''The Wall'' is a 1962 American propaganda film about the erection of the

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (german: Berliner Mauer, ) was a guarded concrete barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and East Germany (GDR). Construction of the Berlin Wall was commenced by the government ...

directed by Walter de Hoog.

Plot

The documentary begins with a group of German children playing

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

in a street bordering the

. In the course of the game, the ball is kicked over to the other side. Using raw footage, the film chronicles the erection of the wall, civilian efforts to communicate with and assist East German escapees, and efforts by GDR border guards to thwart them. Shot in the first year after the wall was built, the film was narrated by

Alexander Scourby Alexander Scourby (; November 13, 1913 – February 22, 1985) was an American film, television, and voice actor known for his deep and resonant voice and Mid-Atlantic accent. He is best known for his film role as the ruthless mob boss Mike ...

, speaking for a citizen of West Berlin whose mother and children were stranded on the east side of the wall. The man is shown communicating with his children through hand signals; a risky endeavor, as East German civilians who were caught waving or otherwise communicating with people on the western side of the wall risked being forcibly relocated. For a brief time after the wall was built, civilians were able to escape by jumping from the westward windows of buildings close to the wall. Several such escapes were captured in the film, including one where communist policemen tried to pull a woman back into the room before she fell to the waiting firefighters below. GDR guards are filmed throwing tear gas at civilians on the western side of the wall, who threw the grenades back. After a short time, the windows of those buildings were bricked up, and

barbed wire A close-up view of a barbed wire Roll of modern agricultural barbed wire Barbed wire, also known as barb wire, is a type of steel fencing wire constructed with sharp edges or points arranged at intervals along the strands. Its primary use is t ...

was strung on the rooftops. Trees and houses are shown being razed, lest they be used as escape routes. In the surrounding countryside, more civilians escape, despite the deployment of minefields and barbed wire. Another escapee is seen being injured in the face when she runs into a barbed wire fence. Another incident captured in the film is the death of

Peter Fechter Peter Fechter (14 January 1944 – 17 August 1962) was a German bricklayer who became the twenty-seventh known person to die at the Berlin Wall. Fechter was 18 years old when he was shot and killed by East German border guards while trying t ...

, an 18-year-old bricklayer's apprentice, who was shot by GDR border guards while trying to scale the wall and left to bleed to death. A memorial is shown for others who died trying to escape to West Germany. Three minutes of silence are held on the western side to commemorate those lost and killed, and the film ends with a young boy walking alongside the wall.

Political censorship

Since the 1960s, the short documentary was preserved by the

U.S. National Archives and Records Administration The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an " independent federal agency of the United States government within the executive branch", charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It i ...

. Since the film was deemed a propaganda film, the media production could not, by law, be publicly screened released or shown in the United States until after the Cold War between the Eastern Bloc and Western Bloc countries. It was, however, a favorite documentary of Robert F. Kennedy,

Attorney General In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general or attorney-general (sometimes abbreviated AG or Atty.-Gen) is the main legal advisor to the government. The plural is attorneys general. In some jurisdictions, attorneys general also have exec ...

and brother of then president John F. Kennedy, who showed it surreptitiously to visiting Soviet artists.

Reception

The

National Film Preservation Foundation The National Film Preservation Foundation (NFPF) is an independent, nonprofit organization created by the U.S. Congress to help save America's film heritage. Growing from a national planning effort led by the Library of Congress, the NFPF began op ...

wrote that "Like the best USIA films, The Wall distills political events into an emotionally clear and compelling ideological story."

References

Scott Simmon.
The Wall (1962) - Film Notes
,

External links

* * *
The Wall
' at the

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wall, The 1962 films American short documentary films American black-and-white films American anti-communist propaganda shorts Films about the Berlin Wall United States Information Agency films Documentary films about Berlin 1960s in Berlin 1960s English-language films 1960s American films