George Seaton

(On TV, April 2022) History often repeats itself. As the saying goes, “Amateurs talk strategy while professionals talk logistics” and as I write this, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has clearly shown the quasi-amateurish limitations of the once-fabled Red Army in ensuring its own supply lines, while Ukraine is supported by a sophisticated supply of weapons and disciplined efforts. But this isn’t the first time the West has bested the Bear in logistical matters, and The Big Lift does a competent job at taking us back to one such time: the Berlin blockade of 1948–1950. This oft-forgotten piece of Cold War history gets increasingly fascinating the more you read about it: In the aftermath of WW2 and the division of Germany between the winners, the Soviets tried a power play and blocked all terrestrial routes to Berlin (which was then far behind the Iron Curtain separating West and East Germany). The allies, unwilling to give up Berlin to the Soviets, decided to flex their airlift capabilities instead. For more than 18 months, every single piece of food and merchandise that made its way inside Berlin was carried by plane – at such a staggering pace that, at the height of the airlift operation, a plane was landing in Berlin every thirty seconds. It saved Berlin from being absorbed in East Germany, and proved that the West could hold its own supply lines. The Big Lift, which began production during the blockade, is an echo of the WW2 military propaganda film in more ways than one: taking a real-life situation and shooting as much documentary footage as possible, it then inserted a fictional storyline in-between the footage, and clearly affirmed America as the better choice. It half-works, in that the opening half-hour of the film as orchestrated by director George Seaton, is a mesmerizing immersion in the reality of the times, showing the real bombed-out Berlin and hair-raising footage of planes flying low above the rooftops of the city. Real military personnel are shown going through the mechanics of the airlift, and there’s some real tension to the task being proposed in order to keep Berlin supplied. It’s later on that the film loses much of its interest, as we go to more fictional situations, romantic tension, Constitution-tapping American boosterism and a lessened focus on the blockade. The tension and interest rise again later on as the difficulties of maintaining an airlift in a period of heavy fog are explored, but the conclusion misses some kind of bigger climax – probably not helped along by the film being completed as the blockage was tentatively lifted. As a way to get back to a specific period of time, The Big Lift is not bad, but it loses itself once it strays away from that urgency. I would not be surprised to see a remake, especially as the historical facts find relevance to current events. Don’t mess with the West when it comes to consumption!