Downfall [DVD]
![Downfall [DVD]](/images/Downfall-DVD-B0009RCPUC-L.jpg)
|
List Price: Our Price: $6.79 You Save: $8.20 (55%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $4.75 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of Downfall [DVD]
Movie Review: Final descent into complete disintegration
Summary: 5 Stars
Rarely has any movie dealt with the depths of human emotion and behaviour in a period of history that still affects many people six decades after the collapse of the Third Reich in Nazi Germany than this offering from a German director, Oliver Hirschbiegel, and a German screenplay writer, Bernd Eichinger, soberly entitled "Der Untergang" ("Downfall"), dealing with a dictatorship that a lot of people in Germany still find painful even to mention. The movie is based partly on two works, one a widely-acclaimed treatise by a professional historian, Joachim Fest, an acknowledged expert on the life of Adolf Hitler, and the other an autobiographical work by the woman, from whose perspective this movie is largely told, the late Traudl Junge, Hitler's personal secretary from November 1942 until his death on the last day of April 1945.
This movie tells it like it is, without any background to the events about to unfold on screen, yet bookended by footage of Junge herself, speaking on camera (shortly before her death at the age of 81) in a documentary made in 2002, where she tells of her struggle to come to terms with her feelings on having been the employee of one of the greatest criminals in the history of the world, one who had ordered the extermination of at least six million Jews in the concentration camps (mentioned in the closing credits of the movie lest anyone forget what he was partly responsible for).
The then-Miss Humps, aged only 22, came to work for Hitler in November 1942, which is actually when the film opens. Five young would-be personal secretaries come to the Wolf's Lair in East Prussia amid secrecy and introduce themselves to the Fuehrer, played with astonishing sobriety by Swiss actor Bruno Ganz. One might have expected a powerful entrance from the Hitler character, yet Ganz immediately delivers his lines quietly and in a manner suggesting that they had all met before, thus putting the nervous ladies at their ease. Hitler is immediately interested upon hearing that Traudl (Alexandra Maria Lara) comes from Munich, a place that he held in special affection, since it had been there that he had led the attempted but failed Putsch (coup d'etat) to overthrow the then-government of the Weimar Republic back in 1923, yet nothing regarding this fact is actually stated or implied in his decision to employ her, even if she actually makes a complete hash of her first attempt at dictation from the Führer.
The scene shifts to what would become the menu for the rest of the film - complete and utter chaos as Berlin is shelled by Soviet artillery, resulting in communication breakdowns, whether implied or actual, panic amongst civilians, misplaced loyalty by both top Nazis like Himmler (Ulrich Noethen) - who have their own plans for the future of the Reich - and those caught up in the madness of the Volkssturm (the Nazi equivalent of the Home Guard in Britain) pretending to be anywhere near ready to resist the might of the Soviet army. The scene where an armless Wilhelm Kranz (Karl Kranzkowski), the father of Hitler Youth member Peter Kranz (Donevan Gunia), a 12-year old who would be decorated by Hitler himself for bravery, confronts a group of Hitler Youth members is incredibly poignant, as he berates them for being so utterly naive and stupid for getting themselves in this situation. The sight of a young girl, Inge Dombrowski (Yelena Zelenskaya), wearing a German army helmet on top of her plaited hair and reaffirming her loyalty to the Führer immediately reveals a picture of utter incongruity and lost innocence and childhood, thus showing how desperate the situation had become for Berliners. Kranz, not surprisingly, accuses his father of being a coward, but, rather oddly, himself runs off, if only to join other members in the grounds of the Reich Chancellery to receive his decoration from an utterly haggard and low-voiced Führer, his (barely concealed) left hand shaking as a result of what was thought to be Parkinson's disease. "If only my generals had your courage," Hitler says to Kranz, although the remark is clearly lost on the 12-year-old, as he listens to him say that he and his fellows will be the true heroes of "Germania" (his planned renaming of Berlin, as seen in the huge model when he talks with Albert Speer, his armaments minister) when it rises from the ashes. However, these scenes of lost innocence and childhood are eclipsed by the later one of Magda Goebbels (Juliane Köhler), wife of the German Propaganda Minister, giving no second thought to poisoning her six young children as they sleep in their bunks.
One gets perspectives of the action, not just from Junge and Kranz (who inexplicably meet up at the end of the movie when the Soviet soldiers move in), but also from others such as Prof. Dr. Ernst-Günther Schenck (Christian Berkel), who, though wearing an S.S. colonel's uniform, remains true to his profession as a doctor and is genuinely concerned for the welfare of the civilians and the wounded soldiers, who would be left behind in Operation "Clausewitz" when the able-bodied soldiers begin their operation to withdraw. Schenck is one of few high-ranking officers who dares question the absurdity of the actions going on around him yet the nearest he gets to challenging authority is when he tells S.S.-Obergruppenführer Tellermann (Veit Stübner) that he should be allowed to remain in Berlin, a "request" that the general grants. The scenes of amputations of limbs without anaesthetic carried out in a makeshift hospital by Prof. Dr. Werner Haase (Matthias Habich of "Enemy at the Gates" fame) with a saw can seem utterly harrowing for the squeamish.
Most of the action, though, takes place deep in the Führerbunker, where conflicting and absurd emotions and behaviours are in evidence: the drunkenness of soldiers who appear to be able to down as much alcohol as they want and get away with it, the incredulity of Speer (Heino Ferch of "Run Lola Run" fame) at Hitler's decision to sentence the German people to death (in effect) via his scorched-earth policy (which he thankfully had no intention of complying with) and at the absurdity of Magda Goebbels declaring that nothing is worth living for without National Socialism, as well as the apparent boisterousness of Hitler's then-fiancee, Eva Braun (Corinna Harfouch), at an impromptu party where she dresses up and makes merry, which causes Junge to realize that it is like being trapped in a nightmare.
Predictably, given the subject-matter of the movie, the rantings and ravings of Adolf Hitler himself ("No capitulation!") become centre stage at various points, as he denounces so-called "loyal" officers as drug addicts, sycophants and traitors as well as lambasts the generals for their failure to obey his orders or do anything right: "You call yourself generals because you went to military academies and learned how to use a knife and fork! I didn't go, but I conquered Europe all by myself!" On the other hand, he could rely on S.S.-Brigadeführer Wilhelm Mohnke (Andre Hennicke) to carry out his orders to defend Berlin to the last man, only he never got that far.
Recriminations galore fly about amongst the army and S.S. generals, questioning their situation, Hitler's lack of sanity and proper leadership, their own attitudes and loyalties, yet all of these tension-filled arguments point to an inevitable collapse of a system, which had seemed invincible years before but was now disintegrating fast as the Russians were approaching. The sight of generals shooting themselves in the head at the news of the impending surrender only adds to the idea that Hitler had held everything together and that they seemed utterly helpless and lost without him. Others like Traudl, deeply affected at the time by the suicide of her employer, Peter Kranz and Dr. Schenck, however, are left with the shattered remnants of a battered and defeated Reich and could only wonder what their futures would be. The movie ends with a "Who's Who" gallery of the protagonists, stating their eventual fate (with the odd exception of Peter Kranz, seen on a bicycle with Traudl in the last scene), framed by sorrowful orchestral music written by Stephan Zacharias.
This movie, which richly deserved its Academy Award nomination for Best Picture in a Foreign Language for 2004, pulls no punches and neither glorifies nor condemns - yet, even though the Third Reich passed into history in May 1945, one gets the feeling that one can never escape from its legacy, even those born years after Berlin fell. The final surprises about the movie itself, however, come in the closing credits when one realizes, firstly, that external scenes were made in St. Petersburg, Russia, a city which, as Leningrad, the German army besieged for more than two years during the same war. Secondly, so many of the German-speaking actors are Russian, not German (like the one who played Inge). It is therefore a monumental testament to reconciliation between Russia and Germany that actors and behind-the-scenes talents from both countries came together and co-operated to make a film about the downfall of one of the most hideous regimes in history, one from which Russia suffered greatly, as did other nations.
Movie Review: Like it or Not, It is History
Summary: 5 Stars
Film maker Oliver Hirschbiegel undertook a challenging subject. There are some historic public figures whose movie portrayals are traditionally viewed as taboo. Any film that attempts to depict Adolf Hitler as something other than an obvious demented evil demon runs the risk of being shunned. Much as SCHINDLER'S LIST was a "must see" for an accurate portrayal of one of the most horrific events of modern history, so is its concluding chapter in DOWNFALL.
What do you find in DOWNFALL? For World War Two historians you will not discover anything new that you have not already read in John Toland's books THE LAST HUNDRED DAYS or ADOLF HITLER, Cornelius Ryan's THE LAST BATTLE, or dozens of other books about the fall of the Third Reich. In fact, as far as the sequence of events in the film, you pretty much know what is coming from General Steiner's failed relief attempt, Himmler's negotiations with Count Bernodette, Fegeleins execution, Ritter von Greim's daring flight into the besieged city, and so on. There is no new historically revealing information. The story has the same tragic ending.
What you will experience is a brilliantly directed drama about the last ten days of the Third Reich in Berlin's government district. The film has been meticulously researched and is based on secretary Traudl Junge's memoirs, as well as Joachim Fest's best selling book. This movie adds depth to the characters. These are not simply goose-stepping robots merrily marching toward oblivion. In fact, many of the key characters find themselves at torn between loyalty to the Fuehrer and the overwhelming need to extricate themselves from the madness. Even Traudl Junge, masterfully portrayed by Alexandra Maria Lara, cannot explain why she is voluntarily drawn to remain in the Bunker until the end.
Actor Bruno Ganz accepted a bit of a gamble in portraying Adolf Hitler. It took quite a lot of professional courage to take on the role of one of the most hated personalities in history. His performance is magnificent. Everything I ever read about the last days of Hitler are manifest in Ganz's performance from the haggard look, uncontrollable hand spasms, and stooped posture - yet remaining the undisputed German commander in chief until his self inflicted demise.
The exterior scenes of the movie were filmed in, of all places, St. Petersburg (Leningrad), Russia due to that city's architectural similarity to Berlin. The sets, costuming(uniforms), props and ordnance are outstandingly accurate and match newsreels and still photos of that dark period. The film is captured from the German point of view. The Red Army's presence is reminded primarily by artillery barrages and occasional firefights with distant Soviet soldiers.
Despite the historical accuracy of DOWNFALL, it is not a docudrama. Unlike excellent battle films like TORA, TORA, TORA, this film does not offer much in the way of superimposed titles to introduce characters or locations. You will have to listen to the dialogue or read the subtitled translations to place some of the names.
This is the absolutely the best film rendition of the last days of the Third Reich in Berlin. Previous film makers tried, and failed, to capture the emotion and tradgedy linked to the death of the Nazi regime. As such, it is important to compare DOWNFALL to earlier cinematic attempts.
HITLER, THE LAST TEN DAYS, was too much like a claustrophobic one act play. Based on Hugh Trevor-Roper's best selling book, the film deviated from the well researched volume and interjected useless dialogue to pad the film's script. Though I give Alec Guinness credit for his portrayal of Adolf Hitler, by the end of the movie Hitler's character quickly devolves into an exaggerated comic book version of the German leader. In LAST TEN DAYS, the final scene of Hitler and Eva Braun is so contrived that it wrests credibility from the rest of the film.
Kudos go to the television movie, THE BUNKER. THE BUNKER, which closely followed O'Donnell's outstanding nonfiction book of the same name, was really the first modern attempt to accurately capture the last desperate days in the Fuehrer Bunker. Anthony Hopkins, in an Emmy winning role, did a superb job as Hitler. Producers of THE BUNKER went all out recreating photographically familiar facades of the chancellory, bunker's interior, emergency exit, and torn up chancellory gardens. If THE BUNKER had any flaws at all, it was probably that its budget was limited to that of a television movie and that all of the actors were either British or American. Additionally, one of the harshest criticisms of the television movie was that it spent so much time on Albert Speer. Though no one will ever know for sure, Speer's rendition of the last days of the Third Reich have sometimes been viewed as self-serving at best, revisionist at worst.
Speaking of Albert Speer, let us not forget Rutger Hauer's portrayal of the Reich Minister for Armaments in INSIDE THE THIRD REICH. Strictly speaking, INSIDE THE THE THIRD REICH was a movie about Albert Speer ending with his last visit to the Fuehrer Bunker. Again, and depending on your point of view, INSIDE THE THIRD REICH, both movie and Albert Speer's best selling autobiography, are either the definitive story of one man's witness to the rise and fall of Nazi Germany, or the unabashed rewriting of history by a man who was lucky to get away with 20 years in prison. However, one thing you cannot deny is that Albert Speer was actually present during the some of the last days in Berlin.
Finally, I have to mention the pitiful segment regarding the bunker segment in the 1989 television mini series WAR AND REMEMBERANCE. If ever there was a twisted rendition of the last moments in Berlin, it was represented in this film.
DOWNFALL is vastly superior to earlier attempts to describe Hitler's final days.
There were a several technical aspects of the DVD that surprised me. The version I purchased was definitely crafted for an American audience. I fully expected the dialogue to be in German, but did not expect English subtitles to automatically be superimposed over the lower portion of the picture. I would rather the subtitles be optional - or appear in the lower letterbox portion of the screen. Unfortunately, there is no on or off feature for the subtitles. Unlike DAS BOOT, which offers a selection of German or English dubbing, DOWNFALL is in German only. Even though the dialogue is in German, the movie credits are in English.
Overall, this is a great film that accurately recreates the final days of the Nazi regime in Berlin. The mix of the real-life characters and events keeps the story interesting. I only regret that I was unable to see this movie when it first premiered in a limited number of obscure theaters across the United States. A great movie always loses something when shown someplace other than a cinema auditorium.
Movie Review: A Brilliant Chronicle Of Hitler's Last Gasp!
Summary: 5 Stars
It is April 20, 1945, and Adolf Hitler celebrates his bizarre last birthday in the Führerbunker, the underground fortress far beneath Berlin's Wilhelm Strasse, where the architects of the Third Reich are about to meet their end. The Chancellery is in ruins, as is the rest of the Reich. Six years of war and bombing have laid waste all Europe. The Soviet Red Army is pounding at the city gates, having finally overpowered the German military machine - a vivid reminder that there is little cause for the Führer to celebrate this day with cake and ice cream. Traudl Junge, (played by Alexandra Maria Lara), is at Hitler's side in the bunker, as she has been since 1942 - at the Berghof, in Berchtesgaden, in Ostpreissen, and in glittering pre- Gotterdammerung Berlin. Hitler, himself, hired her to be his personal secretary, and she remained in her position until the end. Frau Junge was nearby when Adolf Hitler committed suicide in 1945, not long after his birthday. This is the hour of Hitler's final downfall.
"Downfall," (Der Untergang), a two and a half hour film, chronicles the twelve day period from April 20 until May 2, 1945. This is an absolutely riveting, historically accurate and detailed account of the end of Adolf Hitler and his infamous Third Reich - which did not last the 1000 years envisioned by the Nazis, but did manage to reap havoc, destruction, despair and cause the deaths of millions and million of human beings. (Almost sixty million people perished worldwide as a result of WWII). Producer/screenwriter Bernd Eichinger, along with Director Oliver Hirschbiegel drew on a best-selling Hitler biography, "Inside Hitler's Bunker," by award-winning historian Joachim Fest, and the memoirs of the late Traudl Junge, the Führer's last personal secretary, to make this outstanding film. Apparently, "Downfall" is the first internationally released German production to feature Hitler as a central figure. Swiss actor Bruno Ganz performs brilliantly as the leader of the Third Reich.
Hirschbiegel paints a hellish picture of the mad, surrealistic bunker world, where fun-loving Eva Braun, (Juliane Köhler), throws parties while bombs are falling just overhead, and meals are served on fine china while starving Germans try to survive the Russian shelling. Grandiose war plans are still being made. Entertainment is provided, strict protocol is observed. Meanwhile, Hitler lies on the sofa in his leisure moments, eating cake, (talk about Marie Antoinette!), and chatting about his dogs. His generals discuss the best methods to commit suicide. Dozens of corpses swing from city trees and lampposts - fresh bodies, (examples to all of what happens to bad citizens), and those left over from the wave of executions in March. Fear, hopelessness and despair cause thousands of Berliners to kill themselves each month. In one scene, Eva offers Albert Speer, the minister of armaments and munitions, (Heino Ferch), cookies and champagne because he has been unable to eat all day.
Although Ganz does not physically resemble Adolf Hitler, even with make-up, in an extraordinarily accomplished performance he takes on his character's persona emotionally, using the same facial expressions, body language and gestures to such a degree that he actually becomes Hitler on the big screen. At times, I totally forgot about physical differences. Palsied, stoop-shouldered, Ganz walks with Hitler's particular lurching gait, pacing the narrow, claustrophobic bunker corridors. Usually a meticulous man, his clothes are now food stained and his sight is so bad he can scarcely read. The Fuhrer had been unwell for some time, and it is clear that now, at the end of his life, he is totally out of control. He experiences violent mood swings. On occasion, he predicts victory and gives orders to move nonexistent troops to defend Berlin. He graciously bestows meaningless positions and appointments on some, and orders the arrests and executions of others. Not long after these manically optimistic episodes, he throws tantrums and rants, in momentary surges of psychotic fury. He rails against his formerly close cohorts - Himmler, (Ulrich Noethen), is suing for a separate peace with the Allies, while Goering, from his Bavarian retreat, is trying to usurp Hitler's leadership. As his personality continues to disintegrate, paranoia takes over and he rages and condemns the actions of the treasonous officers who "sabotaged" his grand plans. With the Allies crossing the Rhine River and the Russians closing in, he finally acknowledges defeat and decides to commit suicide - but he wants Germany to follow suit. Deutschland, he argues, had proved itself unworthy of his genius and had failed to prevail in the struggle for life. Then, thoughtfully, in all seriousness, he expounds upon his planned scorched-earth sacrifice of Germany, which Albert Speer refuses to carry out. By the end of his life, it's clear that Hitler is neither in command of the country he raised to glory then smashed to smithereens, nor of his own sanity.
Ulrich Matthes as loyal propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, and Corinna Harfouch as his wife Magda also deliver superb performances. The film's most chilling, horrifying scene is Magda's final one with her children.
The movie begins and ends with interview footage of the aged Traudl Junge, from the documentary "Blind Spot" in which she notes how naive she was. She maintained, until the end of her life in 2002, how unaware she was of the horrors perpetrated at Hitler's behest. She recognized, however, that she had no right to be so uninformed, so ignorant - that there was no excuse. She acknowledges her passive complicity and personal responsibility as a German.
Subplots are played out on the streets of Berlin - a boy, (Donevan Gunia), defies his father to defend the city, and a military doctor, (Christian Berkel), stays behind to help the wounded. The contrasts between the world above with the one belowground is very effective in demonstrating how isolated Hitler and his small cadre of followers have become. Politicians use the term, "the bunker mentality," to describe this out-of-touch mind-set.
"Downfall" is cinema at its best. It is also a terrible, but necessary lesson in history - one that those who govern should learn well in order to prevent this evil from being repeated. Adolf Hitler has been dead for over 60 years now, as are many of those who were his cronies and minions, yet the study of this man, who I believe personifies evil, never fails to fascinate. I highly recommend viewing this exceptional movie.
DVD special features include a feature on the making of the film, interviews with the cast and crew, and a commentary by the director.
JANA
Movie Review: The Chaos, Horror, and Personalities of the Third Reich's Final Days.
Summary: 5 Stars
"Downfall" depicts the turmoil, delusion, and despair of the last 12 days of the Third Reich in the "Führerbunker", where Adolph Hitler and some of the Nazi elite sat out the Soviet assault on Berlin in April 1945, 10 meters beneath the Reich Chancellery. This account of events in the bunker is based on the book "Inside Hitler's Bunker" by Joachim Fest, on Traudl Junge's eyewitness account in "Until the Final Hour", written with Melissa Müller, on the autobiographies of Dr. Ernst-Günther Schenck, and on other eyewitness accounts. Traudl Junge was Adolph Hitler's private secretary and one of few surviving witnesses to his last days. She spoke candidly of the harrowing final days in the Chancellery in the 2002 documentary film "Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary", and "Downfall" uses her character as a perspective through whom we see the others, particularly Hitler and Eva Braun. Traudl Junge is not strong character, yet she is featured prominently in the midst of much stronger personalities. Actress Alexandra Maria Lara does an impressive job of keeping the audience interested in her.
"Downfall" opens in November 1942, as 22-year-old Traudl Humps gets a job as dictation secretary to Adolph Hitler. The film then jumps to Hitler's 56th birthday on April 20, 1945. Traudl has married in the interim years, although no mention is made of it. Her name in now Junge. Hitler (Bruno Ganz) has ordered "Clausewitz" in effect, so all government offices and departments are evacuating Berlin, leaving the city to bedlam and the civilians at the mercy of starvation and the advancing Soviet army. Heinrich Himmler (Ulrich Noethan), among others, urges Hitler to leave Berlin, but he refuses. Dr. Ernst-Günther Schenck (Christian Berkel) is running around trying to get support for the plight of civilians and wounded. Director Oliver Hirschbiegel places the audience in the middle of this chaos without explanation. The film has a quasi-documentary quality, and it does not create a context for the events that we see, nor does it introduce the characters. It just plunges right in. I think that this technique ultimately heightens feelings of confusion and madness, to "Downfall"'s benefit, but it can sometimes be frustrating. Anyone who is not familiar with the major players in the history of the Third Reich will have trouble figuring out who is who, because most characters are never clearly identified.
When "Downfall" moves to the Führerbunker, we find an unhinged Adolph Hitler. The Führer is more hysterical and irrational than usual, can't keep track of his armies, insists that Germany can win the war, and refuses to allow civilians to evacuate the city. Traudl Junge (Alexandra Maria Lara) is frightened and horrified by what she sees but usually calm and consistent in her dictation duties. We observe the conflicts between the generals and SS officers who remain faithful to Hitler's orders and those who wish to act independently, in particular SS-Gruppenführer Hermann Fegelein (Thomas Krestchmann), the playboy brother-in-law of Eva Braun, who was loyal to Himmler. We see Albert Speer (Heino Ferch), chief architect and Minister of Armaments and War, refuse to carry out Hitler's scorched earth policy. But more interesting than the politics of the Reich's last days are its personalities. Adolph Hitler is delusional, blaming everyone but himself for Germany's imminent defeat. Eva Braun (Juliane Köhler) is ever the party girl. Josef Goebbels (Ulrich Matthes) and wife Magda (Corinna Harfouch) are fanatical to a fault and contemptuous of Germans. There is constant talk of suicide and cyanide capsules.
"Downfall" periodically focuses its attention on the streets above, where the brutal battle for Berlin wages on. The desperate attempts by a brave but defeated army to defend Berlin are gut-wrenching, no matter what side you are on. The character of 12-year-old Peter Ganz (Donevan Gunia) is intended to be representative of the very young soldiers recruited into the Hitlerjugend in the last days of the war. He is not a real person. "Downfall" makes me wonder how Traudl Junge and the German people could not have noticed that their leaders were stark-raving mad, but I suppose loony politicians are not unusual. I have never understood Adolph Hitler's charisma, and this doesn't help. But Oliver Hirschbiegel and the film's cast have done a great job of bringing the emotions in the Chancellery and on the streets of Berlin in April 1945 to the audience. The film has no score. The 20 rooms of the bunker were recreated as realistically as possible. We are dropped into this tense environment, where the Nazi elite and their staff awaited their doom, practically entombed in 4 meters of concrete already. "Downfall"'s realism, painstaking accuracy, and delicate performances are an extraordinary accomplishment that make this a masterpiece among war films. In German with English subtitles.
The DVD (Columbia Tristar 2005): Bonus features include a making-of documentary, interviews, and an audio commentary. "The Making of Downfall" (1 hour) features interviews with the director, much of the cast, and some others who are not identified, but may be the screenwriter and a historian. The director talks about why he chose to make the film and what he wanted to convey. The actors discuss their characters. And there is a segment about filming in St. Petersburg, Russia. "Cast and Crew Interviews" includes interviews with director Oliver Hirschbiegel (4 min.), author Melissa Müller (8 min.), and actors Bruno Ganz (6 min.), Alexandra Maria Lara (2 min.), and Juliane Köhler (2 ½ min.). Some of the interviews are repeated from the documentary, but I recommend the one with Müller. The documentary and interviews are in German with English subtitles. The audio commentary by director Oliver Hirschbiegel is in English. He provides a lot of additional historical details about locations, characters, background, and situations, expounding on each scene. I highly recommend the commentary.
Movie Review: A Brutally Gripping Film
Summary: 5 Stars
Though I've never read the two books upon which this film was based, I came to it with a fairly comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the subject matter. Those who are reading this already know what Downfall is about, so I won't rehash it here. What the film does is deepen our understanding of the human side of those most often parodied as monochromatic psychopaths. People are people, and as Hitler's former secretary Traudl Junge commented in the interviews that bookend the film, one can sometimes be led down a path with an end unimagineable when the journey began.
The whole gamut of human emotion and behavior is on display here as the Nazi leadership tries to cope with the realization that the end of their dream of a thousand year Reich is at hand. For every man and woman who bravely, resignedly, or stoically faces the end, there is a coward or a self-server who seeks to save only his own skin.
We see Hitler poring over maps, concocting strategies for armies that exist in name only. We see him rage at his generals, we see his tender relations with his closest associates, and we see him a tear rolling down his cheek when he comes to know that even Albert Speer, one of his closest advisers, had disobeyed his orders to institute a scorched earth policy as his armies are in retreat. We see him rationalize the destruction of German cities with the comment that it is easier to clear away debris than to tear down existing structures after the war is won in order to build a Germany filled with National Socialist architecture. The portrayal of Hitler by Bruno Ganz is a rare masterpiece in that he brings home the essential humanity of a man concealed beneath a crushing burden of hatred. Many criticize the suicides of Hitler and others when failure was certain as the coward's way out, but suicide as redemption for failure was engrained in German/Austrian military culture long before Hitler came on the scene. Besides, Hitler knew what was likely in store should the Russians capture him and so as well did Eva Braun.
Other standout performances include the fetching Alexandra Maria Lara as the ingenue Traudl Junge (Humps), a Munich native who becomes Hitler's secretary. She often appears surprised and disbelieving at some of what she sees and hears, but remains a loyal employee to the end. There is a point when she is taking the dictation of Hitler's final Political Testament that the look on her face as she listens to Hitler says she wishes that he would quit ranting about the Jews. Lara's Junge actually comes off as a very normal kind, concerned, and loving woman.
Ulrich Matthes is chilling as the fanatic-to-the-end Joseph Goebbels as is Corinna Harfouch portraying his wife Magda. Goebbels seems to delight in the destruction of his country and when questioned about sending poorly-armed and unarmed elderly men and boys out to face the Russians, he coldly denies having any sympathy for them and says that the German people deserve their fate for giving them (the Nazis) a mandate. Matthes' portrayal of Goebbels seems to confirm author David Irving's assertion that Goebbels was the mastermind behind much of what was evil about the Nazi regime. Probably the only people that Goebbels loved besides Hitler are his ill-fated children and his wife Magda.
Harfouch's stone-faced Magda, who bears an uncanny physical resemblance to Hillary Clinton, is magnificent as a woman who after lengthy agonizing and rationalizing, very stoically did what she considered to be her duty in murdering her sleeping children in order to save them from the fate they most likely would have faced under the Russians and from life in a world without her beloved National Socialism. The scene is moving and painful. Make no mistake, she was not pleased with herself for what she did, nor was she pleased with her husband for making no effort to dissuade her. The Goebbels children are among the few besides civilian victims for which the viewer might feel sorry. Shortly after, Magda faced her own end with the same stony resignation as Goebbels kills her and then himself while the Russians close in.
Christian Berkel as SS Doctor Schenck stands out as a man whose concern for the civilian population, his tireless efforts to get food, medicine and other medical supplies for the helpless, and his heroic efforts at stopping roving death squads from murdering innocent civilians accused of desertion make him one of the few sympathetic adult characters in the movie.
I could go on, but you get the idea about what a brutally gripping film this is. Along with the main action, there are the sideshows: fanatical children ready to fight to the last "man", bewildered masses of displaced civilians, die-hard SS men threatening and in some case shooting any comrades who call for negotiated surrender, the never-ending tension in the fuehrer's bunker while the endgame plays itself out, the petty disobediences of party functionaries as awareness that the end is nigh sets in. One of the most striking scenes in the bunker is that of a drunken Eva Braun insisting that a bunker party continue after a close call with Russian artillery. She wants music, and when asked what kind, she calls for forbidden "degenerate" swing music to be played while she clambers up on a table and dances with abandon.
Most viewers will want to watch Downfall several times to catch all the detail. There is so much to digest that several viewings are necessary for it all to sink in. The filmmakers worked hard to make the film as authentic as possible, right down to the uniforms. I have waited a long time for this to come out on DVD ever since a friend told me about seeing it in a Las Vegas art movie house. It was well worth the wait to me as I consider it to be one of the best films I've seen in years. If you have any love of history you should enjoy this film as well. Five stars are too few.