Freedom Fighter

Although Tony Danza's name is likely to scare away serious movie fans, this made-for-TV film isn't as bad as one might suspect.

The story of the American GI in love with the German girl in East Berlin in the bad old Cold War days of 1961 is recycled but this version offers some interesting and unique escape scenarios that I imagine were available at the time. Several scenes of East Berliners risking their lives to make their getaway from the communists are quite well done. One in particular, which was based on an actual attempt caught on film, is excellent. It demonstrates not only the brutality with which the East Germans dealt with these people but also the sense of frustration U.S. soldiers must have felt at being armed to the teeth yet totally helpless in their ability to come to their aid.

When you pause to think of the significance of the Berlin Wall and all the dramatic stories that could be wrung from it, one has to wonder why Hollywood prefers to ignore it in favor of garbage like "The Beverly Hillbillies."