Average Rating: 6.6/10
Reviews Counted: 20
Fresh: 18 | Rotten: 2
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 6.8/10
Critic Reviews: 7
Fresh: 6 | Rotten: 1
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.6/5
User Ratings: 1,033
Witness the stories of four US army defectors who abandoned their homeland to seek out a new life in communist North Korea in this fascinating documentary from filmmaker Daniel Gordon. It was August of 1962 that Private First Class James Joseph Dresnok crossed the heavily fortified border from South Korea into the North. Now, more than forty-years later, the last living US Army defector known to reside in North Korea speaks with Gordon in Pyongyang about his life, experiences, and what it means
Unrated, 1 hr. 31 min.
Aug 10, 2007 Wide
Jan 8, 2008
Kino International
All Critics (20) | Top Critics (7) | Fresh (19) | Rotten (2) | DVD (2)
A tale of alienation and adaptation both miraculous and strange, but also abduction both psychological and physical.
Top CriticFascinating.
You'll be untangling Dresnok's knotty reality long after you leave the theater.
[The] compelling story and the plentiful high-definition video images of North Korean daily life prove so fascinating that Crossing the Line is riveting.
The reflective sequences veer between stylishly effective and drearily overstated.
Dresnok comes across as honest and credible, and his story is absolutely fascinating.
Bizarrely fascinating documentary.
Not exactly compelling stuff, especially if you caught the 60 Minutes segment about this traitor. The bio-pic's saving grace is that it offers a peek inside North Korea, a closed society which has previously granted the Western press limited access.
There are no absolute answers to these questions, but like a brain-tickling puzzle, Crossing the Line keeps us on our toes and digging for more information.
Crossing the Line, like its subject, remains a fascinating and frustrating enigma -- a declassified government report still marred by redacted passages.
Crossing The Line lacks the force and power of a strong point of view, but like Gordon's other work about North Korea, it succeeds in revealing what it means for individuals to give themselves over to a collective.
Director Daniel Gordon hits a goldmine.
Completely intriguing.
Not exactly compelling stuff, especially if you caught the recent 60 Minutes segment about this traitor which covered substantially the same ground.
A scary journey into the belly of the beast but a sketchy psychological portrait.
Profile of the last American GI defector in North Korea. Fascinating!
An engrossing look at a rarity, the only four Americans who ever defected to North Korea, with a warm look at the first, James Joseph Dresnok.
One commendable but far too brief section of the documentary, presents through horrific images and testimony, the gruesome atrocities visited upon the DPRK civilians which exceeded even the US mass carnage against the Vietnamese in that invasion.
The film is so visually stunning it keeps the audience entertained the entire time.
Amazingly, director Daniel Gordon and his crew were allowed to film Dresnok in and around his home in Pyongyang, resulting in a canny portrait of a man as uniquely fit for a life on display as he is blindly willing to kowtow to power.
An absolutely fascinating documentary exploring the life and history of J. Joseph Dresnok, an American soldier stationed at the North-South Korean border in 1962 who defected to the Communist DPRK. This is a captivating film that really gives the viewer good insight into the daily life of a privileged North Korean.
November 21, 2010Super Reviewer
A fascinating story about a man that did the unthinkable. He crossed over into North Korea and surrendered to their ideals and way of life. We are offered a look inside North Korea, one of the most isolated and intriguing places in the world. Dresnok is obviously a supporter of where he lives, and rarely says a bad
August 17, 2010Super Reviewer
| 35% | The Hangover Part II |
| 25% | Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Par... |
| 81% | Kung Fu Panda 2 |
| 44% | Cowboys & Aliens |
| 83% | Rise of the Planet of the Apes |
| 25% | Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Par... |
| 88% | Lady and the Tramp |
| 69% | A Very Harold & Kumar Christmas |
| 21% | Fireflies in the Garden |
| 45% | The Rebound |
Journey 2 Not Worth the Trip
What are his 10 best movies ever?
See the all-new action-packed trailer!
Five new Marvelous pictures