure and that's why it's even in the Top 250 of all time but that doesn't mean that i have to agree with those viewers or the critics in general. This was a very bland and slow paced movie also i didn't like any of the perfomances that much and the storyline wasn't that much interesting either. The running time of 2hrs and 14mins was also not that needed either. (0/10)

The movie is set in East Berlin in the year 1984. Back when Germany was a totalitarian state. The Stasi was in charge of spying on its citizens and that's exactly where the movie starts. The protagonist, Mr. Wiesler, is a seasoned Stasi agent who has had an illustrious career. So much so that he's even instructing upcoming agents in the practices of interrogation techniques. Another important task that Stasi agents were known for; their "interrogation" methods. Early on in the movie the protagonist gets assigned to a special "public figure". He himself wanted to get the assignment but as we later find out there were ulterior motives at play. Motives that concern his superiors.Mr. Wiesler takes great pride in his job because he's really good at it. But as the movie progresses he has to reconcile with the fact that his current assignment is morally unjustified. Even though the protagonist is clearly meant to be the "bad guy" we are constantly witnessing the moments when his humanity shines through; to the point where we're able to empathize with him. He's a flawed character just like everybody else. Which makes the movie so believable.Dreyman on the other hand is a good person but too many bad things keep happening to him. All of these bad turns of events eventually force him to step out of his "zone of complacency", to make a hard decision. With unforeseen consequences.This movie is so powerful. It evokes so many emotions that it literally covers the entire emotional spectrum: anger, contempt, suspicion, deceit, humor, compassion, sadness, grief,...It's ultimately a really sad movie though, with a lot of character development. The protagonist keeps indulging in the lives of the people who he's supposed to spy on. And by doing so he becomes a better person.The ending was extremely satisfying to watch. Arguably one of the best movies I've ever seen. Everything came full circle, so poetically. I was not prepared for this. This is exactly what good filmmaking is all about. It's the full package. Even the setting is flawless; watching the movie feels like travelling back in time. That's how immersive it was.Final verdict: supremely recommended (you're not going to regret it)

Awesome movie. Def worth seeing. I told my wife i had something in my eye, but the ending made me tear up like a little girl. Feel good ending like...Shawshank Redemption-ish.

In the stifling atmosphere of communism where even the most private thoughts are read every seconds, a Stasi official named Weiseler weighs his humanitarian feeling over his duty to the government and learns the meaning of love , sacrifice etc. This movie called "The Lives of Others" shows us that life is impossible to understand or judge unless looked at it from its own point. The movie's first opening scene shows us Weiseler's unwavering loyalty towards the party and he suspects Georg Dreyman, a writer, of sedition when he is thought to be an ideal citizen by many others. Henceforth a secret operation is ordered by the minister of culture at Dreyman's house with Weiseler in charge of it. From that point he starts to intervene in the lives of Dreyman and his girlfriend Chirsta Maria Seiland and gets to know every personal thing in their lives. He eventually comes to know that the cultural minister is nothing but a competitor of Dreyman and misuses his power to get Christa. When he comes to know that the communist party head (the cultural minister) behaves like a bourgeois and moulds the communist rules according to his whims and fancies, his loyalty which was entirely directed towards the government becomes divided and he empathizes with the lives of Dreyman and Christa Maria Seiland. He becomes a soft- hearted man and tries to save them at every possible opportunity. He does not report that Dreyman has written an article about the movie director, Jerska's death which is prohibited by the law. He also removes the typewriter from under the door sill which would have been a concrete proof that Dreyman is anti-national and he would have punished or killed. After a few years, the communist regime breaks up and he no longer is a stasi official, but a commoner. I liked the last part when he goes to the bookstore to buy a book by Georg Dreyman and the owner asks "Should I pack it?" He tells "No, It is for me." which has double meanings. One is that he bought the book for himself, another is that the book was written by Dreyman about him, the Stasi official who saved his life.