And here I have to explain the Berlin Airlift, since I knew nothing about it. Mr. Otter, Ottersis and Spider Jerusalem will scorn the necessity for this, but the movie doesn't make sense unless you know why they were doing this (I sure didn't, I had to ask Mr. Otter.)

<historical interlude>

After WWII, when Berlin was divided into East and West Berlin, but before the wall went up in the early 60s, the Russians (Germany was divided among several countries) blocked all transport of goods into West Berlin (our side) and tried to starve out the people there. The US and other countries mobilized an amazing number of planes and supplies and actually flew in enough food into the city to keep everyone alive there for a year; the US's share of this alone was 4000 tons a day.

</historical interlude>

So it was December. We were picking the movies for the New Year's Day Videofest (theme: Flying). Mr. Otter said, this is a great movie! I'm picking it.

Okay, I thought. Whatevs.

And it came time for this movie, the sixth of the day. We were all pretty tired. The movie started. Spider Jerusalem wandered off with a comic book in hand. Ottersis moved to the dining room table to knit and do Farmville. Maid-of-Awesome and The Boyfriend showed up with DFC for dinner, took one look at the big-ass ol' tv, and joined my sister.

And I couldn't blame them. But I, as one of the two major participants in the NYDV each year, had to watch it all.

Now, don't get me wrong (because I'm sure Mr. Otter is bristling at this moment.) It wasn't a bad movie. But they spent a LONG time building up to the actual plot, and the buildup (at least a third of the movie) was all airplanes and flyer talk and...<yawn>.

So they get to the actual plot of the movie: the main flyer guy (Montgomery Clift) gets 24 hours in Berlin with this girl he met, and they have adventures. Oh, I said to Mr. Otter during this part, it's just like Roman Holiday.

Mr. Otter looked at me strangely. Then he thought about it. You're right, he said, except Montgomery Clift is Audrey Hepburn.

Exactly! I said.

So. Once the plot actually starts moving, it's not bad. You see something of the lives of the people in Berlin, and it looked like pretty even-handed treatment. Clift isn't bad, nor is his buddy Kowalski played by Paul Douglas.

And it was pretty obvious why Mr. Otter liked it- very accurate Air Force stuff (a lot of the actors in this movie were actually in the Air Force), shot on location in Berlin in 1950, and it still had some pretty badly bombed out areas, and of course Mr. Otter was in Europe when the wall went up eleven years later.

So watch it for historical verisimilitude, but not my first choice for a fun movie night.