Downfall [DVD]
by Oliver Hirschbiegel
![Downfall [DVD]](/images/Downfall-DVD-B0009RCPUC-L.jpg)
List Price:
Our Price: $6.97
You Save: $8.02 (54%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $5.39 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD Cover Information
Actor: Alexandra Maria Lara, Bruno Ganz, Corinna Harfouch, Juliane Köhler, Ulrich MatthesDirector: Oliver Hirschbiegel
Brand: GANZ,BRUNO
Producer: Bernd Eichinger
Writer: Bernd Eichinger
Producer: Christine Rothe
Producer: Doris J. Heinze
Writer: Joachim Fest
Writer: Melissa Müller
Writer: Traudl Junge
DVD: Region Code 99
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); German (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; Russian (Original Language)
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: Anamorphic Widescreen, 1.78:1
Running Time: 156 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-08-02
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Movie Reviews of Downfall [DVD]
Movie Review: A very powerful movie, a dramatic movie, a historically acurate portrayal of the downfall of Hitler and of Germany
Summary: 5 Stars
A very powerful movie which is as much a dramatic and entertaining movie as it a historically acurate depiction of the last 10 days of the collapse of Berlin and the downfall of Hitler and Hitler's principal advisors and Generals. The movie begins and ends with extracts from an interview with Traudl Junge (Hitler's secretary). The movie was shot in St Petersburg in Russia. It's ironic that many of the German army extras were Russians. The movie was a very contentious topic in Germany at the time of its release. I shall take a short detour here to make a point. Please bear with me. In Germany Hitler is Taboo. I have myself been to Germany and to Berlin. I've taken those famous walking tours where they walk you through the streets of Berlin where the last days of the Battle for Berlin concluded into. And I have stood at the place of where Hitler's Bunker was and is still supposed to exist as ruins. But it was amazing to see that the site where Hitler's bunker is supposed to be, there are no great markings or plaques. There's just a gutter there and there are residential appartments. There is a notice which says that it is the site of the infamous bunker but if you were to pass the place, nothing apart that notice would really alert you to the fact that this was the epicenter of the world war 2 from where the orders came in the last few weeks of the war. In Germany, Mein kampf is banned. I came to know first hand when I worked in Frankfurt fror 2 years,I could not get a copy of it even in the major book stores until I came to know it's banned. The display of the swastika is banned. You'll be arrested if you display the swastika symbol. The very mention of the word Hitler is like saying Voldemort in front of the muggles in a Harry Potter film. I have had the chance to talk to my German colleagues about the holocaust and most of my colleagues were all new generation germans who express shame about the things that happened but are clear to point out that they are 2 generations apart from those monsters who were brainwashed into becomming mass murderes. They like to clearly make their point that they are not responsible for their grandfathers actions. But still the shame and the stigma can be seen in their discomfort when dealing with the subject. In German Schools they make it a point to take childeren to concentration camps to impress upon them the horrors of the Nazi regime. They take them to aushwitz and show them the bags upon bags of hair, and pictures etc. All this so that no similar blunders are made in the future. The Bunker site is not marked because of fears of it becomming a shrine for neo nazi ideology. But there is this taboo of depicting Hitler as a human being. They just picture him as a monster but not as a human being. If a nation is totally confident of not repeating its mistakes, then why dehumanize Hitler ?. Why not depict Hitler as a complete human being who has the ability to charm and look like a sane man and not this insane lunatic that we make of him through those old black and white jerky news reel which makes him looks like a mad cartoon character. But there was a lot of debate about this movie because it was seeking to remove Hitler from this image of an evil meglomanical enigma and make him into a human being. At the end of the day Hitler was just a human being. Its his ideology and his philosphical thinking that was the monster. And he had the charisma and the oratory skills to inspire a whole nation and sell a whole nation a warped racism concept based on nazism which the whole country gladly bought into. The director here has made valiant attempt to flesh out hitler and Bruno Ganz who plays hitler is the most convincing hitler to date in films largely because of the aunthenticity of the german actors and the german language spoken and also the great acting by Bruno Ganz. So this attitude of fear about this movie was totally unfounded. A nation who are firmly educating their childeren in school about the Holocaust should not have been concerned about Hitler becomming 'too human'. The more Hitler is seen as a common man and not this unspeakable monster the better will be chances that this wont happen again. Because the next possible hitler will be all too human like the last one. He is not someone with pitch-forks and fangs sticking out of his face like the director correctly points out in the inteview sections of this DVD.
Bruno Ganz has given such authenticity to the role. Anthony Hopkins's act as Hitler cannot compare in anyway close to Bruno Ganz. There is going to be a difference between an American actor portraying Hitler verus a German one. The movie starts with Traud lunge's appointment as secretary. And then we move 2 years ahead and are into april 1945, during the last 10 days. We see Hitlers slow mental redradation OF logical thinking. We are shown his last few days of discussions with Himmler, Goring, Goebells, and other Generals. His continued denial of defeat and illogical thinking in the last few days cost Germany 1000's more lives that could have been saved. He gave orders to people to kill themselves. It shows a nation so completely hynotised by the fuhrer and his ideas that they followed his orders of suicide even after this death. Nazi officals who pulled a trigger to their head for the fuhrer. What person would kill himself after the leader himself is dead ?. We are shown Hitlers last meal and he and Eva Brown retire to their rooms to put an end to their lives. The cynanide does not work and Hitler shoots himself. We dont know for sure what happend because Hitler's bodies were burnt up. But the movie is a reconstruction based on the many accounts of the people who were there. Then we see the heartless Magda Goebells who puts her 5 childeren to sleep with a drug and then when they are asleep slips cynadide doses into their mouths. What kind of heartless mother kills her childeren ?. It really shows the depth of the infestation of the Nazi ideology. Magda is shown as saying she'd rather want her children to die rather than them live in a world where there is no national socialism which was what the Nazi ideology was called. National socialism at that time meant nazi racism, and aryan racial superiority and deemed inferiority of all others. Then Jospeh Gobells shoots Magda with her consent and then shoots himself. What madness!. What mad mad people!. Also we are shown the stark contrast between Magda Goebells and Eva Brown. Although Eva Brown is Hitler's mistress until the very end (getting married to Hitler eventually prior to their suicide), she was a totally non political person. She was this naive character who loved Hitler and did not really look like she either bought into Hitler's thinking or disagreed from his ideology. For her, she had to please hitler because she wanted to be with Hitler. Everything else was secondary. When Hitler gives the orders to kill her own brother in law, she even agrees with that decision after an argument with Hitler. But Eva Brown comes across as a very apolitical person. Compare this with Magda who was often known as the first lady of the Third Reich, Magda in contrast was the ideal Germanic Nazi women. She totally believed and pledged herself to the nazi ideology. More than her love for her husband was her love for the fuhrer and his vision to the extent she believes that a world with hitler is not a world worth living. She takes that decision not only for her but her childeren as well.
When I see all this it is so unbelievable. We see the orgies and the parties that the German generals had during the last few days. As if resigned to death by suicide or death by Russian hands, they saw it as their last days for enjoying the material pleasures of this world and drowned themselves in alcohol and women. What a bunch of mad loonies!. Hitler gave orders to destroy all German infrastructure. His idea was if Germans cant use it,let it not be used by the enemies. But in all this we are shown how he forgot or never even cared about the civilians from the begginning. He saw Germany as a military machinary as this mile upon mile of military robots ready to lay down their lives for his vision, there were no civilans for him. The german people supported Hitler blindly not knowing they were leading themselves to their own deaths. Their Fuherer never cared for any of them, he just cared to build his Germania.He never even cared for the Lebensraum "living space" for germans. All he wanted was extended and dominant power. He craved world attention and he screwed the Germans in the process. This movie brings to us the mindless robotic attitude of the Germans. To an extent comming from personal experience I have to say that Germans are the most disciplined lot. They are a people who can work like machine and robots work. I can see how a german back them could have been influenced by Hitler because a German is like a well oiled machine. If given the right stimulus and instuction , he can work like a robot following rules and that too with unacanny efficiency.Its in the German physche. Efficiency and discipline is part of the German pscyche. It's like its hard wired into them at birth. No offense to any Germany but it is my observation. The movie is all about the destruction of the last shred of the third Reich. In the end Himmler and some other Generals try to make peace to get some concessions in their punishment.
We are not shown the Russian plunder of Germany because that is another movie as the director correctly says in the commentary. The Russians soldiers raped 100's of thousands of German women. But some feel it was fully justified and deserved of a civilian poplulation which was as much to blame as the germany military. The army came out of those civilians who were recruited. And they were recruited because of their belief in the noble cause of Hitler. The Germans said they did not know. Thats a bunch of hogwash. Offcourse everyone knew what was going on, they just tried to ignore it, thinking that there was more good in this for the German nation as a whole than bad. But when things went wrong the people tried to portray as if they did not know a damn thing. I think more than Hitler, Germany as a nation and the german civilians back then in that climate of propoganda are the people to be indicted for this monstrous passage of history. They are to blame,to have been so naive, cold and stupid. Without the German people's support Hitler could not have moved a single pebble in Europe. Why was there no major uprising or revolt? Why did not a vast majority see the lunacy of all this ?.
I saw the full film and then i saw the full audio commentary by the director. This movie was a historical revelation for me. It was a precious history lesson. Everything about this movie is historically acurate save for just a few characters who were fictional. The fictional parts are very small and dont detract fom the 99.99 percent accurateness of this account. A lovely movie as well as a lovely documentary on a very important historical and landmark event which shaped the rest of world history.
regards, Vikram
Summary of Downfall [DVD]
Called dramatic, accurate and harrowing by the San Francisco Chronicle and nominated for the Oscar(r)for Best Foreign Film, Downfall takes you into Hitler's bunker during the brutal and harrowing last days of the Third Reich. Seen through the eyes of Hitler's infamous secretary Traudl Junge, optimism crumbles into grim realization and terror as it becomes clear that Germany's defeat is inevitable. As the Russian army circles the city, the dimly lit halls of the underground refuge become an execution chamber for the Fuhrer and his closest advisors.The riveting subject of Downfall is nothing less than the disintegration of Adolf Hitler in mind, body, and soul. A 2005 Academy Award nominee for best foreign language film, this German historical drama stars Bruno Ganz (Wings of Desire) as Hitler, whose psychic meltdown is depicted in sobering detail, suggesting a fallen, pathetic dictator on the verge on insanity, resorting to suicide (along with Eva Braun and Joseph and Magda Goebbels) as his Nazi empire burns amidst chaos in mid-1945. While staging most of the film in the claustrophobic bunker where Hitler spent his final days, director Oliver Hirschbiegel (Das Experiment) dares to show the gentler human side of der Fuehrer, as opposed to the pure embodiment of evil so familiar from many other Nazi-era dramas. This balanced portrayal does not inspire sympathy, however: We simply see the complexity of Hitler's character in the greater context of his inevitable downfall, and a more realistic (and therefore more horrifying) biographical portrait of madness on both epic and intimate scales. By ending with a chilling clip from the 2002 documentary Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary, this unforgettable film gains another dimension of sobering authenticity. --Jeff Shannon
Similar DVD Movies
Black BookN/A; Release date: 2007-09-25; Published: 2007-09-01; DVD
Best price: $7.78
Price in other shops:
The BunkerHBO Home Video; Release date: 2006-05-30; Published: 2006-05-01; DVD
Best price: $4.08
Price in other shops:
Das Boot - The Original Uncut VersionSony; Release date: 2004-06-01; DVD
Best price: $13.49
Price in other shops:
Sophie Scholl - The Final DaysZeitgeist Films; Release date: 2006-11-14; DVD
Best price: $16.25
Price in other shops:
EichmannE1E; Release date: 2011-01-18; DVD
Best price: $11.86
Price in other shops:
Third Reich: Rise & FallA&E; Release date: 2011-04-12; DVD
Best price: $13.39
Price in other shops:
The CounterfeitersSony; Release date: 2008-08-05; Published: 2008-08-01; DVD
Best price: $4.64
Price in other shops:
Das Boot - The Director's CutSony; Release date: 1997-12-09; Published: 1997-12-01; DVD
Best price: $6.44
Price in other shops:
The Lives of OthersSONY PICTURES HOME ENT; Release date: 2007-08-21; Published: 2007-08-01; DVD
Best price: $4.99
Price in other shops:
ConspiracyHBO Home Video; Release date: 2002-03-26; DVD
Best price: $3.95
Price in other shops: