Downfall [DVD]
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Movie Reviews of Downfall [DVD]
Movie Review: Shattering.
Summary: 5 Stars
DOWNFALL is possibly the best German-language film I have ever seen about the Second World War. It sets a new and impressive standard that will be very hard to beat and serves notice on hack film-makers everywhere that depicting historical figures as cartoon images of good or evil is no longer acceptable with the modern audience.
There have been a number of films and programs over the years about Hitler's last days on earth, and if you watched DOWNFALL, you've probably seen one or more them. They vary widely in quality, but the performance which pops into my mind most readily is that of Stephen Berkoff in the 12-part "War & Remembrance" mini-series. Berkoff is a fine actor, but he was handcuffed to a script which was predicated on the false image of Hitler as a carpet-chewing lunatic who reacted to the slightest setback by throwing a screaming fit and ordering someone shot. This image was partially an echo of wartime propaganda, and partly stemmed from books penned by surviving generals who wanted to lay the blame for the war's defeat exclusively at Hitler's boots. A more accurate description of the man came from Albert Speer, who said "Hitler was a genius wrestling with a demon, and the demon won."
This image is precisely the one conveyed by veteran Swiss actor Bruno Ganz, who plays Hitler as a man who in private often took on the role of a kindly, absent-minded professor-grandpa, but when frustrated, thwarted or betrayed (as he frequently was in the last months of his life) showed an inner character reminiscent of a hateful child -- full of misanthropy and an arrogant kind of self-pity. Ganz's performance is simply epic. And when does finally throw the "Hitler tantrum" you know is coming, you can't take your eyes off the man. Wow.
The decision to depict Hitler as a human being will clearly irritate people who prefer to see him as Satan incarnate. The NEW YORKER review posted here is visible evidence of this, stating: "The attempt to re-create Hitler in realistic terms has always been morally and imaginatively questionable-a compromise with the unspeakable that borders on complicity with it." Thankfully, Hirschbiegel and Ganz paid no mind to this type of simple-minded drivel when they made the film. They understood, as the audience does, that to demonize Hitler lets humanity off the hook for producing him in the first place.
Thomas Kretschmann (as SS-Gruppenführer Hermann Fegelein) is another scene-stealer. Kretschmann portrays the handsome, oily opportunist who married Eva Braun's sister and used his SS rank as a license to amass a criminal fortune as a dyed-in-the-wool bastard who is as charming as they come -- just the type of cynical crook that flourished in the moral wasteland that the Third Reich ultimately became, and just the type that was first to jump ship when it all went south.
Hitler's secretary, Traudl Junge, is played ably by lovely Alexandra Maria Lara. Like many people around Hitler, she seemed to be unable to form a consistent opinion of him and her inner conflict is well conveyed on the screen. Other terrific performances are delivered by Corinna Harfouch (as creepy Magda Goebbels), Juliane Köhler (as the very likeable Eva Braun), Christian Berkel (as Prof. Dr. Ernst-Günter Schenck, a kindly and heroic SS doctor), Michael Mendl (General der Artillerie Helmuth Weidling, a true soldier in the old German mold, who responds to a threat to have him shot by grasping his Knight's Cross and snarling, "Do you see this? Don't you dare take that tone with me!", and sinister nebbish Ulrich Noethen as the back-stabbing Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler. There is also a fine turn by Götz Otto as Hitler's SS Adjutant, Hauptsturmführer Otto Günsche, a hulking brute of a man who serves as a two-legged counterpart to Hitler's faithful dog, Blondi.
Unlike some German war films I've seen, DOWNFALL's battle scenes are well-directed, and the technical execution of the film is superb. The movie is mercifully light on moralizing, letting the horrifying images on the screen speak for themselves. I have very few criticisms of the film. The interview scenes with the real Traudl Junge, who dutifilly condemns herself for getting involved with Hitler, seem tacked-on, forced, and generally PC. The battle scenes show nothing of the wonton rape committed by Soviet soldiers in Berlin (so many German women were raped that East Berliners later dubbed the statue put up there by communist authorities commemorating Soviet dead as "the tomb of the unknown rapist"). And the movie is about 15 - 20 minutes too long. But these are very minor points. In DOWNFALL, Oliver Hirschbiegel has directed a film that stands comfortably with the best WW 2 movies of all time. Terrific.
Movie Review: Ultimate Downfall
Summary: 5 Stars
Over the last year I have tried to get my hands on as much movies about WWII as possible. Top on my list was Conspiracy, a very good made-for-TV movie with superb acting and historical data. Taking Sides and Band of Brothers are excellent choices in their own context. Saving Private Ryan is simply a disapointing fictional story about a historical event: I mean, they did have like a thousand stories to chose from, why chose a fictional one? Gathering Storm, a short BBC movie about W. Churchill does not even cover England at war and is not really top on my list.
There are some other very importat choices like Inside the Third Reich (a bit hard to find) and finally Hitler's Diaries where you do find Mr. Hitler in real person, not an actor's performance. Although the editing is too biased and the text scroll-ups anoying (not to mention that german praise they used to shout their Furher), you get as real to Adolf as you can. The guy was really sick by the way, and he needed a haircut!
The Trials at Nuremberg and Nuremberg do cover some historical background about the tirals at the end of the war and the first discoveries of the Holocaust. Their failure to portray a single Nazi in the first, and too Hollywood for my taste on the later, prevent me from really recommending either one. If you have to choose, go for the fist one though.
Then there is Downfall.
An openning and closing sequence show real clips of an interview with Hitler's 1942-45 secretary and the movie is based on her account of the last days of her furher. But the movie goes beyond that to its credit and truth to its producer account on the special features, it covers the last days of the regime; showing in detail the outcome of each one of the people that Mrs. Secretary shared those last days with. She suvived the war and the discovery of her bosse's handy work.
One of the highlights of the movie is an Oscar-caliber portrayal of Adolf and the excellent desicion of the actor to show its portrayee as a real human being. The actor summarizes this point in the Special Features by concluding that previous impersonations by Sir Alec Guiness and Sir Anthony Hopkins failed to show the real Hitler by satanizing him. This movie shows Hitler with a more realistic perspective: A German dictator that to his last minute was convinced that he had served the human race by getting rid of the jewish people. Whether he was demmented or dilussional was beyond the fact that he was still a human beign and very much aware that he was going to be served in a platter by the Russians two blocks away.
What do you at that point in time? In his case he chooses to continue his killing spree by ordering every surviving defector to be shot, (including his fiancee's brother in law,) the destruction of his own country (there was really not much left anyway) and ultimately gets married. He spent his short honey moon in his room shooting Mrs. Eva Brown Hitler and himself.
I can't say there is a single bad performance except for Mr. Goring's impersonator; who really does not have any dialog (he ultimatedly surrended to the Americans and then commited suicide in his cell.) He just did not have the precence of the real general, that's all...
What distinghishes this movie from all the rest is the truth to the fact aspect of every dialog and setting. According to the producers they went into great pains to get each account right including the bunker's installations. They must have gotten it right as those meeting halls were really small for the once ruler of much of Europe.
The movie is available in German with English subtitles and for the first part, I could not agree more. There should not be any historical movie about their subjects in any other language than their own. This is a clear prove of that and the movie gains so much realism for that single fact. If you want to see and English speaking Adolf, buy The Bunker!
There are some very good reviews about the movie already posted here, and I congratulate all the other reviewers for providing so many facts about them... specially the guy who wrote all of Gooble's concuvines names. Wow, that was really important. What is also important is to let you know that the movie does have some very disturbing scenes and should not be watched by everybody. Nevertheless that really did happen and the movie presents those scenes in exactly that manner: to what lenghts people went to in that particular time in that part of the world.
This is one of the best movies about the war and gets to that point by portraying the other side of the coin; the attackers now on the run and their last days in office. If I have to leave just one movie in my collection, I would not have second thoughts about this one. Maybe the academy should have done the same thing.
Movie Review: A powerful film. Amazing views of the end of the war from the German point of view.
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a superb movie that I helped me fill in a few questions I had about the end of World War II. When I was young, the sensational media was still talking about finding Hitler, that is death was faked. Sound familiar? This movie takes inside the bunker in Berlin for the last few weeks of the war. It is a reconstruction of various accounts from people who were there and left there testimony. Several were still alive as late as 2000 and answered questions for the director.
I had always wondered what the end of the war felt like to the Germans. What actually went on there receiving all that bombardment? Since this movie was made by Germans primarily for Germans, this is a fascinating perspective on that phase of the war and what went on in and around the bunker. It is quite puzzling how in control of everything Hitler remained and yet how seemingly out of touch with what was really going on outside and not far away. One answer could be that he was aware and simply refused to admit it in order to manipulate others to carry on the suicide / destruction of Germany - which he clearly wanted and ordered others (such as Albert Speer) to do. Thankfully, those orders were largely disobeyed. The destruction of the war made things hard enough without acts of self-sabotage.
It was also interesting to see how all those around Hitler functioned and how Hitler manipulated and bullied them. Their utter devotion to him and belief in him and the Reich bewilders me, but there it is. I keep wondering why someone simply didn't take out a pistol and shoot him when it was clear everything was lost and it was apparent Hitler wanted to take everyone and everything with him to the grave. But they didn't. The seen of Magda Goebbels murdering her own six children with her husband standing just outside the door, when escape was still possible, is horrifying beyond description and made worse by its quiet bloodlessness. However, this was the level of madness that possessed the true believers.
The other issue is one that is still quite touchy. Hitler is an icon of evil. He, along with Stalin and Mao, were the great killers of the 20th century. Hitler is the safest one to criticize, because his regime is thoroughly repudiated while the other two still have political connections with the present even if they are personally repudiated. Still, in reality, they were people. Monsters, yes, but still human beings of a certain, if horrible, kind. In nearly all representations of Hitler and the Nazis in movies, television, books, magazines, or whatever, they are simply embodiments of evil and barely even caricatures of human beings. This is a serious movie and it is interesting to see him put on the behavior of a human being when it suited him and when he let the monster rage.
As interesting as the movie is, watch it a second time listening to the director's commentary. While Oliver Hirschbeigel said that he is doing it without notes and simply reacting to what he is seeing on the screen, it is constantly fascinating. He did a great deal of research for this film and knows a great deal of the history and shares it with us. The few times he made things up, he tells us. When he had to compromise the reality, he explains what it was and why. He also discusses certain scenes and what he was going after. The performances of the actors are also discussed and what they had to go through to make this film. Most of those playing the key monsters understandably resisted the roles, but eventually took them on (obviously) and sometimes had personal issues with various scenes. For example, the actress playing Magda Goebbels broke down during the filming of the scenes involving the murder of the six children (as does the audience watching). However, on film she is as cold as can be. In real life, the director tells us the reports have tears streaming from Magda's eyes as she plays the card game afterwards. Here she is simply cold and dead as she lays out the cards.
While all of the actors are superb, Bruno Ganz as Hitler has to be singled out for praise. It was very courageous to take on this role. And the way he not only gives voice to Hitler but the physical embodiment of his physical deterioration is overwhelming. This is a performance that should be recognized and honored for its artistry and courage.
The movie is in German with English subtitles. Some of the subtitles move very quickly because of the amount of dialogue. However, it is easy to pause the DVD and rewind if necessary. Not all of the dialogue is essential to the understanding of the scenes.
Please, do yourself and your sense of history a favor by seeing this powerful film and listening to the director's commentary about it.
Movie Review: BEST FILM DEPICTING THE END OF THE THIRD REICH THAT I HAVE YET SEEN
Summary: 5 Stars
FIRST THOUGHTS ABOUT 'DOWNFALL': DONE SO WELL IT IS TRULY PAINFUL TO SEE
DOWNFALL is NOT a film you watch to quietly pass a few pleasant hours. In Downfall, the viewer has a front-row seat and there is much here one may not wish to see or to allow children to see. Essentially, this is gritty, harsh stuff depicting the end of the most tragic and convulsive period in history. That's right, Berlin during the last week of April, 1945 and, more specifically, in and around Hitler's bunker with Adolph Hitler as the central character.
IN A NUTSHELL: DOWNFALL MAINTAINS AN ATMOSPHERE OF TRAGIC DESPERATION FOR 2.5 HOURS
Basically, everything that is depicted in this film has been documented and is true to historic fact, so there are no real surprises to anyone that has studied the Third Reich. Nevertheless, from beginning to end, the viewer is steeped in the tragic circumstances of the soon-to-be beaten Germans. Somehow, it seems very sad and pitiful. Hitler seems like a tragic figure, while Doctor and Frau Goebbels seem like the parents from a horror movie and their sweet, cute children don't know that their parents are the monsters. There is a whole subplot involving the final disposition of the Goebbels' children that might best be skipped over for some viewers. It is all quite true, but truly gruesome.
WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT: HITLER'S GERMANY IS DISINTEGRATING & WE ALL HAVE FRONT ROW SEATS
The real question here is --- DO WE REALLY WANT TO SEE IT? Put simply, this film is an honest-to-goodness downer! If you are prone to feeling blue or miserable from witnessing human misery, you will feel pretty low after this. That's because this is both very realistic and based on historic fact so that, after the film, one cannot take comfort from the knowledge that this was only a movie. The truth is that this film gets as close to the truth as any has to date, but the actual gut-wrenching experience of being in Berlin during this final curtain call for the Third Reich is beyond description. Frankly, those that survived [and so many died horribly] like Traudl Junge (played by Alexandra Maria Lara) were put into such a state of shock that they never recovered from the experience. Having Traudl Junge's experiences incorporated into the film as a viewpoint character adds perspective and humanizes this last week of the New Germany beyond where the historic source material, provided chiefly by Joachim C. Fest, could have taken it.
ABOUT BRUNO GANZ AS ADOLF HITLER:
Ganz gives the best rendition of Chancellor Hitler to date. He is a surprisingly-sympathetic character who is literally being buried alive by the weight of the calamities surrounding him. He appears to be poorly served by his inner circle who are waiting around for him to come up with some brillant master stroke to save everyone's bacon. Of course, Hitler knows he can't pull a rabbit out of his hat this time, and that fact is killing him right in front of our eyes. His coping skills fail him as he turns first on his followers and then the German people as a whole. Clearly, Hilter was pretty much losing his sanity at this point and everyone seemed to simply lean all the more on him as things grew darker. Small wonder he shot himself and took poison along with his new bride [she took only poison in order to avoid tarnishing her looks, before the petrol treatment, that is.]
PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING THAT IS SHOWN IS HORRIBLE [ALTHOUGH MUCH OF THE HORROR WAS NOT SHOWN]:
Yes, we see children being armed and then killed defending Berlin. We see the wounded and the civilians being pushed aside like fodder and we see the death of a great culture in Berlin itself. Throughout this film, one indeed gets the impression that it is far easier to destroy than to create. We see a lot of destruction and self-destruction, such as Germans executing their own people at the very end and then killing themselves. Generals of the Army [Jodl - Keitel] were later executed anyway at Nuremburg, so perhaps they had the right idea.
Bruno Ganz deserves an Academy Award and Alexandra Maria Lara and Julianne Kohler are true standouts. The casting and the acting in this film are first-rate and many of the characters (Joseph Goebells, in particular) bear uncanny resemblance to their true counterparts.
BOTTOM LINE: RAW HISTORY -- SORRY, NO HAPPY ENDINGS HERE
"Downfall' is a phenomenal film that uses the cold historic facts of sources like Joachim C. Fest's "Inside Hitler's Bunker" to get the story correct. It then adds the additional humanizing effect of Traudl Junge's memoirs, which are effectively inserted into the film from its first scene until its last.
Movie Review: A fascinating portrait of Hitler's timely demise
Summary: 5 Stars
Ultimately, Adolf Hitler met a cowardly and ignominious death - many of his allies and friends (e.g., Himmler and Göring) had fled the incoming Soviet invasion in efforts to save their own skins. Hitler, refusing to leave, committed the almost-as-cowardly act of killing himself and leaving his subordinates saddled with the order to "fight to the last bullet" and "leave Germany as an unlivable wasteland". This film tells the story of the last few days of Hitler's life, and in fact continues for a few days thereafter. The action scenes are few and intermittent, and after having seen Saving Private Ryan, they are not particularly shocking. What is shocking, at least to a North American viewer, is the utter dominance Hitler still had over the German people and its military leaders. Many of them honestly believed that, even with Soviet artillery shells raining down on the centre of Berlin, Hitler would be able to pull off a miracle and save the Third Reich from destruction. So convincing are the actors and so compelling is the story, that Hitler's famous movements of non-existent formations to the relief of Berlin is not comedic or incredible, but oddly depressing and pathetic.
This is an all-German production (although, ironically, the exterior location shots were filmed in Saint Petersburg), and they make ample use of the memoirs and autobiographies of Hitler's contemporaries and employees, including interviews with those Nazis still alive at the time of pre-production. Much was based on the book "Hitler's Last Secretary" (the English translation's title), in which Traudl Junge prints excerpts from a diary she wrote immediately after WWII ended. Using the secretaries' points of view is a wise decision by the filmmakers, as they are outside the Party apparatus and are mainly viewing the madness around them, just as we are as movie watchers. The filmmakers have made every effort to only show onscreen events that actually happened, and even went so far as to attempt to determine where Keitel, Jodl, Bormann, and the others stood during the Führer's war conferences. Not only does this lend authenticity to the events, but (along with the superb acting of all the players) makes the film feel like a "true" depiction of what life was like in the Götterdämmerung last days of the Third Reich.
A potential problem with the film for the average non-German viewer is that there appears to be no logical or even emotional reason for the generals to continue to obey and revere Hitler right up to the end. The timeframe is too short to see Hitler's charismatic rise to power, his devotion to the German working-class who formed his power base (and their devotion to him), his near-perfect military record in the first 3 years of the war where he was repeatedly proven right and the Wehrmacht general staff officers proven wrong. I would also have liked to have seen more emphasis on Bormann, the only other high-ranking Nazi official (along with Goebbels) who stayed with Hitler to the bitter end. Where the film steps bravely, and I think importantly, is the celebrated (and condemned) portrayal of Hitler and the other high-end Nazis as human beings. It is unquestionable that Hitler collected a number of synchophants and star-chasers around him, and that they might not have been particularly intellegent (his alienation of people like Guderian and Rommel is evidence that independent thinking was not tolerated in the Führerhauptquartier). The only possible misstep is the promotion of a "hero" in the person of Col. Schenk, "Inspector of Nutrition" for the Waffen SS. He apparently selflessly wishes to serve in Berlin to provide medical help to soldiers and civilians, but this is the same man who callously used slave labour at the Dachau concentration camp for nutritional experiments.
To summarize, this is a fascinating and engrossing look inside the final days of the Third Reich. The performances are fantastic, and the film has an authenticity (even a "truth") that is rare and raises the film to a high level of importance.
Extras on this DVD edition supplement and add to the experience. There are interviews with the authors of the books on which the film is primarily based, and also with the actors protraying the parts. It is refreshing to see that all these actors took their parts very seriously and did extensive outside reading to ensure their performances were authentic. The biggest kudos have to be reserved for Ganz (Hitler) and Harfouch (Frau Goebbels) who have the hardest people to portray, and somehow embody them as real people, not cartoon carricatures of teeth-gnashing villiany.